This research examines the impact of closing versus opening eyes on consumers’ decision making as to whether the decision context is driven by utilitarian versus hedonic motivation. The findings from three studies show that consumers processing advertising messages with their eyes closed are likely to use high-level, abstract processing, and thus more positively evaluate the utilitarian products (vs. the hedonic products). On the contrary, consumers with their eyes open are likely to use low-level, concrete processing, and thus more positively evaluate the hedonic products (vs. the utilitarian products). Implications for consumers and marketers are discussed.

In this study, we present results of two experiments on hedonic and functional products designed to (1) explore consumers’ third-person perceptions of sex appeals in advertising (2) determine which constructs are effective on third-person perception across the product types (3) and, examine whether conceptual models are moderated by public exposure to sexual stimuli or not. The findings suggest that public exposure to the sexual stimuli is a factor that causes some differences on the antecedents of the third-person perception, and behavioural outcomes of the third-person perception across the respondents’ cultural background and product types.