Abstract
It is argued people have learned over the course of their lives that cues associated with a source of stress diminish with an increase in distance from that source. This benefit should have increasing appeal to persons experiencing increasing levels of source specific stress. Two experiments, utilizing different populations of respondents, examine the effects of distance from a place of work on evaluations of advertised vacation resorts by persons experiencing different levels of work-related stress. In the first study, a strong linear trend in favorable attitudes toward a distant (as opposed to a close) resort was found as a function of increasing levels of work-related stress. In the second study, that linear trend was eliminated (replicated) through the presence (absence) of a work-related retrieval cue. The results suggest that distant locations appear attractive because of their perceived escape/avoidance value. That value increases as a function of work-related stress, which has attitudinal consequences contingent upon the availability of cues reminding respondents of work. Implications of the results in terms of the meaning of leisure, the development of more effective advertising appeals, as well as reconsidering past views of distance barriers between people and locations, are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Anderson, J.R. (1980). Human Associative Memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cacioppo, J.T. and Petty, R.E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116–131.
Carmines, E.G. and Zeller, R A. (1974). Reliability and validity assessment. Beverly Hills: Sage University Press.
Crowder, R.G. (1976). Principles of learning and memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
Denny, M.R. (1991). Fear, avoidance and phobias. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
Emery, F.E. (1977). Futures we are in. The Hague, Netherlands: Nijhoff.
Endler, N.S. and Parker, J.D.A. (1990). The multidimensional assessment of coping: A critical evaluation.
Endler, N.S. and Parker, J.D.A. (1994). Task, emotion and avoidance strategies. Psychological Assessment, 6, 50–60.
Folkman, S. and Lazarus, R.S. (1985). If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 150–170.
Folkman, S. and Lazarus, R.S., Dunkel-Schetter, C., DeLongis, A. and Gruen, R.J. (1986). Dynamics of a stressful encounter: Cognitive appraisal, coping and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 992–1003.
Ganster, D.C. and Schaubroeck, J. (1991). Work stress and employee health. Journal of Management, 17, 235–271.
Hasek, G. (1994). Inbound-travel spending source. Hotel and motel management, 209, 1–6.
Jakle, J.A., Brunn, S. and Roseman, C.C. (1976). Human spatial behavior. North Scituate: Duxbury.
Kabanoff, B. (1980). Work and nonwork: A review of models, methods and ratings. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 60–77.
Kabanoff, B. and O'Brien, G.E. (1980). Work and leisure: A task attributes analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65, 596–609.
Klausner, W.J. (1968). An experiment in leisure. Science Journal, 4, 81–85.
Lazarus, R.S. (1984). On the primacy of cognition. American Psychologist, 39, 124–129.
Lazarus, R.S. (1993). Why we should think of stress as a subset of emotion. In L. Goldberger and S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of stress: Theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 21–39). New York: The Free Press.
Lounsbury, J.W. and Hoopes, L.L. (1985). An investigation of factors associated with vacation satisfaction. Journal of Leisure Research, 17(1), 1–13.
Lounsbury, J. W. and Polik, J.R. (1992). Leisure needs and vacation satisfaction. Leisure Sciences, 14(2), 105–119.
Mathews, A. and MacLeod, C. (1985). Discrimination of threat cues without awareness in anxiety states. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 131–138.
McNally, R.J. (1994). Psychological approaches to panic disorders: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 403–419.
Mogg, K., Mathews, A. and Weinman, J. (1989). Memory bias in clinical anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 94–98.
Parker, J.R. (1971). The future of work and leisure. London: MacGibbon and Kee.
Porter, C. W., Lawler, E.E. and Hackman, J.R. (1975). Behavior in organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rosenthal, R. and Rosnow, R.L. (1985). Contrast analysis: Focused comparisons in the analysis of variance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rosenthal, R. and Rubin, D.B. (1984). Multiple contracts and ordered Bonferroni procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1028–1034.
Rousseau, D.M. (1978). Relations of work to nonwork. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 513–517.
Rubenstein, C. (1980). Vacations (expectations, satisfactions, frustrations, fantasies). Psychology Today, 14, 62–66, 71–76.
Unger, L.S. and Kernan, J.B. (1983). On the meaning of leisure: An investigation of some determinants of the subjective experience. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 381–392.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Howard, D.J., Barry, T.E. & Gengler, C. Distance Evaluation Effects in Advertising. Journal of Business and Psychology 13, 85–100 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022975117362
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022975117362