World of Psychology

Is a picture really worth a thousand words?

By John M. Grohol, PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Is a picture really worth a thousand words?

Automated pink bunnies playing the drums. A man made of tires. A burger-selling clown. Almost every advertisement is accompanied by a visual image. And consumers use these images to infer about the product being offered. But are those inferences the right ones? According to an article in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research consumers do not always connect the dots. Furthermore, researchers conclude that it may often have to do with how the visual images are presented.

“This research finds that people will make inferences about products–even if the ad copy does not explicitly address those features–just from viewing a product picture. However, when both the ad copy and a feature of the picture both direct the ad viewer to think about a product feature, viewers are most likely to infer that a product has that feature and will perform well. Under these conditions, they also seem to like products better. Thus, consistency of the picture and ad copy helps people to make positive inferences about a product,” explain the authors, Laura Peracchio (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Joan Meyers-Levy (University of Minnesota).


Comments


View Comments / Leave a Comment

This post currently has no comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks


    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 3 Jun 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Grohol, J. (2005). Is a picture really worth a thousand words?. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 13, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2005/06/03/is-a-picture-really-worth-a-thousand-words/

 

From Beliefnet...
Recent Comments
  • Dave Hommel: Dr Grohol, I hope you will be forthright and include this follow-up to our first exchange, as...
  • ablo: Perhaps that’s why Netherlands and Finland have the best education in the world.
  • ablo: Me and my friends were called “evil” for reporting someone who got caught cheating. But moreover,...
  • ablo: I totally agree with anon. “Sad thing is many of them probably ended up in the business world continuing...
  • Dha1967: I agree that the assumption concerning all who Google “depression-type”, etc. are depressed is a...
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter



Find a Therapist


Users Online: 4577
Join Us Now!