Lecture 1: mental effort and ease
A tale of Two Systems
System 1: always runs up front
- Fast (first)
- Intuitive
- Easy questions
System 2: monitors system 1
- Slow (second)
- Effortful
- Lazy
- Hard questions
Dual processing models
- Elaboration likelihood model
- Heuristic systematic model
Elaboration likelihood model:
- Two routes from information to attitude change
Peripheral route (system 1)
Central route (system 2)
- Which route? depends on the elaboration likelihood
High likelihood central route
Low likelihood peripheral route
- Premises of the ELM
1. People want to have correct attitudes
2. Elaboration likelihood depends on motivation and ability
3. Peripheral cues are most influential under low elaboration likelihood
4. Attitude change via the central route is
More stable
Stronger
More predictive of behavior
- Factors that promote the central route
Motivation
Involvement with topic (in particular material outcomes)
Accountability/responsibility
Need for cognition/uncertainty reduction
Ability
Prior knowledge, expertise, intelligence (+)
Repetition, experience (+)
Distraction (-)
Time pressure (-)
1
, - Peripheral cues
Secondary features of the information or the context, e.g.:
Repetition (logo)
o Mere exposure
Number of arguments (many vs few)
Source credibility (attractive, famous, reliable, expert)
Product origin (e.g., wine from France)
Product characteristics (new, improved recipe)
Format/design (e.g., well-designed advert positive affect)
- Nature of Cognitive Responses: Quality of Arguments
In case of a high elaboration likelihood (central hood)
strong arguments lead to positive thoughts on the opinion
expressed in the message
weak arguments lead to negative thoughts on the opinion
expressed in the message
- Do you have strong arguments?
repeat a few times (not too often)
Make sure the text is comprehensible
Non-distracting context
- Do you only have weak arguments?
Offer the message only once
provide enough distraction
good peripheral cues
- Review credibility
Peripheral cues:
2
, Source credibility (low vs high reviewer rating)
Review consistency (low vs high)
Review sidedness (one-sided vs two-sided) (high motivation + high
ability)
Central cues:
Argument quality (weak vs strong) (no motivation or ability needed)
- Two-sided reviews are considered more credible/reliable for consumers, especially
for recipients with:
Low involvement
High expertise (?) (they’ll look at it as a central cue, because they can
look at the positive and negative aspects)
- Similar but different distinctions
Head vs heart / cognition vs affect
Conscious vs nonconscious
- What system 2 can(‘t) do
Cognitive effort and pupil size
Ego depletion
- Pupillometry: measuring cognitive effort
more frequent auditory sequence increased pupil dilation
- Effortful consumer decisions
If it gets too difficult, people are likely to fall back on heuristics
best choice
discounts
reviews
- Capacity maxed out – the phenomenon of ego-depletion
Self-control / willpower as a limited resource
Ego depletion as prolonged effect of cognitive exertion
Strength model of self-control
Causes:
Thought suppression (e.g. avoid thinking of a white bear)
Inhibit emotional response (e.g., to a scary movie)
Inhibit behavioral response 9e.g., to someone who annoys you)
Trying to impress others
Making choices that involve conflict
all involve so-called executive functions (e.g., planning, self-monitoring, self
control, working memory, flexibility)
Consequences, e.g.:
Persisting less time in a handgrip task
Reacting aggressively to provocation
Deviating from one’s diet
Overspending on impulsive purchases
Performing poorly in cognitive tasks and logical decision making
- Some serious critiques
Statistical
Meta-analysis and replications are inconclusive
o Methodological limitations
o Publication bias
3
, o Small samples
o P-hacking
Conceptual:
o What is the source of self-control
o What is the limit
- The source of willpower – Glucose?
- What is the limit? Role of motivation
Willpower beliefs moderate ego depletion effects
After a strenuous mental activity, your energy is depleted and you
must rest to get it refueled again
After a strenuous mental activity, you feel energized for further
challenging activities
reduces or reverses ego-depletion effect
Thus: different from cognitive load
Being able vs being willing
Intelligence (if you might be able to) vs rationality (if you want to)
What system 1 can do
- Associative networks and priming
- Mere exposure
- Ease of processing
Knowledge structure: the associative network
Schema:
- Theory about how the social world works
- Reason why things that do not seem to have a lot in common can belong to one and
the same category
Priming:
- A prime is a stimulus that facilitates the process of memory search by providing
additional retrieval cues
- Causes spreading of activation in associative network
4
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