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Promoting logos using evaluative conditioning: a psychological investigation
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- The Open University (OU)
Promoting logos using evaluative conditioning: a psychological investigation.
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Zoe Fletcher DE100- TMA 04 H7683706TMA 04
Part 1: DE100 Project Report
Promoting logos using evaluative conditioning: a psychological investigation
Abstract
The experimental study was conducted to test how evaluative conditioning can affect the
opinions of participants towards a logo. The main concept was to investigate the effects of
pairing a logo with a positive image as opposed to pairing it with a neutral image. During the
experiment, all the participants viewed a slideshow of logos and images. The DE100 IPTV
logo being studied was paired with a positive image in the experimental condition and
paired with random neutral images in the control condition. The results determined that
there was a significant difference between the conditions regarding if the participants
recorded if they liked the logo or not. Therefore, the experimental hypothesis can be
accepted with the effect size being reported as strong. This gives an interesting outlook on
the behaviour of humans and how evaluative conditioning can be used in the real world.
Word count: 143 words
Introduction
An important question in marketing research is how one might get consumers to like or
dislike certain products. One possibility is that consumers like products that become
associated in their mind with something that they already perceive to be positive. This sort
of association is referred to as ‘evaluative conditioning’. Typically, a neutral stimulus, such as
a new brand or product, is paired with a positive stimulus, such as a favoured celebrity, and
this allows some of the positive feelings and attitudes associated with the celebrity to be
transferred to the product. The current study explores whether the principles of evaluative
conditioning can be used to increase people’s liking of a new education channel logo.
Previous research has shown that ‘evaluative conditioning’ can be successfully used to
influence participants’ attitudes and behaviour. For instance, Chen et al. (2012) cited in
Brace (2017, p. 160) examined the impact of pairing an image of a celebrity with that of a
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, Zoe Fletcher DE100- TMA 04 H7683706
sporting event on how positive people subsequently felt about the event. Participants
viewed a short slideshow of images representing a sporting event (baseball or basketball),
popular celebrities, and distractor images such as landscapes. The images were shown in
pairs. Those in the experimental condition always saw the sports event paired with the
images of celebrities, while in the control condition, the sport-related image was paired with
a neutral image. The results showed that those who had seen the sporting events paired
with celebrities were subsequently more positive about the sports events than those in the
control condition.
Another study, by Hollands et al. (2011) cited in The Open University (2014), showed that
evaluative conditioning can have an impact not just on people’s attitudes but also on their
behaviour. They showed participants a brief slideshow of images of unhealthy snacks paired
with images illustrating the negative consequences of unhealthy eating (the experimental
condition) or paired with a blank screen (the control condition). They found that significantly
more participants who had seen the images of snack foods paired with negative
consequences subsequently made healthy eating choices than those who had been in the
control condition. They conclude that the principles of evaluative conditioning can be used
to improve people’s eating behaviour, at least in the short term.
The current study considers the effectiveness of evaluative conditioning in a specific, applied
context. DE100 module team is launching an educational internet TV channel called DE100
IPTV. DE100 IPTV will show popular programmes relevant to psychology. The team has
come up with a logo, and the aim of the current study is to explore whether the principles of
evaluative conditioning can be used to make the logo more attractive to the audience. To
address this question, an experiment similar to that by Chen et al. (2012) cited in Brace
(2017, p. 160) was conducted.
Although the current project followed the design used by Chen et al. (2012) cited in Brace
(2017, p. 160) very closely, there were some differences. Different stimuli, specifically
relevant to the topic of the study, were created and used. For instance, the positive image
included a picture of happy students dressed in graduation gowns, rather than that of a
celebrity, and the ‘neutral’ images included photographs of everyday objects. Also, the
procedure was modified to reduce the time needed to complete the task, thereby reducing
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