Beyond the Billboard; How advertised prices affect how you feel, think, and behave

Abstract: Commercial advertisements are intended to persuade consumers to purchase products, but their influence often extends unintentionally and uninvitedly to non-commercial domains. Researchers have uncovered many such, unintended ad effects - good and bad - from lowered self-esteem to increased empathy. This paper adds to the research on unintended ad effects by examining the variable of price in advertisements, and its influence on people's perceived (1) financial wellbeing, (2) happiness, (3) time-money evaluations and (4) proneness to prosocial behaviour. Through a quantitative experimental study, where we expose subjects to advertisements with varying price levels, we find that those exposed to lower-priced ads feel happier and better off financially, compared to those exposed to higher-priced ads. We furthermore find that individuals exposed to lower-priced ads place relatively higher value on time over money, and are more likely to help a friend in need, than those exposed to higher-priced ads. Our observations shed further light on the extensive and often overlooked effects of advertising, which are no less important in a day and age where ads have become so ubiquitous that there is seemingly no escaping them. We conclude with a discussion on the societal implications of our observations and raise questions for future research on the topic.