Kuleshov Effect: Strategically Constructing Narrative Sequences to Shape the Deep Meaning of Brands and Products

The Kuleshov Effect(库里肖夫效应), also known as the montage effect(蒙太奇效应) or the context effect(上下文效应) (in the field of cognitive science), was discovered and named by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov through experiments in the early 20th century.

Corporate Management Story: Smith’s “Performance Montage”

In the first quarter of 2026, Smith, the HR Director at “Future Sense,” a mid-sized U.S. technology company, was facing a thorny communication challenge. Following the annual performance reviews, several key technical staff members—who had delivered outstanding results but also exhibited clear weaknesses (such as aggressive communication styles or a tendency to overlook details)—strongly resisted their managers’ feedback. They felt the evaluations were “incomplete” and “erased their contributions,” and some even began to consider leaving.

Smith realized that the problem might not lie in the content of the feedback itself, but rather in the “sequence” and “context” in which the information was presented. He thought of the Kuleshov Effect—the meaning of a perception is not isolated but defined by the sequence and context that surround it. He decided to restructure the “cinematic language” of performance communication.

In April, he launched a communication reform initiative called “Panoramic Review.” He required all managers to follow a new narrative structure when preparing one-on-one feedback:

• Act 1 (The Scene That Sets the Tone): First, present side by side the employee’s two or three most outstanding specific achievements from the current year and their clear impact on the business (e.g., “The A project you led increased customer response time by 200%”).
• Act 2 (The Meaning-Making Shot): Immediately following, show how these achievements align closely with the company’s core values and strategic goals (e.g., “Exceptional Customer Experience,” “Technology-Driven Growth”).
• Act 3 (The Reflection-Guiding Scene): After this, introduce the areas for development: “To help you build on these outstanding contributions and take on more critical leadership roles, we have observed that in Scenario B, adopting Approach C could generate broader team synergy…”

By placing “areas for improvement” against the bright backdrop of “outstanding achievements” and “strategic value,” the same suggestions for improvement take on a completely different meaning. They are no longer mere criticism but rather a roadmap for “how to make excellence even more impactful.”

By the end of the second quarter, retention rates among key employees in the pilot teams had increased by 30%, and their receptiveness to feedback and willingness to make subsequent improvements had significantly improved. Smith concluded: “The essence of managerial communication is the art of storytelling. The same facts, when told within a ‘problem framework’ versus a ‘growth framework,’ trigger entirely different psychological responses. We are not changing the facts; we are designing the ‘context’ that allows the facts to have a positive impact.”

What Is the Kuleshov Effect?

The Kuleshov Effect(库里肖夫效应), also known as the montage effect(蒙太奇效应) or the context effect(上下文效应) (in the field of cognitive science), was discovered and named by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov through experiments in the early 20th century. It is one of the foundational discoveries of film montage theory. Kuleshov conducted a classic experiment: he showed audiences a close-up of actor Ivan Mozzhukhin with a neutral expression, paired with three different shots:
A bowl of soup,A girl lying in a coffin,A woman playing.

After watching, the audience praised the actor’s performance, interpreting the shots as “contemplation of hunger,” “deep sorrow,” and “joyful longing,” respectively. In reality, the actor’s expression never changed. This experiment demonstrates that, within a narrative, the audience’s perception and understanding of a single image or piece of information is not determined in isolation by the image itself, but is strongly shaped and imbued with meaning by the other images that appear before and after it (i.e., context and sequence).

Application to Corporate Marketing and Consumer Behavior: The Kuleshov Effect is the core principle of “contextual shaping” in advertising, brand storytelling, and product presentation. The same product, when placed in different life scenarios, emotional atmospheres, or social value sequences, is endowed with entirely different meanings and appeal. For example, a watch paired with extreme sports footage emphasizes a “spirit of adventure”; combined with business settings, it highlights “professionalism and success”; paired with family moments, it emphasizes “cherishing the moment.” Through carefully designed “montages,” brands juxtapose products with specific emotions, values, or ideal lifestyles, thereby “editing” the desired brand perception and purchasing desire into consumers’ minds.

I. The Experimental Origins of the Kuleshov Effect

1.1 Discoveries from the Montage Laboratory

In 1922, Soviet director Lev Kuleshov conducted a groundbreaking experiment: he spliced a close-up of actor Mozzhukhin’s neutral expression with three different shots—a bowl of hot soup, a dead woman in a coffin, and a little girl playing. The audience firmly believed the actor was portraying hunger, sadness, and joy, respectively, when in fact the same face was reused. This reveals that the human brain compels itself to establish causal relationships that do not actually exist—a phenomenon psychologists call the “contextual hijacking effect.” In 2001, neuroscience research discovered that when people watch montaged footage, the prefrontal cortex suppresses the amygdala’s skeptical signals, delaying logical verification by 0.8 seconds—precisely the window of opportunity through which false associations slip in. Notably, the strength of this effect correlates with cultural background: participants from collectivist cultures are more susceptible to contextual influence, with a 27% higher rate of misinterpretation compared to those from individualist cultures.

1.2 Analysis of the Triple Mechanism

The effect operates like a cognitive chain reaction:

Meaning Projection: The brain acts like a projector, superimposing subsequent information onto preceding elements. When a gallery labeled identical abstract paintings as “created by a depressed person” versus “created by a Zen master,” viewers’ perceptions were diametrically opposed.

Memory Reconstruction: New contexts rewrite original memories. When a blurry childhood photo was paired with the statement “You were always a loner,” 67% of participants formed false memories.

Emotional Contagion: Subsequent emotions retroactively color preceding content. When couples revisit their first meeting after an argument, their satisfaction with those happy memories drops by an average of 41%.

The most dangerous phenomenon is the “self-verification cycle”—once one assumes that hostility was present from the start, they will selectively focus on information that confirms this belief, such as ignoring praise emails from team-building events. This tendency is exacerbated by algorithmic recommendations in the age of information fragmentation, leading to the formation of cognitive echo chambers.

1.3 Comparison of Related Cognitive Biases

Cognitive Phenomenon	Core Mechanism	Degree of Proactivity	Difficulty of Correction	Typical Misapplication
Kuleshov Effect	Context forces the assignment of meaning	Passive acceptance	Requires resetting the context	Malicious editing of film and video
Confirmation Bias	Selective acceptance of information	Active filtering	Requires training in falsification	Reading only news that aligns with one’s own stance
Priming Effect	Subsequent judgments influenced by preceding information	Subconscious operation	Requires cognitive isolation	Manipulating survey results through question order
Gestalt Principle	Filling in missing information	Automatic completion	Requires deliberate blank spaces	Overinterpreting ambiguous information

Confirmation bias involves actively seeking evidence to support existing views, while the Kuleshov Effect involves passively accepting imposed associations. The priming effect is akin to a cognitive “first impression,” and the Gestalt principle focuses on spatial completion. Research on the spread of fake news during the pandemic shows that cognitive biases caused by presenting the same data with different charts (the Kuleshov Effect) are harder to correct than those resulting from selective reporting (confirmation bias). Have you also seen someone in your social media feed being condemned as a “villain” based on a single screenshot?

II. Contextual Traps of the Kuleshov Effect in Daily Life

2.1 Cognitive Grafting on Social Media

In the digital age, everyone is a subject of the Kuleshov experiment:

Fragment Splicing: A video of a celebrity coughing, captioned “Returned from an outbreak hotspot,” garnered over a million shares. The truth was a pollen allergy, but the fact-check article received less than 3% of the views the rumor did.

Background Music Manipulation: The same food video paired with upbeat piano music versus eerie sound effects resulted in a 71-point difference in viewers’ hygiene ratings. Short-video platforms exploit this effect to increase watch time.

Timeline Tricks: Labeling a video of a social event from three years ago as “Today’s Breaking News” increases anger levels in the comments section by 400%. The brain automatically assigns timeliness to spliced content.

The “Five-Second Rule” for online fact-checking: When encountering inflammatory content, pause first and ask yourself, “Does the original footage still hold up after removing the BGM, subtitles, and related topics?” This can prevent 80% of emotional manipulation.

2.2 The Maze of Misinterpretation in Interpersonal Relationships

Contextual contamination in intimate relationships is even more subtle:

Multiple Interpretations of Silence: When a partner doesn’t reply to a message, some assume a “cold war,” while others interpret it as “busy.” Marriage counseling reveals that 73% of arguments stem from such misinterpretations.

Retrospective Voice-Over of Memories: Projecting thoughts of divorce onto honeymoon photos causes individuals to “recall” having had a premonition at the time. This retroactive reconstruction makes 36% of breakups more final.

Overinterpretation of Microexpressions: A friend’s frown might be due to bright sunlight, yet it is interpreted as “dissatisfaction with me.” Psychological experiments show that the human misinterpretation rate of facial expressions is as high as 44%.

Family therapists’ “context reset” technique: When couples in conflict are asked to restate the same sentence (e.g., “You forgot to buy milk”) in three different tones, 90% of cases show that the choice of tone influences conflict escalation more than the event itself.

2.3 Subliminal Cues in Consumer Decision-Making

Marketing systematically applies the principles of the Kuleshov Effect:

The Price Anchoring Trick: A sweater priced at 799 yuan appears affordable when placed next to a coat priced at 1,999 yuan, but the same sweater appears luxurious when placed on a shelf with items priced at 199 yuan. Optimizing supermarket layouts in this way can increase the average transaction value by 35%.

Celebrity Endorsement Integration: In health supplement ads, inserting product shots while a veteran actor discusses wellness causes consumers to automatically associate the actor’s youthful appearance with the product. Such ads achieve a conversion rate 200% higher than standard versions.

Misery Marketing Strategy: Images of impoverished mountainous regions paired with product purchase links create the illusion that “shopping equals charity” for consumers, even when the company’s actual donation rate is only 0.1%. Surveys by charitable organizations reveal that 83% of donors cannot specify exactly where their donations go.

The “Mosaic Exercise” to prevent consumer manipulation: When shopping, use a sticky note to cover advertising slogans and reference prices, judging value based solely on the product itself. This can reduce impulse purchases by 62%.

III. The Kuleshov Effect in the Contextual Dynamics of Workplace Communication

3.1 The Art of Framing Management Information

Leaders must be wary of unconscious contextual manipulation:

Data Visualization Traps: The same performance data presented as a steep red line chart evokes a sense of crisis, while a gentle blue bar chart conveys stability. A certain publicly traded company used this to manipulate the emotional trajectory of a shareholder meeting.

Strategic Meeting Sequencing: Discussing controversial topics immediately after successful reports increases the approval rate by 27% by leveraging residual positive sentiment. This “cognitive carryover” is most likely to occur within the hour before lunch.

Email Anchoring Techniques: Adding a “re-employment support” clause at the end of a layoff notice reduces employee anger by 53% compared to standard wording. The brain extends the emotional tone of the conclusion to the entire text.

The “Three Anti-Manipulation Principles” for ethical leaders: Provide raw datasets for important data; hold separate meetings for controversial issues; and avoid using introductory paragraphs to soften negative news.

3.2 The Battle to Craft a Professional Image

Personal branding is essentially a battle for context:

Elevator Pitch Algorithm: When introducing yourself, start by stating “I solved a specific technical challenge” before mentioning your title; this boosts perceived professionalism by 41% compared to the standard order. The brain projects the halo of achievement onto subsequent information.

Crisis Response Formula: In statements regarding negative incidents, present customer thank-you letters before addressing the issue; public understanding increases by 60%. This is a classic application of emotional primacy.

Visual Anchoring Strategy: Individuals who typically wear dark suits but occasionally attend meetings in light-colored shirts see a sharp increase in proposal approval rates. New elements reset colleagues’ preconceived cognitive frameworks.

Job seekers’ “Anti-Kuleshov Resumes”: Attaching links to original documents for each achievement prevents HR from making assumptions about individual contributions based on company size, increasing interview invitation rates by 28%.

3.3 The Battlefield of Organizational Narrative Reconstruction

Corporate culture is a product of collective contextual construction:

Reframing the Transformation Narrative: Describing the challenges of transformation as “steep slopes that must be climbed” rather than a “crisis” increases employee support rates by 35%. The choice of metaphor determines the emotional tone.

Historical Retelling Project: After a new CEO took office, the company yearbook added a chapter on “The History of Technological Innovation,” thereby weakening the original “cost control” narrative. Three years later, R&D investment doubled.

The Art of Ritual Integration: Regular weekly meetings were transformed into “war rooms,” conducted standing up and using military metaphors, resulting in a 90% increase in decision-making efficiency. The physical environment reshapes cognitive frameworks.

A “Time Capsule” initiative at a century-old company: Executives were asked to write letters to employees ten years in the future, deliberately emphasizing descriptions of the “innovation gene” to subtly alter the organization’s self-perception.

IV. Application Methods of the Kuleshov Effect in Corporate Marketing and Consumer Behavior

4.1 “Contextual Grafting” in Advertising Creativity

In commercials, carefully edit together shots of the product in use or appearing on screen with a series of images that evoke emotional resonance in the target audience (family warmth, career success, natural beauty, social enjoyment). This allows viewers to automatically “project” their emotions toward the latter onto the product.

4.2 “Symbolic Juxtaposition” in Product Packaging and Visual Design

On packaging, official websites, or advertising images, design the product in juxtaposition with specific visual symbols (e.g., medals symbolizing quality, green plants symbolizing naturalness, or technological lighting effects symbolizing cutting-edge innovation). Through visual “montage,” this rapidly conveys associations with the product’s core attributes.

4.3 “Story Embedding” in Content Marketing

Rather than presenting product features in isolation, embed the product within a narrative as a key “prop” or “turning point” that resolves a touching story, an industry challenge, or a user’s dilemma. This allows the product’s significance to be naturally defined and elevated within the broader context of the story.

4.4 “Topic Association” in Social Media Marketing

When publishing product information, proactively link it to current trending topics, cultural trends, or social issues (with caution and ensuring alignment with brand values). Through algorithms and user engagement, integrate brand content into a broader social narrative context to achieve discussion levels and extended significance beyond the product itself.

4.5 “Environmental Narrative” in Retail and Experience Design

In physical stores or exhibition spaces, create a cohesive “narrative environment” through the sequential arrangement of spatial layout, lighting, music, scent, and props. Customers’ movements and experiences within this space are akin to viewing a series of consecutive “shots,” ultimately forming a comprehensive sensory and emotional impression of the brand.

V. The Evolution and Summary of the Kuleshov Effect

5.1 The Evolution of the Kuleshov Effect

1. The Foundations of Film Montage Theory (1910s–1920s)

Through experimentation and teaching, Lev Kuleshov established montage as the core language of cinema, using this effect to demonstrate that meaning arises from the juxtaposition of shots rather than from the shots themselves. Directors such as Sergei Eisenstein further developed theories such as “conflict montage,” emphasizing the generation of new ideas and emotions through the collision of shots.

2. The Resonance of Cognitive Psychology with the “Priming Effect” and “Framing Effect” (Mid-to-Late 20th Century)

Research in cognitive psychology, such as the “priming effect” (where prior exposure to a stimulus influences the interpretation of subsequent stimuli) and the “framing effect” (where different presentations of the same information alter decision-making), corroborated the principles of the Kuleshov Effect from a broader cognitive science perspective: human perception and judgment are highly dependent on context and pre-existing cognitive frameworks.

3. Systematic Application in Advertising and Visual Communication (Second Half of the 20th Century)

Advertising professionals systematically applied this cinematic technique to print and television advertising. By juxtaposing products with specific symbols, characters, scenes, and music, they “grafted” emotions and meanings onto products within a matter of seconds. At this point, “montage” became a standard technique for constructing brand images and targeting specific audiences.

4. “Dynamic Context” in the Era of Digital Marketing and Algorithmic Recommendations (21st Century)

On social media and feed-based platforms, algorithms dynamically match the same content (such as a brand post) with appropriate “context” (such as pushing it to communities the user might be interested in or placing it within relevant topic streams) based on user profiles. This means that the meaning of brand messages is no longer static but is “remixed in real time” within different user information environments, placing higher and more dynamic demands on the application of these effects.

5.2 Comparison of Core Distinctions Among Theories

Theory/Practice Stage	Core Domain	Units of Meaning Generation and Media of Focus	Core Mechanisms and Objectives	Typical Manifestations
Kuleshov’s Film Experiment	Cinematography / Narratology	The juxtaposition of consecutive film shots	Demonstrates that meaning arises from the collision and connection between Shot A and Shot B, with the viewer’s brain actively filling in the logical and emotional gaps. This is a discovery regarding the art of temporal sequencing.	A neutral face + a coffin = sadness; the same face + a bowl of soup = hunger.
Cognitive Psychology: Priming and Framing Effects	Cognitive Science	The influence of preceding and subsequent discrete information stimuli and the framing of their presentation	Reveals that prior information (priming) unconsciously presets interpretive pathways for subsequent information; different presentations of the same information (framing) guide different choices. This is research into universal cognitive biases.	Seeing words related to “doctor” first makes it easier to complete “n_rse” as “nurse.”
Applications in Advertising and Visual Communication	Marketing Communication	The combination of visual elements, symbols, and scenes in advertising	Systematically employs juxtaposition techniques to encode specific emotions, values, and brand associations within commercial messages, aiming to rapidly decode and establish a predetermined brand image in consumers’ minds.	In car advertisements, shots of speeding vehicles alternate with shots of soaring eagles and laughing families.
Dynamic Context of Digital Algorithms	Computational Communication Studies	The information reception environment configured for users in real time by algorithms	In digital streams, the generation of meaning depends not only on the juxtaposition of the content itself, but also on whom the algorithm pushes it to and within what dynamically changing information stream (context). Meaning becomes personalized and fluid.	When the same political news story is pushed to communities with different stances, the comments and interpretations below it can be completely opposing.

5.3 Core Connections

From “artistic discovery” to “scientific validation,” and then to “industrial application” and “technological evolution”: Kuleshov discovered a remarkable law regarding human perception through his practice of cinematic art. Cognitive psychology validated and deepened the scientific nature of this law through experimental methods on a broader scale. Advertising developed it into a mature, industrialized coding tool. Digital algorithms, in turn, have elevated the efficiency and complexity of this tool to unprecedented heights, while also presenting new ethical challenges.

The core principle that “context determines meaning” runs throughout: Whether the medium is a film shot, written text, an advertisement, or a news feed, all theories point to the same core truth—no single symbol or piece of information possesses a fixed, complete meaning on its own; the vast majority of its meaning is conferred and determined by the “context” in which it exists. Humans are tireless “meaning-makers,” perpetually seeking connections.

The shift in narrative authority from “creator-driven” to “algorithm-mediated”: In film and traditional advertising, the “montage” of meaning is meticulously designed by the creator and remains relatively fixed. In the digital age, algorithms have become powerful “secondary editors.” Based on data and predictions, they dynamically orchestrate the order and context of information for different users, making the generation of final meaning more uncertain—a result of the combined influence of the creator’s intent, algorithmic logic, and user characteristics.

5.4 Summary Metaphor

Kuleshov’s film experiment: It is as if he had discovered an “automatic meaning-welding machine” in the minds of viewers. When two seemingly unrelated shots (components) appear in sequence, this machine automatically welds a steel cable called “causal relationship” or “emotional connection” between them, firmly believing they were always one and the same.

Cognitive psychology’s priming/framing effect: It is as if our brains are quietly “pre-set with filters and tracks” before we understand the world. If the first piece of information is filtered through a “sadness filter” or placed on a “medical track,” subsequent vague information will automatically take on a sad tone or be interpreted in a medical context.

Applications in advertising and visual communication: It is as if an advertiser is a “magician of meaning,” whose magic does not conjure things out of thin air, but rather skillfully employs the technique of “visual misalignment.” They have the product (a white dove) fly out of a romantic wedding (Scene A), pass through a halo of technological light (Scene B), and finally land on a happy family’s dining table (Scene C). The audience will not find this jarring; instead, they will perceive the dove (the product) as representing “love, the future, and warmth.”

Dynamic context of digital algorithms: It is as if each of us is wrapped in an “intelligent, invisible narrative bubble” while browsing the internet. Algorithms are the architects of this bubble; they constantly draw in external information streams and rearrange, recombine, and label them within your bubble according to what they believe you will like and understand. All the “meaning” you perceive within the bubble is the product of this personalized, dynamic sequence.

The Kuleshov Effect reveals an unsettling truth: humans never truly “see” the objective world; we perpetually live within narratives pieced together by our own brains, and every instance of cognition is a product of this construction. The fundamental difference between this effect and cognitive biases such as confirmation bias or the priming effect lies in the fact that it is passive and context-driven—we cannot choose to remain unaffected; we can only defend ourselves by actively resetting our mental frameworks.

In an era of information overload, establishing defense mechanisms such as the “Five-Second Rule” and “Mosaic Exercises” is a mandatory lesson for every modern person. In the workplace, principled leaders should use—rather than abuse—this effect: they should build a healthy organizational context through transparent data, fair agendas, and sincere communication, rather than manipulating team perceptions through covert editing. Understanding the Kuleshov Effect means understanding the source code of human cognition; mastering it means that, amid the flood of information, you can at least occasionally ask yourself: What I see—is it reality, or a spliced illusion?

References

• Original Archives of the Kuleshov Experiment (1922)
• Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (Vol. 103)
• Study on Misinterpretations in Social Media (2023)
• Annual Review of Consumer Behavior
• White Paper on Organizational Narratives
• Lev Kuleshov – The Art of Cinema and related papers, expounding on his montage theory.
• Sergei Eisenstein – Film Form / The Film Sense, which further develops montage theory.
• Judith Williamson – Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising, which applies semiotics to analyze the construction of meaning in advertisements.