Men hate it, women love it: Guilty pleasure advertising messages

The concept of a guilty pleasure has become a cultural touchstone, and messaging employing the concept has been increasingly used in advertising to gain consumers' attention and enhance the perceived value of the product. However, the present research finds guilty pleasure messages have strikingly different effects in men vs. women, for both physical and service products. Such messages result in more negative attitudes and lowered likelihood of purchase in men, yet higher attitudes and purchase likelihood in women. Using a mediated moderation model, this research shows these differential gender effects are driven by imagery generation via the experience of low agency emotions.