Week 1: The Psychological Core
Consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumer’s decisions with respect to the
acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, activities, experiences, people,
and ideas by (human) decision-making units.
E.g. visit favorite restaurant with a cold → changes your experience → small factors csn
have a huge impact in the way we experience consumption
1. Perception
Perception = the awareness or understanding of sensory information. Awareness and
interpretation of reality.
Elements of consumers’ perception - building blocks
1. Exposure: brining the stimulus to the consumer
2. Attention: devoted to the specific stimuli
3. Comprehension of stimulus
How do we process what we are exposed to?
Three different stages of perception
1. Sensing: immediate response (e.g. sensing the music at the moment the sound is
entering my ear)
2. Organizing: assembling sensory evidence into something recognizable
a. Assimilation: share the same characteristics; fit to the category
i. e.g. drinking coffee, i drank it before, i recognize it
b. Accommodation: share some but not all characteristics; need an adjustment
for fit
i. e.g. drinking iced coffee: i never had it before but my brain knows it, it
tasted and smells like coffee but not as warm, this is a cold coffee.
Adjust information.
c. Contrast: does NOT share any characteristics; not fit to the category
i. e.g. drinking wine: does not taste like coffee, does not smell like
coffee, it is not coffee.
3. Reacting: physical and mental responses to the stimuli (e.g. happy and singing when
hearing music)
Theories about perception
Is awareness of the stimulus necessary to influence consumers? Yes, however, attention is
not always conscious.
The traditional dissociation paradigm suggests that consumers are influenced by stimuli
even when they are not aware of them (Erdelyi, 1985). Attention is not necessarily
conscious. When consumers are not aware of the stimuli, they can be influenced by it.
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,When do we detect the stimuli?
1. Supraliminal - subjective threshold: stimuli enters
conscious awareness
2. Subliminal - objective threshold: stimuli is detected by
senses but does not enter the conscious awareness
Problem: how can we measure something that consumers are not aware of?
Whenever an indirect measure of responding is more strongly influenced by stimulus
exposure than is a comparable direct measure of responding, perception without
awareness can be inferred (Reingold & Merikle, 1998)
→ e.g. It might happen that a direct measure is less impacted than an indirect measure. You
tell me that you did not recognize the guy in the picture, but if I notice that another indirect
measure (affect) did in fact change as a result of being exposed to the picture, I can infer
that there was a perception and that you were not aware of it.
Two ways to measure:
1. Recognition (direct measure) - did you see it yes or no
2. Affect (indirect measure) - what is your mood after seeing it
Mere exposure effect
Mere exposure effect: Unreinforced exposure is sufficient to enhance attitude toward the
stimulus. When I am repeatedly exposed to images, my attitude will improve. The more
repetition increases, the more I like it.
Proven in different context:
- Advertising
- Social perceptions and behavior
- Prejudice
The mere exposure effects can be obtained by stimuli that are neither recalled nor
recognized by subjects.
Stimulus and mere exposure effect
Art 1: Bornstein, Robert F., and Paul R. D'agostino. (1992) Stimulus recognition and the
mere exposure effect.
Bronstein (1989): The mere exposure effects produced by stimuli that are not recognized
at better-than-chance accuracy are substantially larger than mere exposure effects
produced by clearly recognized stimuli.
RQ: Comparing the magnitude of the mere exposure effect produced by subliminal stimuli
(not aware) vs supraliminal stimuli (aware) that are consciously perceived.
- What is the mere exposure effect produced when we perceive it consciously vs.
unconsciously?
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,Theoretical framework:
- Mere exposure effect: repeatedly expose a
stimulus.
- Will the liking of my stimulus change? And we also
want to observe recognition (seen image before).
- Comparing subliminal vs. supraliminal. Does the
effect change when I am aware/not aware of
stimulus?
Experimental procedure
- Different stimuli (abstract, meaningful)
- Different amount of exposures (0, 1, 5, 10, 20)
- Half of the stimuli were exposed at a subliminal exposure duration (5 ms), half of the
stimuli were exposed at a supraliminal exposure duration (500 ms).
- After exposure subjects made affect (liking) and recognition judgments
Results
- Liking rating
- Main effect: frequently exposed stimuli received more positive ratings
than infrequently exposed stimuli = mere exposure effect
- Main effect: 5ms (subliminal) has higher ratings than 500ms
(supraliminal)
- 5ms is significant, 500 ms is not significant
- The mere exposure effect is stronger when we are not aware of exposure
- Recognition rating: Overall 500ms condition received significantly higher recognition
ratings overall than did stimuli in the 5-ms condition
Key takeaways of the study
- Subliminal stimuli produce significantly stronger mere exposure effects than do
stimuli that are clearly recognized (supraliminal).
- These findings held true for both polygon and photograph stimuli, attesting
generalizability of the effect.
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, 2. Attention
Attention = devoting cognitive resources to the stimuli
Attention is…
- Limited
- Selective (e.g. you eyes see your nose, but your brain ignores it)
- Can be divided
Two types of attention
1. Involuntary attention: not immediately choose to pay attention to it
- Bottom-up stimulus-driven: salient objects draw attention
2. Voluntary attention: choose to pay attention to it
- Top-down goal-directed: subject voluntary focus attention
Grabbing attention
- Promote voluntary attention: make it personal; connect with needs
- Promote involuntary attention: increase salience; increase vividness
What visual properties draw attention?
1. Color, size, motion, pictures
2. Gestalt rules of visual processing: a set of rules describing visual perception -
recognize how we perceive the scene and how we make sense of it
1. Proximity: elements that are close together tend to be viewed as part of the
same object; those farther apart tend to be viewed as part of different objects
2. Similarity: elements that physically resemble each other tend to be viewed
as part of the same object; those that are physically dissimilar tend to be
viewed as different objects
3. Continuity: Incomplete or partially hidden objects tend to be viewed as whole
or completed patterns
3. Visual properties - two ways to grab consumer attention:
1. Design: visual properties of the product (color, composition, images etc.)
2. Display: visual properties of the surrounding environment (location,
placement, orientation, etc.)
i. e.g. Brand of cereals. Design refers to all product characteristics of the
box (color, brand images). Display refers to the position of the cereal
inside the shelves. The surrounding of the image
4. The unexpected - attention is directed towards the unexpected
1. Violations of visual expectations
2. Violation of precious knowledge (e.g. opposing leaders kissing)
3. Violation of conventions or norms (e.g. packaging format)
5. Biological visual responses: sex, faces and eyes take our attention.
e.g. Balenciaga does not present the face→ good way to not get the attention from
the logo/brand to the face. Increase attention.
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