Effects of Facial Expressions on Willingness to Purchase

: In static advertisements, images instead of videos are used to promote products, and it is most often the faces of the models that get the consumers’ attention. How facial expressions transfer emotions from the producer to the consumer has been explained by the emotional contagion theory, which suggests the recipient replicates the emitter through motor mimicry which changes the recipient’s emotional state. This paper investigates the effects of facial expressions in advertisements on adolescents in comparison to adults. It was hypothesized that participants would give a higher product evaluation if the model displayed a real smile, versus a fake smile or neutral facial expression. It was also hypothesized that adolescents would be more susceptible to facial expressions and therefore pay more for the same product than adults. High school and adult participants completed a survey in which they evaluated a product (a white t-shirt) when the model displayed a neutral face, fake smile, and real smile. The results showed that participants gave higher product evaluation scores and were willing to pay more when the model displayed a genuine smile over the other facial expressions. In addition, adolescents were less influenced by the model’s expressions than adults which may be due to their lack of experience in spending. To extend this study, the effects of emotional contagion theory on other factors including how the product attracts attention or lasts in the consumers’ memory could be tested.