When are automatic social comparisons not automatic? The effect of cognitive systems on user imagery‐based self‐concept activation

Following the tenets of the selective accessibility model of assimilation and contrast, three studies observed implicit consumer self-concept assimilation (contrast) to age-based imagery when the discrepancy between the self-concept and advertisement imagery was moderate (extreme). However, these responses were not fully automatic as only consumers who processed user imagery reflectively demonstrated increased accessibility of similarity/dissimilarity information. Impulsive processing of the user imagery instead increased the accessibility of consumer's pre-existing dominant self-age association. A final experiment revealed that these changes in the active-self mediated response to subsequently advertised products. Taken together, these results support a two-systems model of cognition and suggest that assimilation/contrast responses to advertising and subsequent behavior are influenced by the consumer's processing strategy.