Post on 17-Dec-2015
New Influences: Nonconscious Consumer Behavior and
NeuroimagingMAR 3503
April 10, 2012
Priming with products
• Participants completed a filler questionnaire in a room that was scented like a citrus cleaning product, or not
• They then were asked to eat a crumbly cookie• Their hand movements while they ate were
videotaped, and then were coded for how neat the person was
Priming with products
Automatic behavior: Social stereotypes
• When participants were primed in a scrambled sentence task with politicians (a group known for their long-windedness), they wrote longer political essays than those not primed
• When participants were primed with words related to the elderly (i.e., gray, Florida, wrinkled, bingo, etc), they walked more slowly in comparison to a control group
Dijksterhuis & Knippenberg, 2000Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996
Automatic behavior: Social stereotypes
• Participants were subliminally primed with elderly words during a LDT task (old, gray, bingo) or neutral words
• After the task, they were given a surprise recall task for the words in the LDT
• Participants were then split into those that had a lot of previous contact with the elderly and those that had little contact with the elderly
Dijksterhuis et al., 2000
Automatic behavior: Social stereotypes
Dijksterhuis et al., 2000
Automatic behavior: Social stereotypes
• Stereotypes:– Professors (study 2)– Soccer hooligans (study 3)
• Priming procedure: write about the behavior, lifestyle, appearance, and attributes of the typical X– No prime, 2 minute prime, 9 minute prime
• Trivia quiz: 60 questions– E.g., “Who painted La Guernica?” a) Dali; b) Miro;
c) Picasso; d) VelasquezDijksterhuis & Knippenberg, 1998
Automatic behavior: Social stereotypes
Dijksterhuis & Knippenberg, 1998
# correct on trivia quiz
Automatic behavior: Extreme exemplars
• Stereotypes or extreme exemplars– Professors or supermodels– Einstein or Claudia Schiffer
• Priming procedure: write about the behavior, lifestyle, appearance, and attributes of X for 5 minutes
• Trivia quiz: 20 questions– E.g., “Who painted La Guernica?” a) Dali; b) Miro;
c) Picasso; d) Velazquez
Dijksterhuis et al., 1998
Automatic behavior: Extreme exemplars
Dijksterhuis et al., 1998
professorsprofessors
supermodelssupermodels
EinsteinEinstein
SchifferSchiffer
Metaphor priming
• Participants were asked to recall and write about a time when they were socially included or socially excluded
• They then estimated the ambient temperature of the room
Zhong & Leonardelli, 2008
Metaphor priming
• Participants marked 2 dots on a Cartesian plane, either close together or far apart
• They then rated the strength of the bonds they felt to their siblings, their parents, and their hometown
Williams & Bargh, 2008
Metaphor priming
Williams & Bargh, 2008
Metaphor priming
Helzer & Pizarro, 2011
The brain
EEG
• Applies electrodes to the scalp to measure electrical fields in the brain– Can’t pinpoint specific
areas– High temporal resolution
fMRI
• Uses an MRI scanner to measure a BOLD (blood oxygen level-dependent) signal– Blood flow tells you
what parts of the brain are working particularly hard
– Higher spatial resolution, lower temporal resolution
Medial Prefrontal Cortex
• MPFC is highly related to self-referential thought
• Damage to the PFC can result in a lack of self-reflection, introspection, daydreaming
• MPFC activation is default activity, may indicate that self-referential thought is the norm
Kelley et al., 2002; Wheeler et al., 1997
MPFC
Yoon et al., 2006
MPFC
• MPFC activation can predict our future behavior– Better than our own
words can
Falk et al., 2010
VMPFC
• Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex• This area is associated with reward– Anticipated reward as well as experienced reward
• Will it taste good? Does it taste good?
VMPFC
Coke versus Pepsi
• When tasting both unlabeled, people are indifferent between them
• The main area of activity is the VMPFC– This area is associated
with reward– “Mmm, this tastes good”
Coke versus Pepsi
• When tasting them both labeled, people tend to prefer coke
• The VMPFC is active, but so is the DLPFC– This area is associated
with emotional and deliberative cognition
– “I like Coke”
OFC
• The orbitofrontal cortex is involved in perception of emotional states– Helps integrate them into decisions– If this region is destroyed, people cannot make
good decisions• They don’t have a feeling telling them what they want
or should do– One of the few brain regions that is relatively
larger in humans than primates
Expensive wines taste better
Insula
• Active in anticipation and experience of negative stimuli– Warns us about bad things– Plays a big role in addiction
Insula
• The insula is active when we think about losses (vs. gains)– It’s heavily involved in risk-aversion
• It anticipates negative visual stimuli– Horror movies!
• When customers think they’re being treated unfairly, their insula becomes active
Placebo effects
• The insula demonstrates that placebo effects actually alter the experience of pain– Insula activity decreases
when people believe they have taken an effective pain reliever
Wager et al., 2004
Neuromarketing
• Now that we’re learning what certain areas of the brain do, can we apply that information to more applied research?
• This is called neuromarketing– Can we see how people react to a movie or
beverage or song at a neural level, before it goes on the market?
Benefits of neuroimaging
• Can test some things that are subject to demand
• Can get more “honest” answers
• Can reduce effects of individual differences
Some practical questions
• What can we gain from neuromarketing? Does it have a strong advantage over traditional methods of market research?
• How much can we extrapolate from neuroimaging? Does it reflect real behavior and preferences?
Some ethical questions
• Is it okay that businesses will be able to “read the minds” of their consumers?
• Is it okay that businesses may be able to capitalize on individual weaknesses or exploit particular neurological traits?
• Could businesses create a “perfect” product that people won’t be able to resist?
Summary• We can influence behavior nonconsciously– Via assimilation or contrast– Via metaphors
• Understanding the workings of the brain is important– Certain brain regions are especially involved in
consumer decisions– Marketing firms are using this knowledge to design
and implement new products• Next time: How can we make better consumers
and better firms?