Curiosity-inducing advertising: how positive emotions and expectations drive the effect of curiosity on consumer evaluations of products

First, this research investigates the curiosity-evoking potential of different curiosity triggers (information gaps, ambiguity, and novelty) that are both described by the fundamental literature on curiosity and frequently applied in marketing practice. Second, it aims to shed light on affective and cognitive processes that are elicited by curiosity. The authors present two experimental studies and show that not all commonly used triggers stimulate curiosity. Moreover, the results reveal that the effect of curiosity on attitude towards the advertised product is mediated by heightened positive expectations, and under some circumstances, also by increased positive affect. This suggests that a rather uncritical expectation-driven evaluation and a misattribution of process-induced positive emotions are responsible for the positive effect.