The numbers game: How prices and likes in advertisements affect consumers' self-esteem and life satisfaction

Abstract: Previous academic literature has gone to great lengths in order to research how advertising has an emotional effect on consumers in general and on consumers self-esteem and life satisfaction in particular. But until today, there is a lack of scientific proof regarding how the numerical communication in these advertisements affect these two emotions. This report aims to answer this question, i.e. how numerical stimuli, more precisely prices (money) and social media likes needed to get a reward, in advertisements affect consumers' self-esteem and life satisfaction. The method of researching this was two quantitative, experimental, studies based on a general population sample. The results show statistical proof that a high number of likes needed to get a reward has a positive effect on both consumer self-esteem and life satisfaction, which contradict the findings of some previous research. No statistical proof was found in the money primed study.