• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.13
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• pp.67-82
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• 2008

This exploratory study examined the possibility that the notion, willing suspension of disbelief, can explain the processing of animated spokes-character in advertising. Willing suspension of disbelief has originated from Coleridge's explanation of poetic faith. And the term has been theoretically studied in the response of fiction in creative works, such as cinema, dramas, and advertisements, as well as literature. So far, willing suspension of disbelief has been proposed as a mediator of empathy, cognitive responses and affective responses to fiction. On these theoretical bases, a survey was conducted to 64 people with 3 advertisements to test the validity of the discriminant function. Findings of discriminant function analysis are as follows: First, the variable of willing suspension of disbelief well discriminated between the willing group and the non-willing group. Secondly, the Intensity of willing suspension of disbelief showed statistically significant difference between the willing group and the non-willing group. Thus, according to these results, it is proposed that the effects of the willing suspension of disbelief can be examined as a mediator of the response of fiction in further substantial studios.