Explaining Cross-Cultural Variations in the Use and Effects of Humor in Advertising

幽默是广告中最有效的工具之一，但不同文化背景的人运用幽默的程度不同，使用的幽默类型不同，对幽默的反应也不同。因此，实践者和研究者特别感兴趣的问题是，跨越国界如何影响广告中幽默的使用和效果。这一领域以前的研究发现的证据非常有限，也没有定论，因为幽默和广告研究都没有提供合适的理论背景来解释幽默的使用和效果的跨文化差异。此外，以前的研究未能解释跨文化差异，因为它们只比较了两三个国家，也没有应用方法来解决个人和国家层面的文化影响。在这个项目中，我们提供了一个问题的答案，即幽默在广告中的使用和效果如何以及为什么在不同的文化中有所不同。我们探索了不同的理论解释，并使用不同国家的大型数据库对它们进行了测试，以确定对幽默的使用和效果的跨文化差异的更好的解释。在解释幽默中的跨文化差异时，我们还结合了个体和总体层面。实证部分包括(1)一项内容分析研究，旨在解决几个国家在广告中幽默使用的差异；(2)一项元分析研究，旨在解决国家差异对广告中幽默效果的调节影响；以及(3)一项实验，证实了幽默的因果效应，并将汇总的结果转换为个人数据。解决这些问题为幽默研究(通过解释幽默的跨文化差异)、为广告研究(通过解释和预测幽默的使用和效果的跨文化差异)提供了知识，以及实践(通过提供指导方针，当幽默在不同的文化背景下应用时，如何在广告中有效使用幽默)。基于两个主要研究人员(PI)的互补能力，该项目将导致形成一个专门的、综合的波兰-德国研究小组，该小组将(1)结合先进的研究方法，(2)开发该领域的创新课题，(3)因此能够与领先的国际研究小组竞争

Humor is one of the most effective tools in advertising, but people with different cultural backgrounds apply humor to varying degrees, use different types of humor, and respond to humor differently. Of particular interest for practitioners and researchers therefore is the question of how the crossing of national boundaries influences the use and effects of humor in advertising. Evidence uncovered in prior research in this field is very limited and inconclusive, as neither humor nor advertising research provides an appropriate theoretical background that explains cross-cultural variations in the use and effects of humor. Furthermore, previous studies have failed to explain cross-cultural differences because they have compared only two or three countries, and they have failed to apply methodologies that address the cultural influence at both the individual and country level. In this project, we provide an answer to the question of how and why the use and effects of humor in advertising vary across cultures. We explore alternative theoretical explanations and test them using a large database of different countries to identify a much-improved explanation for the cross-cultural differences in the use and effects of humor. We also combine both individual and aggregate levels in explaining cross-cultural variations in humor.The empirical part covers (1) a content-analytic study that addresses differences in the use of humor in advertising across several countries, (2) a meta-analytic study that addresses the moderating influence of country differences on the effects of humor in advertising, and (3) an experiment that corroborates the causal effects of humor and transfers the aggregate findings to individual data.Addressing these issues provides knowledge that contributes to humor research (by explaining cross-cultural variations in humor), to advertising research (by explaining and predicting cross-cultural differences in the use and effects of humor), and to practice (by providing guidelines on how to use humor in advertising efficiently when it is applied in different cultural contexts). Based on the complimentary competences of both principal investigators (PIs), the project will lead to the formation of a specialized and integrated Polish-German research team that will (1) combine advanced research methods, (2) develop innovative topics in the field, (3) and will be therefore capable of competing with the leading international research groups