Past research suggests that concrete ad stimuli generate more imagery than abstract stimuli. However, this finding may not be culturally universal. Our research suggests that East Asians tend to generate more imagery than Westerners when exposed to abstract advertising messages, but these differences in imagery generation tend to subside when both cultural groups are exposed to concrete stimuli. Exposure to abstract stimuli while limiting mental resources results in narrowing the differences in number of images generated by Westerners and East Asians as does providing subjects with instructions to imagine.

This study examines the effect of culture on imagery generation and ad attitudes. Although research suggests that concrete stimuli generate more images than abstract stimuli, our study shows that this finding is not universal across cultures. Chinese generate more imagery than Americans when encountering abstract stimuli because Chinese tend to think concretely. Moreover, Chinese and Americans have different attitudes toward different stimuli. While Chinese prefer concrete stimuli to abstract stimuli, Americans have the same attitudes toward concrete and abstract stimuli.

In this study, we attempted to separate the effects of culture and language on imagery generation. By asking subjects from China, Singapore and the US to read Chinese and/or English messages, we found that culture, as opposed to language of the message, drives Chinese people's imagery-generation capabilities. Indeed, people from mainland China generated more images than both Singaporean Chinese people and Americans, even when tested in English. This is because their dominant way of thinking is concrete. Bilingual Singaporean Chinese subjects generated the same number of images when exposed to English and Chinese stimuli because they are equally adept at abstract and concrete thinking. However, their imagery-generation ability could be manipulated by priming abstract or concrete thinking.