29 Mar Not All Emotions Work the Same Way
Sometimes we talk about emotion in advertising as if it’s a single dial.
Positive is good.
Negative is bad.
But psychology doesn’t work that way.
An early foundational study titled “Heart Strings and Purse Strings: Carryover Effects of Emotions on Economic Decisions,” by Jennifer Lerner, Deborah Small, and George Loewenstein, revealed something important.
Different emotions change how people assign value.
Even when those emotions have nothing to do with the purchase itself.
In the study, participants were first induced to feel sadness, disgust, or neutrality through short film clips. Immediately afterward, they completed an unrelated economic task involving buying or selling a small object.
The emotions carried over.
Disgust lowered value across the board. Sellers accepted lower prices. Buyers were willing to pay less.
Sadness behaved differently. Buyers were willing to pay more. Sellers still accepted lower prices.
Two negative emotions. Opposite valuation effects.
That should make every marketer pause.
Emotion is not a single lever. It is not simply about “making people feel something.”
Different emotional states activate different psychological goals. Disgust creates distance and rejection. Sadness can increase the desire for change or acquisition.
This matters for brand strategy.
When we design advertising, we are not just triggering attention. We are shaping valuation.
And valuation drives pricing power.
Cult brands understand this intuitively. They do not chase emotion randomly. They anchor emotion to identity, belonging, and aspiration. They choose emotional territories that reinforce how people want to see themselves.
The takeaway is simple.
Emotion is powerful.
But it is directional.
The strategic question is not whether your advertising is emotional.
It is whether the specific emotion you are creating increases or decreases the value people assign to your brand.