What we see makes us who we are: Priming ethnic self-awareness and advertising response

The authors propose that "ethnic self-awareness"-a temporary state during w hich a person is more sensitive to information related to his or her own et hnicity-moderates consumer response to targeted advertising. Ethnic self-aw areness occurs when a person engages in a process of seif-categorization an d uses ethnic criteria as the basis for this categorization. The authors hy pothesize that "ethnic primes"-visual or verbal cues that draw attention to ethnicity-direct self-categorization and increase ethnic self-awareness. T o test these hypotheses, the authors conduct two experiments. Using 109 Asi an and Caucasian participants, Experiment I assessed the impact of exposure to an Asian ethnic prime on ethnic self-awareness and on response to targe ted television advertising. Exposure to an ethnic prime increased the rate at which participants spontaneously mentioned their ethnicity in self-descr iptions (a measure of ethnic self-awareness) and caused participants to res pond more favorably to same-ethnicity spokespeople and advertising that tar geted their ethnicity. Experiment 2 tested the theory in a print advertisin g context and extended the design by manipulating the type of ethnic prime participants saw (Asian or Caucasian) and the market that the focal adverti sement targeted (Asian or Caucasian). Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment I when the focal advertisement targeted Asians, but not when it targeted Caucasians.