Relationships Among Time Orientations, Attitudes, and Online Advertising Avoidance: The Moderating Role of Advertising Characteristics

This study investigates time orientation as a personality trait influencing attitudes toward online advertising and subsequent avoidance behaviors, grounded in the Value-Attitude-Behavior theory. Specifically, it examines the direct relationship between past, present, and future time orientations and attitudes toward both informational and emotional online advertisements. Furthermore, the research explores the moderating effects of informational and emotional advertising characteristics on the link between time orientation and advertising attitude through two experimental studies. Findings reveal that a past orientation is associated with negative attitudes toward advertising, while present and future orientations correlate with positive attitudes, albeit to varying degrees. A more favorable attitude toward advertising is also found to predict lower avoidance. Notably, advertising characteristics (informational or emotional content) did not significantly moderate the relationship between past orientation and attitude. However, for future-oriented individuals, higher levels of both informational and emotional content are recommended to enhance advertising attitudes. Conversely, present-oriented individuals exhibit more positive attitudes toward advertisements with lower levels of emotional content. These findings offer nuanced insights into tailoring online advertising strategies based on consumers’ temporal focus and the emotional or informational nature of the advertisement.