A factor analytic study of Negro and white responses to advertising stimuli

In order to develop a method for determining group reaction to advertising and mass media concepts, 93 white (W) and 88 Negro (N) Ss judged 10 advertising-type stimuli on a 22-scale semantic differential. Factor analyses yielded a scale structure and a concept structure. Ns and Ws had a similar scale structure. The concept structure revealed that Ws distinguished between "typical" advertising stimuli and those with racial overtones; while Ns, on the other hand, treated all concepts similarly on the first factor. The present approach determining the semantic and "conceptual" structure in separate factor analyses may be applicable to other problems involving the semantic differential.