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AbstractUnlike previous work that shows that processing fluency leads to positive evaluations, the present research demonstrates that processing difficulty can lead to positive inferences of a brand. In three experiments, we show that when a brand acronym is difficult to pronounce, it is evaluated favourably with respect to competence relative to warmth. In contrast, easy‐to‐pronounce acronyms are perceived as similarly warm and competent. We find that individuals perceive a difficult‐to‐pronounce acronym to be more psychologically distant than an easy‐to‐pronounce one. Furthermore, they perceive competence as a more fitting characteristic of a distant brand than warmth is. We find that this relative fit of competence over warmth results in higher competence evaluations. Theoretical and applied contributions of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

At the start of the twenty-first century challenges to the global hegemony of U.S. culture are more apparent than ever. Two of the contenders vying for the hearts, minds, bandwidths, and pocketbooks of the world's consumers of culture (principally, popular culture) are India and South Korea. "Bollywood" and "Hallyu" are increasingly competing with "Hollywood"-either replacing it or filling a void in places where it never held sway. This critical multidisciplinary anthology places the mediascapes of India (the site of Bollywood), South Korea (fountainhead of Hallyu, aka the Korean Wave), and the United States (the site of Hollywood) in comparative dialogue to explore the transnational flows of technology, capital, and labor. It asks what sorts of political and economic shifts have occurred to make India and South Korea important alternative nodes of techno-cultural production, consumption, and contestation. By adopting comparative perspectives and mobile methodologies and linking popular culture to the industries that produce it as well as the industries it supports, Pop Empires connects films, music, television serials, stardom, and fandom to nation-building, diasporic identity formation, and transnational capital and labor. Additionally, via the juxtaposition of Bollywood and Hallyu, as not only synecdoches of national affiliation but also discursive case studies, the contributors examine how popular culture intersects with race, gender, and empire in relation to the global movement of peoples, goods, and ideas