120 Query-Based Information, Self-Construals and Persuasion Query-Based Information, Self-Construals and Persuasion Hsuan-Hsuan Ku, Department of International Business, Soochow University 1. Purpose/Objective Interrogative advertising is commonly employed to attract consumer interest. Posing questions about product choice in ads is a persuasion method that prompts consumers to think about previous buying decisions while the advertisement is presenting another product choice. The cognitive response approach posits that incorporating a question within a marketing message may induce reflection on the message subject. Prompting elaboration may raise consumer interest in the focused items. Previous research on interrogative advertising has specifically explored the way rhetorical questions and their tag variants influence the effectiveness of persuasion. Studies have also explored similar themes linked to different types of questions such as directive, concession, hypothetical, analogical, problem-focused, and benefit-focused. Yet, there is a void in the literature about the effects of message queries on consumers’ choices. Asking consumers to think about previous purchases may trigger doubt, raise their awareness of the advertising message, and lead to a strengthened positive view of the advocated product. Recognizing the significance of motives in shaping consumer behavior, this study seeks to narrow the literature gap by investigating how questions about product choice may predispose responses by persons who self-construe as either independent or interdependent. The differences in how people perceive themselves in relation to others are apt to convey divergent cognitive processes. Hence, appeals in marketing communications should address the issues that spur consumers to action by first commanding the target group’s interest. This study addresses fit between self-construal and query phrasing, manipulated in terms of the message’s regulatory focus as well as self-others frame, and their influence on persuasion. In addition, purchase uncertainty is used as the underpinning factor to illustrate how choice queries impact convincibility. 2. Design/Methodology/Approach Study 1 investigates the way in which regulatory focus can interrelate with self-
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