Mood / Emotion

Positive emotion can persuade users to think optimistically about a website and spend additional time surfing that website. Emotions are a vital determinant of the attention a patron pays to a particular company as well as a motivation to purchase from the company. Research has found that Internet shoppers explain their online experiences in extremely emotional terms like impulsive, innovative, and adventure seeking, signifying the significance of emotion in directing online behavior. Emotion is a vital determinant of if a patron makes a purchase or recurring purchases in an online environment (Rodgers & Harris, 2003).

Studies that have examined gender and e-commerce typically show males to be the prevailing shoppers (Rodgers & Harris, 2003).

Hoffman, Kalsbeek, and Novak (1996) found men were more likely than women to hunt for service or product information, which maybe something one does before making a purchase. Male users are 2.4 times more likely to shop online than women. Men also focus more so on the transactional uses of the Internet (Rodgers & Harris, 2003).

Rodgers and Sheldon (1999) did a study concerning attitudes towards e shopping and found that male students had overall better attitudes than female students. Other researchers also found comparable results signifying that males use the Internet for the function of shopping more so than females which contradict with real-world establishment who’s primary shoppers are women.

Females while at an e commerce site, will most likely focus on the more detailed features of the e-commerce site, and may react according to how these features emotionally influence them. Males thinking of with a more global outlook might not include details that concern how one feels about a website.

Rodger and Frisby (1999) suggested that as far as being emotionally satisfied by commercial websites, female Internet users might have higher expectations than males.

Rodgers and Harris (2003) revealed that overall women were less emotionally pleased with e-shopping than men, most likely because females were skeptical of e-shopping and didn’t find it as convenient as males. Men reported more trust in e –shopping and perceived the Internet as more convenient. Emotion, trust and convenience predicted women’s negative and men’s positive attitudes towards the Internet. Overall, men had higher positive attitudes about Internet shopping than females did (Rodgers & Harris, 2003).

A study was conducted by Heath, Brandt and Nairn which revealed that emotional content in advertising is accountable for building brand relationships that are strong instead of rational message content in advertising (Heath, Brandt, & Nairn, 2006).

When consumers are less aware of the advertisements emotional elements they work better because the observer has less opportunity to realistically evaluate, oppose or weaken the advertisements potency. These findings of Bornstein’s specify that emotional content in advertising works better when little attention is paid to it and higher levels of attention will weaken persuasiveness. The opposite is true with message-based information in which more attention provides more persuasion. Therefore advertising which is trying to get a factual message conveyed persuades more when one’s attention is high. If the goal of the advertising is to build brand relationships, emotional content should be high and the attention paid to it low in order to be most effective (Heath, Brandt, & Nairn, 2006).

Online shopping provides convenience over location and time restraints. However, the failure to review the quality of products is a commonly cited reason for patron’s not buying goods through the Internet. Online stores are now using utilizing salient computer graphics, which include virtual reality (VR), in order to distinguish their website from the millions of others (Suh & Chang, 2006).

VR technology allows patrons to experience products on the Internet. VR replicates direct experiences in mediated environments and is predicted to generate a persuasive sense of telepresence. Telepresence is the impression or experience of being in attendance at a location remote from your own direct environment.

Kim and Biocca (1997) found that in computer generated environments; telepresence can have a considerable impact on the emotion of confidence concerning brand preference. People become more confident in their attitudes for products when telepresence levels are elevated. VR experiences that have considerable levels of telepresence maintain persuasion means by simulating direct experiences.

A study performed by Suh and Chang (2006) showed that in searching for an item, VR interfaces produced larger telepresence for patrons than video clips and multiple pictures, interfaces. Higher levels of telepresence induce patrons to perceive that they have more knowledge about a product as well as feel more optimistically about the product. Consumers appear to experience products by resembling the actual objects through telepresence, which in turn enhances their memory and attention. People also appeared more self-motivated while appraising a product and as a result developed more emotional confidence about their attitudes towards the products.

A study done by Petty, Schumann, Richman & Strathman (1993) found that those in a positive mood had better attitudes toward an unfamiliar product than those in a neutral mood. Positive mood leads to more persuasion under two elaboration conditions (ELM). If elaboration likelihood is somewhat high, positive mood influence attitudes and thoughts. When elaboration likelihood is low, a positive mood influenced only attitudes.