📄 social_science

Modeling the Impact of Aesthetic Relaxation on Purchase Intention: A Dual-Stage SEM-ANN Analysis

This study employs a dual-stage SEM-ANN analysis to demonstrate that aesthetic relaxation in automotive advertising drives purchase intention by fostering psychological recovery, which enhances brand authenticity and affect, while being moderated by individual design appreciation and digital fatigue.

Original authors: Jiaqi He, Jialin Hu, Hang Li, Hasnul Azwan Azizan @ Mahdzir

Published 2026-10-09

📖 5 min read🧠 Deep dive

CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Jiaqi He, Jialin Hu, Hang Li, Hasnul Azwan Azizan @ Mahdzir

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

In a world where screens constantly demand our attention, the human mind often feels like a sponge that has been wrung out too many times. We are surrounded by a relentless stream of information, advertisements, and notifications that compete for our focus, leaving us mentally exhausted. This state of mental tiredness, often called digital fatigue, makes it harder to process new information or make decisions. At the same time, marketing has long relied on loud, fast-paced, and information-heavy tactics to sell products, especially complex ones like cars. But what happens when an advertisement does the opposite? What if a commercial for a vehicle didn't shout about horsepower or safety ratings, but instead offered a moment of quiet, visual calm? This question sits at the intersection of psychology and marketing, exploring how the design of an ad can change the way a person feels and, ultimately, how they decide to spend their money.

Researchers from Malaysia set out to understand this quiet power. They focused on a concept they call "aesthetic relaxation," which describes advertisements designed with minimalist layouts, serene stories, and harmonious colors that feel soothing to the eye. Their goal was to see if these calm visuals could actually help a tired consumer recover their mental energy, and if that recovery would make them more likely to buy a car. To do this, they built a model based on the idea that external stimuli, like an ad, change our internal state, which then drives our actions. They also looked at how a person's own traits, such as how much they appreciate good design or how exhausted they feel from technology, might change the outcome.

The study involved 355 people who were planning to buy a car within the next few years. These participants were shown static images of car advertisements. Some images were designed to be highly relaxing, featuring open spaces and soft lighting, while others were more standard and busy. After viewing an image, the participants answered a series of questions about how they felt, how they perceived the brand, and how likely they were to buy the car. The researchers then used advanced computer analysis to trace the path from the image to the final decision.

The results revealed a clear chain of events. When people saw the relaxing advertisements, they reported feeling a genuine sense of psychological recovery. It was as if the ad gave their minds a brief rest from the noise of the digital world. This feeling of recovery did not just stop at a good mood; it changed how they viewed the car brand itself. Specifically, the relaxed state made them feel more positively toward the brand and, crucially, made the brand feel more authentic. They perceived the company as more sincere and trustworthy. This combination of positive feelings and a sense of authenticity led to a more favorable overall attitude toward the brand, which directly increased their intention to purchase the vehicle.

However, the study found that this effect is not the same for everyone. The researchers discovered that the level of digital fatigue a person was experiencing played a major role. For those who were already feeling mentally drained by technology, the relaxing ads were incredibly effective. These individuals, whose mental resources were depleted, responded strongly to the calm visuals, finding them to be a powerful source of restoration. In contrast, for people who were not feeling particularly tired, the relaxing ads had a much smaller impact. The study also looked at whether a person's natural appreciation for design mattered. While people who love design did get a slightly bigger boost from the relaxing ads, their appreciation did not change how they judged the brand's authenticity. This suggests that while good design helps capture attention, the feeling of a brand being "real" and "honest" comes from the psychological relief the ad provides, not just from how pretty the ad looks.

The researchers used two different methods to confirm their findings. One method mapped out the logical connections between the variables, while the other used a type of artificial intelligence to see how well the data could predict the results. Both methods agreed on the main story: calm ads help tired minds recover, and that recovery builds trust and desire to buy. The only slight difference was that the artificial intelligence suggested that design appreciation might play a bigger role in predicting outcomes than the traditional analysis showed, but the researchers noted that this did not mean design appreciation was the primary cause of the effect. The core driver remained the psychological recovery experienced by the viewer.

These findings offer a new perspective for the automotive industry. Instead of trying to out-shout competitors with more technical details, brands might find success by offering a moment of peace. For consumers who are already overwhelmed by the digital world, an advertisement that feels like a quiet sanctuary could be the most persuasive tool available. It suggests that in a crowded and noisy media landscape, the most effective way to connect with a buyer might be to give them a break, allowing them to feel restored and, in that state of calm, more open to the idea of a new car. The study concludes that the path to a sale is not always about adding more information, but sometimes about providing the right kind of silence.

Technical Summary: Modeling the Impact of Aesthetic Relaxation on Purchase Intention

Problem Statement
The contemporary automotive advertising landscape is characterized by information overload and cognitive resistance, where traditional feature-centric and rational appeals often fail to establish deep emotional connections. While the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework is widely used to explain consumer behavior, it often lacks specificity regarding how particular aesthetic stimuli, such as "aesthetic relaxation" (minimalist, serene designs), influence internal psychological states. Specifically, the psychological mechanisms through which serene aesthetics in automotive advertising translate into purchase intention remain underexplored. There is a gap in understanding whether such aesthetics elicit a "psychological recovery experience" and how this recovery subsequently influences distinct brand perception dimensions like authenticity and affect. Furthermore, the boundary conditions of individual traits, such as design appreciation and digital fatigue, in this process require empirical validation.

Methodology
This study employs a dual-stage analytical approach integrating Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to rigorously test a proposed conceptual model grounded in the S-O-R framework and Restorative Environment Theory.

Experimental Design: A 2 (Aesthetic Relaxation: High vs. Low) × 2 (Automotive Brand) between-subjects experimental design was utilized. Static advertisement images were used as stimuli to ensure precise control over visual elements (composition, color, lighting) and eliminate confounding variables inherent in dynamic media.
Data Collection: An online questionnaire was administered to 355 valid respondents (potential car buyers planning to purchase within 1–3 years). The sample was predominantly aged 25–44, with high educational attainment and middle-to-upper-middle income levels.
Measures: Constructs including Aesthetic Relaxation, Psychological Recovery Experience, Perceived Brand Authenticity, Brand Affect, Brand Attitude, Purchase Intention, Design Appreciation, and Digital Fatigue were measured using established scales on a 5-point Likert scale (except Brand Attitude, which used a semantic differential scale).
Analytical Strategy:
1. SEM: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and path analysis were conducted to test the linear causal relationships and mediation effects.
2. ANN: A 10-fold cross-validation Artificial Neural Network approach was used to evaluate the predictive power and non-linear relationships of the model, specifically assessing the importance of input variables and interaction terms.
3. Comparison: Results from PLS-SEM and ANN were compared to assess the alignment between causal inference and predictive learning.

Key Results
The study validated a sequential psychological pathway where aesthetic relaxation acts as a stimulus leading to behavioral intention:

Primary Pathway (S-O-R): Aesthetic Relaxation significantly positively influences Psychological Recovery Experience ( $\beta = 0.315, p < 0.001$ ). This recovery experience, in turn, acts as a dual mediator, significantly enhancing both Perceived Brand Authenticity ( $\beta = 0.408$ ) and Brand Affect ( $\beta = 0.464$ ). Both mediators positively influence Brand Attitude, which drives Purchase Intention ( $\beta = 0.437$ ). The analysis of effect sizes indicates that the path from Psychological Recovery to Brand Affect ( $\beta = 0.464$ ) and the path from Brand Attitude to Purchase Intention ( $\beta = 0.437$ ) are the strongest links in the chain, followed by Psychological Recovery to Perceived Brand Authenticity ( $\beta = 0.408$ ).
Moderating Effects:
- Digital Fatigue (DF): DF significantly moderates the relationship between Aesthetic Relaxation and Psychological Recovery Experience ( $\beta = 0.2625, p < 0.001$ ). Individuals with high digital fatigue derive significantly greater restorative benefits from relaxed aesthetics.
- Design Appreciation (DA): DA positively moderates the Aesthetic Relaxation $\rightarrow$ Recovery link ( $\beta = 0.0925, p < 0.05$ ), amplifying the effect for those with high aesthetic sensitivity. However, DA does not significantly moderate the relationship between Psychological Recovery and Perceived Brand Authenticity ( $p = 0.9227$ ).
SEM vs. ANN Comparison: The two methods showed strong concordance in ranking the importance of most paths. A notable divergence occurred in the prediction of Perceived Brand Authenticity: while SEM found the interaction of Recovery and Design Appreciation non-significant, ANN assigned it high predictive importance. The authors interpret this as evidence that predictive power does not always equate to causal significance, highlighting the complementary value of both methods.

Key Contributions

Theoretical: The study introduces Restorative Environment Theory into automotive advertising research, establishing "aesthetic relaxation" as a specific stimulus that triggers psychological recovery. It delineates a dual-mediation pathway where recovery simultaneously fosters cognitive (authenticity) and emotional (affect) brand evaluations, moving beyond general "feel-good" effects.
Methodological: By employing a dual-stage SEM-ANN analysis, the research demonstrates the robustness of the identified linear relationships while acknowledging the nuances of non-linear predictive modeling. It provides a framework for distinguishing between statistically significant causal effects and variables with high predictive utility.
Boundary Conditions: The research empirically identifies Digital Fatigue as a critical boundary condition, suggesting that the efficacy of restorative advertising is contingent upon the consumer's cognitive resource availability.

Significance and Claims
The paper claims to provide a replicable, mechanism-based framework for understanding how atmospheric advertising influences high-involvement purchase decisions. It argues that in a cluttered media environment, brands can leverage "micro-restorative" advertising to recover consumer attention and foster trust. The findings suggest that for digitally fatigued consumers, low-arousal, minimalist advertising is not merely an aesthetic choice but a strategic necessity to facilitate psychological recovery, which then cascades into favorable brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The study concludes that while aesthetic sensitivity enhances the initial processing of such ads, the translation of recovery into brand authenticity relies more on verifiable credibility cues than on aesthetic refinement alone.

Technical Summary: Modeling the Impact of Aesthetic Relaxation on Purchase Intention

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