Margherita Zito

Valeria Micheletto

Nadia Olivero- [email protected]

Consumer psychology and Neuromarketing

How is the course divided?

- How my system works

- How I behave
- My brain and measurement of my unconscious
- And how everything works together

IULM Community: Community registration password: Consumer22

Tests:

Book: Consumer psychology Cathrine V Jansson- Boyd, second edition

Attending students will do a group exercise and a written test

What is consumer psychology?

Is not at all a new discipline. The official establishment was made in 1960, in America.
However, psychology applications to marketing and advertising have existed since the earliest
years of the development of the consumer society.

Consumer Psychology is about the understanding of how and why people, both as individuals
and groups, engage in consumption activities, with products and brands, and how and why
they are affected by them.

It is a part of social psychology. We have to understand society to understand trends.

It is a multidisciplinarity subject. There are many specialization areas with sub- disciplines
referring to different domains of knowledge.

- Experimental psychology (rules of perception, memory, etc…)

- Cognitive psychology (judgement and decisions)
- Personality Psychology
- Clinical Psychology

However, at the same time is interdisciplinary as every applied science.

Que un campo de estudio sea interdisciplinario, significa que cruza los límites
tradicionales entre varias disciplinas académicas, o entre varias escuelas de
pensamiento, por el surgimiento de nuevas necesidades o del desarrollo de nuevos
enfoques teóricos o técnicos.

Consumer behavior can be divided into two groups; Micro and macro.

Micro consumer psychology

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 Experimental psychology

Cognitive psychology

Social psychology

Sociology

Cultural anthropology

Macroeconomics

Demography

Macro consumer psychology

Segmentation is a tool that forces people that work in marketing management to think in
consumers, on demand.

To sum up, marketing and psychology have a very close relationship. Marketing is psychology.

The 4 P´s of marketing

Consumer psychology insight is needed to address main marketing issues.

 Product: What attributes are the most important for my target?

 Price: what is the best retail price?
 Place: Where should be sold the product?
 Promotion: What type of advertising should be adopted?

Decision making process

How do we make decisions? There are different types of people:

- Rational decision- maker. This is the classical or rational model.

1. Recognition of the problem
2. Definition of the problem of aims
3. Definition of the decision criteria
4. Generation of aclternatives
5. Evaluation of alternatives
6. Choice of solution
7. Implemation of the decision
8. Evaluation and control of decision (evaluation of the possible
cognitive dissonance)

- Emotional decision- maker.

We have a line between emotion e rationality. To help understand this we have several
theories (FALTAN APUNTES de una teoría).

The two way decision (ELM model- Petty and Cacioppo 1986). We can take several routes.

1. The central route: I think about it and collect information in a rational way

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 2. Peripheral route: Simplifications, brands, available information, habits… It is moved by
emotion.

Both routes end up in the same thing, making a choice.

Lesson 2- Getting to know human brain

To make a good decision we must have all the information possible. It is not possible to have
always all the information. Why don’t consumers always ask as we expect them to?

The market research is not always right. Right? This happened with products like: red bull,
baily… Market research is also made for commercials. The same things can happen the other
way around.

Which makes this research go wrong? The human mind. We have to take into account that our
mind is divided in two parts:

 Conscious mind:
- Logical thinking
- Long term memory
- Critical reasoning
 Unconscious mind:
- Beliefs
- Habits
- Values
- Insights
- Emotions

When we are under market research we tend to act with the conscious mind, however, when
we actually buy the product, we act with the unconscious minds.

 Traditional methods (to impact the conscious mind)

- Questionnaires
- Focus groups
- Interviews
- Behaviour observation
 Neuroscientific methods (to impact the unconscious mind)
- Eye-tracking
- Electroencephalography (EGG)
- Hear rate (HR)
- Hormones
- Galvanic Skin response (GSR)
- Functional Magnetic resonance (fMRI)
- Virtual reality

So many tools to try to understand the consumers reaction.

Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscientific methods to analyze and understand

human behavior in relation to markets and marketing exchanges.

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In the use of neuroscience tolls and insights to better measure, understand and influence
consumer engagement and choice.

An example of an study is the “infamous pepsi- coke experiment” They wanted to study the
effects towards the brand.

- Neural correlates of behavioural preferences to culturally familiar drinks, McClure et

al, 2004.
- The motivation behind brand preferences.
- Different areas are activated in the brain with or without the knowledge of the brand.
- Specific patterns of brain activation predict purschasing.
- Could possibly a series of ads cause your brain to believe something that contradicts
what the rest of your body feels?

The result of this experiment was the fact when people knew the name of the brand, brain
areas related to memories and emotions were activated.

A second study is “unconscious response that predict behaviours”. The experiment was about
a bar of chocolate.

4 seconds to watch the product, 4 seconds where they were given the price, 4 where they
were given a choice and 2 seconds.

Every time the area activated was different:

- Product: The neural predictors

- Price: Nucleus accumbens
- Choice: Insula
- Medial prefontal cortex: fixate

It has been shown that from the first for seconds you could already know if you wanted it or
not.

How does the brain work?

The human brain is the organ that houses cells that are activated during conscious and
unconscious mental processes.

-
Has an unique structure with a complex three-
dimensial architecture.
- Weighs 1,5 kg and is about the size of a
cantaloupe
- It is not completely developed until the age of
25
- Composed of neurons that pass the
information through electrochemical signals.

The brain functioning:

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In the brain there are approximately 100 billion neurons (electrically excitable cells) of
different kinds. The neurons have about 100 trillion connections between them neurons
generate our thoughts, feelings, and choices. Neurons connect through long, spidery arms
(dendrites) and communicate with each other through electrochemical signals. A group of
connected neurons is called a neural circuit.

The headquarter has several functions:

 Sensory- perceptive- It receives the stimuli from all the sensorial organs.
 Neuro- motor– it emits impulses that control the voluntary and involuntary movements.
 Integrative – it generates mental activities like knowledge, memory, emotions and
language.

Studying the human brain

Gall (1758-1828)

He thought the brain was a muscle. He gave birth to Phrenology a pseudoscientific approach in
which EACH AREA has ONE FUNCTION, the brain is not just seen as a SINGLE organ. 40 regions
with 40 functions. He thought that whenever an area was activated, it expanded.

The mysterious case of Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage was a railroad worker. In 1848, working at a new rail line to Cavendish and in
charge of a group of men that should work with explosives. Phineas should pack the sand with
a tamping iron but he tamped the explosive. The bar hit him and passed his left cheek,
destroyed his left frontal lobe and went out. Phineas’ personality completely changed.

Study the human brain

Pierre-Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke (1861, 1874)

They used autopsy especially of brains with speech problems to understand the functioning of
the brain. The confirmed the relation between function and area they also hypothesized that
the regions were interconnected among them.

• Brocaʼs area – expression

• Wernickeʼs area – word recognition

What does the brain need and how does it work?

One area can have different functions and one function can be processed in
different areas. THERE IS NO NEAT ONE-TO-ONE MAPPING

The brain regions

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The brain is divided into two main parts:

 Cortical Region:
- It is divided into two hemispheres that are nearly symmetrical and each one is divided
into four major lobes
- It directs the brainʼs higher cognitive and emotional functions o
 Subcortical Regions:
- Thalamus
- Hypothalamus
- Cerebellum
- Brain Stem.

Two hemispheres:

The myth of the logic and the creativity hemispheres. This structure has inspired one of the
most pervasive ideas about the brain: that the left side controls logic and the right side
controls creativity. And yet, this is a myth, unsupported by scientific evidence.

The brain lobes:

1. The occipital lobe:

It is responsible for processing and interpreting visual information

and for recognition of written text. It is related to:

- Colour recognition
- Distance, depth and size assessment

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 - Visual world mapping ○ bottom--up attention
- Movement
- Visual stimuli identification (faces, objects)

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR : bottom-up attention, recognition of products and brands

Not just occipital for sight:

Riddoch (1917): the studies on occipital area basing upon traumatology of English soldiers who
had an helmet that did non protect that area. Colonel T had a stroke on the right occipital lobe:
He could recognize things, I was not able to describe them. Riddochʼs conclusion was the vision
involves different parts of the brain.

2. The Pariental lobe:

It houses the somato-sensory cortex and plays an important role in touch and spatial
navigation. It has strong relation with the body. It assists/is responsible for:

- Perceiving and interpreting spatial orientation

- The allocation of visual attention: top-down
- Awareness
- Language comprehension

Somatic= relating to the body Sensory= of the senses

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: top-down attention, Product handling, Product navigation (virtual or

real)

3. The temporal lobe:

It is one of the brainʼs convergence zones where information from different senses are
combined together and processed jointly. It is a major processing center for:

- Auditory perception, visual recognition (faces, brands,products) and information that

was processed before by auditory/visual/tactile/olfactory senses gets aggregated into
a meaningful concept
- Memory (ability to remember events, factual knowledge).
- Language comprehension (Wernicke area) and speech (Broca area)

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Processing and learning and memory of products and brand,
Understanding of product and brand communications, Advertising comprehension, Face
recognition.

4. The frontal lobe

It is the brain region that is typical of humans. It is the largest portion of the brain. It is a
convergence area for emotions and thoughts. It is the seat of the executive functions, it assists:

- Planning and organizing

- Reasoning

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 - Problem solving and creativity
- decision making
- integration of sensory information
- the planning and execution of movement
- Short-term memory

Our identity and high-level processing get established here and processing such as judgment
and imagination´´.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Long-term planning and impulse control, Consumer choice execution
the «buying button», Hedonic experience.

The deep structures of the brain

Neuroimaging advent

The brainstem, pons and midbrain. If they are damaged one

cannot survive:

- Control of the flow of messages brain/rest of the

body
- Control of basic functions like breathing swallowing,
heart rate, blood preasure, awareness.

The limbic system

Insula: Highly involved in emotion processing, social emotions, introspections, decision making
and painful experience markers. Generally, saliency of content, heightened emotions and
social processing all show activation in the insula as well as
excessive price.

Amygdala: It is almond-shaped. It is very important for

communication and marketing because it is an integration
center for emotions, in particular the negative ones. (fear,
anxiety)

Basal ganglia: It hosts pallidum, striatum, subthalamic nuclei.

In the striatum there is the Nucleus Accumbens that is strongly
related to motivation and decision making

Thalamus: It functions as a selective relay to various parts of

the cerebral cortex. Sensory information connect here before it
reaches the cerebral cortex. This suggests its involvement in attention and perception
regulation.

Hyppocampus: and the medial temporal lobe It occupies the basal medial part of the temporal
lobe. Very near and connected to the amygdala. It is important for learning and memory, for
converting short-term memory into long and for recalling spatial relationship in the world
around us.

Lesson 3: Personality traits and brand personality

Personality:

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The etymology of the word «personality»: derives from the term per “through” + sonare
“resound” (link with the actors of classical tragedy who spoke through the masks) It deals with:

- The expression towards the outside

- The individual in its uniqueness and non-replicability (from the Latin in-dividuus = not
divisible).

Study of individual differences in:

 Way of presenting oneself (self-representation)

 Way of feeling (feeling emotions)
 Action styles (implementation of behaviors)

Personality: Characteristics and differences

 CHARACTER: aspects deriving from environmental influences, are characteristic of an

individual and are acquired over time in one’s socio-cultural context
 TEMPERAMENT: hereditary elements of personality (mood, levels of activity and
sensitivity, prevalence of irritability ...)

PERSONALITY: unique and individual, it has characteristics of thought, behavior and emotions
that remain more or less constant over time.

Therefore, personality:

- It is an organiza+on of ways of being, knowing and acting (feelings, thoughts, behaviors), in

the relationship of the individual with the external environment. H
- Has biological characteristics (such as activity, reactivity, excitability, sensitivity, etc ...: the
temperament)
- It is an active construction that takes place through continuous interactions between the
person and the environment.

The personality begins to build around 3 years of life and develops and changes, in continuous
interactions with the environment up to the age of 50 (it becomes more stable, but can still
change). It is a process that develops over time ...:

• Adolescence: the dilemma «who am I?»

• Discovery through experimentation and identification of different relational modalities

• Process of choice that involves the renunciation of some possible selves ...).

Continuous (dynamic) process that does not end with adulthood ...

The concept of oneself: The self

SELF –> result of certain processes related to the idea we make of ourselves (our idenPPty) The
self can concern 2 phenomena on the level of:

1) SOCIAL (self condiPoned from the outside - shared social models, cultural values, social
expectaRons, etc.)

2) INDIVIDUAL …

The concept of oneself: the individual self

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The individual self: ME . Idea that one has of oneself, it refers to categories/roles of belonging
(eg. I am a motorcyclist, a mother, a student ...), linked to the different representations of the
self:

• Real Self: what I think I am, the current condition

• Ideal Self: what I aspire to, the ideal to achieve

The concept of oneself: the gap between the ideal Self and the real Self

The gap between the real Self and the ideal Self is used by advertising through:

The creation of identification models that provide an ideal self far from the real Self.
Encouraging a severe evaluation of the real Self by associating negative social evaluations with
characteristics of the person such as, for example, wrinkles.

Symbolically, the gap

between the two selves is
bridged through the choice
of brands that promise to
compensate that gap.

The Johari window

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Personality and traits theories
The start of marketing studies on the role of personality are related to the purpose of
understanding the dynamics of behavior (choice, repetition, forecasting) that can be stable and
categorized according to factors related to personality characteristics. Approach of the traits
(dispositions to act):

- Trait classification(Allport, 1961; Cattel, 1980)

- Big five (Costa & McCrae, 2006)

Approach of the traits: traits classification (Allport, 1961)

Psycholessical research on 18,000 words to identify those that indicate stable personality
characteristics (that is the traits).

Traits are neuropsychological properties, have behavioral coherence over time and in different
contexts, giving rise to similar dynamics (scripts) in the individual way of interpreting and
experiencing events. Some traits have more influence than others.

 Cardinal traits: Or «DOMINANT» traits. They are markers. Traits to which all the
activities of a person can be traced (e.g. tendency to seek power, to enjoy food, to
practice sport, nerd…) They have a unifying influence on a person’s behavior (Mother
Teresa: goodness and charity).
 Central traits: Essential traits that define personality. Less distinctive than cardinal
traits but relate to important characteristics of an individual (intelligent, shy, honest,
friendly).
 Secondary traits: Incoherent or superficial characteristics that have only a minor
influence on an individuals behavior More difficult to observe, they concern tastes,
preferences, etc

16 Personality factors by Cattel

He started from the 18,000 terms used by Allport and

reduced them to 171 adjectives that constituted
observable traits (superficial traits) 16 dimensions of
personality traits are

Big Five (Costa & McCrae,

2006)

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According to this theory, there are five major personality factors that correspond to the macro
categories most used to describe the differences between individuals. The authors identify
them starting from Cattel’s studies (psycho-lexical method + factor analysis).

1. Extraversion: Positive emotionality and sociability vs introversion. The orientation is

confident and enthusiastic about the various circumstances of life. It includes
characteristics such as expansiveness and enthusiasm, resourcefulness and
assertiveness.
2. Agreeableness: courtesy, altruism and cooperativity vs hostility, insensitivity and
indifference. Orientation to care, to give emotional support vs indifference to others,
selfishness It includes characteristics such as sensitivity, concern for the needs of
others, kindness.
3. Conscientiousness: scrupulousness, perseverance, reliability and self-discipline vs.
impulsiveness, inattention. Orientation to precision and accuracy, reliability,
responsibility, will to succeed It includes features such as reliability, accuracy and the
ability to persist in completing tasks.
4. Neuroticism: vulnerability, insecurity and emotional instability vs emotional stability,
dominance and security. Variety of characteristics connected with anxiety, depression,
mood instability, irritability. It includes characteristics related to the ability to
moderate emotions, to control reactions of irritation, moodiness and anger, in
situations of annoyance, conflict and danger.
5. Openness: Creativity, nonconformity and originality vs conformity and lack of
creativity and originality. Openness to new ideas, experiences, to the values of others
and to one's own feelings 39 It includes characteristics related to cultural interests, the
inclination to keep informed and to acquire knowledge, a favorable attitude towards
new things, different cultures, the ability to take on multiple points of view.

Brand Personality: marketing and psychology meet

Consumers approach brands with similar personality traits to their own.

PRINCIPLE OF CONGRUENCE OF THE SELF

Is it possible to design a brand that satisfies identification needs? According to McCracken

(1989), personality traits of people used as testimonials by advertisings, are directly
transferred to the brand.

Brand Personality scale (Aaker, 1997)

According to Jennifer Aaker (1997) there is no empirical evidence, perhaps because there is no
real correspondence between human traits and brand traits On the basis of the Big Five
Inventory, the author creates the: BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE. Created on the basis of 37
brands 114 personality traits measured 631 subjects 5 personality dimensions recognizable in
all brands.

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Lesson 4: Memory
Is connected to learning and guided by facto that allow the connection between facts, images,
concepts, sensations, emotions ...

How and what does an individual remember?

- Images and experiences - Frequency with which we are called to

remember
- Age
- Sensations
- Way / ability to organize information

Mnemonic process: A mnemonic is an instructional strategy designed to help students improve

their memory of important information. This technique connects new learning to prior
knowledge using visual and/or acoustic cues. The basic types of mnemonic strategies rely on
the use of key words, rhyming words, or acronyms.

- No error free

- No mere aseptic process of fixing the information….

The remembrance is always subject to change.

Memory is not a faithful mirror of reality, but results from information processing

Memory = dynamic process between external and internal factors (explanations and
attributions of cause).

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STUDIES ON MEMORY

Among the first to study memory with a psychological and experimental approach: Herman
Ebbinghaus (1885). He conducts many experiments concluding that:

- By increasing the number of repetitions, memorization increases (effect of superlearning)

- The first and last syllables are most remembered (serial effect)

- After a certain time the memory decreases (oblivion curve)

The imperfection of memory: the oblivion curve (Ebbinghaus, 1985)

Autonomous memory deterioration (also known as the Trace Decay Law)

Very quick initially Importance of regular repetition in the acquisition
process.

The imperfection of memory: Other factors

We forget for:

 Attention change (distraction)

 Interference from other memories (on what we have already learned)
- Proactive interference: Experiences and information already learned interfere with what I
have recently learned (News, study)
- Retroactive interference: New information inhibits retrieval of older information (news,
study)

The imperfection of memory: the role of emotions

Experiment by Christianson and Loftus (1991)

The more a given event arouses emotions, the less it will be subject to the decay of the trace
and oblivion …pay attention to repression…

People react differently whether they see a neutral, unusual, or critical image. In this
experiment the participants viewed three pictures. The first one was usual (a woman riding her
bike), the second one was critical (a woman injured near the bike) and the third one unusual (a
woman carrying a bike on her shoulders). In the first case people tend to remember the
outsides of the picture; in the second one the main character and in the third one nothing.

Learned information and recovery through 3 main phases:

1. Recording phase: we record in our mind what we perceive through a code (symbol,
language, image)
2. Storage / maintenance phase: we keep the encoded information in our memory, in an
organized way, for a variable period
3. Recovery phase: we bring to mind the information we have previously encoded and
stored

Marketing applications

For example with sports brands; They are… 1. Recorded (name, symbol…) 2. Stored (you
organized that name or symbol in your mind according to categories) 3. Recovered (to decide
as consumers…)

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THE MULTI-STORE MODEL OF MEMORY (ATKINSON & SHIFFRIN , 1968)

The multi-store model of memory (also known as the modal model) was proposed by Richard
Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) and is a structural model. They proposed that memory
consisted of three stores: a sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory
(LTM).

The memory: - No longer regarded as a unitary brain system - It is seen as an active mental
function, memory is compared to the calculating machine, able to receive, process and decrypt
information, in line with the Human Information Processing (HIP) approach.

 Sensorial memory:

It holds the perceptual stimulus for a very short time after its disappearance. What is kept are
the physical characteristics of the stimuli, there is no elaboration or recognition of their
meaning.

Eg. I'm talking to friends and on TV you hear a lot of commercials, I won't listen to all of them,
but one with a particular music can capture my attention and be processed going in the short-
term memory.

Pay attention to music, colors, shapes, odours, or other sensorial elements while creating a
consumer communication! (Scent branding, sound branding…)

 STM: primacy and recency effect

On the basis of studies of serial learning (see Ebbinghaus) and on the identification of STM as
characterized by limited capacity, within a series of words, events or lists to remember, the
following are identified:

- Primacy effect: Words at the beginning of a list / speech etc. are remembered better (more
likely to be memorized with transfer to the LTM)
- Recency effect: Words at the end of a list / speech etc are more easily memorized than the
central elements (they stay more easily in the STM)

Pay attention to the order of the characteristics of the products… Politicians are very
attentive to the order in which they place the leader's intervention in a speech

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  Long term memory:

EXPLICIT MEMORY:

Semantic Heritage of our knowledge. In this context it is not important where we have learned
a word or a concept (free from space-time references), it is relevant that we possess it. For
example, we don't know when we learned the word "eggs", but we know its meaning and use.
Cultural sharing of symbols, codes, objects ... For example information we have about fast food
products.

Explicit memory: episodic

Specific events and experiences in a person’s life. It contains defined space-time information
that allows us to place in a precise time and space when an event has occurred. Recall to the
memory of an event on a voluntary basis (e.g. when I graduated; when I hit the wall with the
car, my first day of school, etc ...)

Reminiscence of relevant emotional and social events. I remember when I got fast food for my
birthday and had fun.

IMPLICIT MEMORY: ASSOCIATIVE NETWORK (COLLINS AND LOFTUS MODEL, 1976)

The organization of the concepts does not follow a hierarchical structure. Composition of a
network with associative nodes:

- No hierarchy

- The activation of a node (concept) easily activates one that is close and coherent until it
disperses with the distance from the starting node: Activation spread mechanism

Implicit memory: Priming

Priming In communication the priming is used to influence audience’s responses . Exposure to

a stimulus (trigger) influences the response to another stimulus.

Priming = activate a concept in the mind

- This affects later thoughts and can activate automatic thoughts

- Cognitive process called associative activation: exposure to an idea / concept / stimulus
automatically activates other associated ideas.
- Priming activates information already present in long -term memory, making it more
quickly accessible (activation of the nodes close to the concept – see the example )

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MEMORY AND EMOTIONS

In the 1970s à studies on the relationship between emotional state and memory.

Phenomenon of mood congruence (Blaney, 1986): Our ability to remember something is

influenced by the mood I experience at that moment as well as by the affective tone of what I
have to remember.

If a subject experiences positive emotions, she/he will be more attracted and predisposed to
remember positive elements, situations, events (and vice versa with negative emotions)
MEMORY DEPENDENT ON THE EMOTIONAL STATE

Memory and brain

There are some fundamental areas involved in memory:

- Prefrontal cortex: for the working memory

- Hippocampus: for the consolidation of information in the LTM.

Important for semantic construction.

- Amygdala: fundamental gland for the activation of emotions.

Episodes and emotions are strictly linked!

The role of the hippocampus in mnemonic processes has been confirmed in the story of H.M.
(Henry Molaison). H.M. suffered from a severe form of drug-resistant epilepsy, caused by a
bicycle accident at the age of 9. Over time the appearance of such attacks became more and
more frequent, so his doctor decided to surgically remove the area from which the attacks
spread.

Then in 1953 at the age of 27 H.M. had the removal of the medial temporal lobes. After
bilateral removal of the medial temporal lobe H.M. he was unable to have stable and lasting
relationships because he forgot everything as demonstrated by his therapist Brenda Milner.

Lesson 5: Consumer learning: Behavioural and cognitivist

theories
MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT

Humans and higher animals learn to make 2 fundamental types of forecast in the environment.
They are:

 Succession: Each event follows other events (cause and effect)

 Control: Some events are under our control and therefore modifiable

Through these two types of forecasts men can adapt to the environment and its changes!

Adoptive function, in the struggle the most suitable living beings survive, that is, those who
take advantage of the resources of the environment and generate more numerous offspring
(Charles Darwin)

Learning is the common denominator of psychology and has very high relevance in the
individual´s life. The birth of the word “learn” refers to the ability to study. The concept is
related to the result.

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Learning is a continuous process in which our knowledge of the world constantly updates.

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience.

To sum up

TYPES OF LEARNING

 Direct Learning

International learning- The learning with intention to learn the material and to commit it to
one´s memory.

Incidental learning- The learning of one stimulus feature while concentrating on another
stimulus feature too. It happens randomly.

 Incirect learning- Vicarious

Advertising

Consequences of other´s actions

BEHAVIOURISM

“Psychology as the behaviorist views it” (Watson, 1913) the paper that signed the birth of
behaviorism. Typically north- American movement, it passes to Europe in the 50ies. The object
of study becomes Behavior. Objective: Solve all the problems that the previous approaches
could not solve.

Give a scientific foundation to psychology.

He had a simple idea about behavior. The mind is a black box for him Which means you cannot
go inside, you cannot investigate. However, you can see the stimulus and the responses it
creates. The outputs. The stimulus creares a response.

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Classical conditioning (Pavolv)

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist, research on the digestion of animals. He found out
that:

- Unconditioned stimulus food: Unconditioned response; salivation (reflex of the

autonomous nervous system).
- Neutral stimulus bell: no salivation.
- Condictiones stimulus bell: Conditioned response, salivation.

After a while, whenever the dog heard the bell, he started to salivated because the different
stimulus were related.

Psychic secretions. Pavlov originally used the term “psychic secretions” to explain that the
salivation was due to the physiological power of the digestive system through nervous input.

Difference between innate reflex and learning reflex. Once an innate reflex becomes active, it
automatically generates a motor response whenever the triggering response is present and
without conscious or directed control. Acquired reflexes are more complex learned motor
responses that develop after birth.

The importance of repetition: After a while if you don’t repeat the process it does not work.

Extinction and spontaneous recovery

Little albert´s experiment

An obnoxious experiment made by Watson and Rayner (1920) with a 18- month child named
Albert. The child did not show any fear with furred animals. The experiment was made by
combining a very loud noise whenever the furry animal approached. After some repetitions
little Albert cried whenever the animals arrived. It can relate to learning about emotional
responses in humans (e.g. fear or developing phobias). Fear as an unconditional emotional
response caused by dangerous, unpleasant or painful stimuli.

Even emotional stimuli can be conditioned.

Classical conditioning and consumption

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 1. Association of a positive stimulus like: music, humor, fragrances, emotions… To a
brand or product.
2. Generalization of the stimulus. Individuals are able to react to similar stimuli in a
similar war (bell- like sounds) and this is due to categorization and no identical stimuli
in the natural world. The tendency to evaluate similar stimuli in the same way Halo
effect (Thorndike).

This is transferred to marketing by generalization of the stimulus by:

1. Family branding
2. Product line extension
3. Licensing: when we have a very good reputation in a firm we can use it for other
products. Take other products of a completely different field to success.
4. Look-alike packaging. You use another brand packaging to do a similar one to cause a
relation between your product and the successful one.

Any helps to conditioning?

REPETITION: repeated exposures to the stimulus increase the strength of the stimulus-
response association (e.g. children's TV commercials)

Krugman 1986 - AT LEAST 3 exposures to a product:

- Create awareness of the existence of the product

- help to underline its relevance

- have a recall function in the consumers’ memory

Some limits of classical conditioning

- Lack of intentionality. voluntarily.

- Passivity of the effect. The associations must be simple.
- Simplicity of associations

OPERANT OR INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING

We learn to preform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield
negative outcomes.

Experiment: Skinner´s laboratory experiment:

The Skinner box: By lowering the lever, it received food. After a while, he changed the control.
By lowering the lever, it received an electric shock. After a while, the mouse stopped. The
repetition stopped. Operant conditioning: The behavioral response is instrumental to the
advantage of the reward or to the extinction of the punishment.

The subjects are no longer passive. It makes a decision, the situation is more complex. Work on
the consequences of learning. A desired behavior can be learned over a period of time, as the
modeling process rewards our intermediate actions.

TYPES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

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 1. Positive stimulus received (Positive reinforcement): a reward (compliment) reinforces
a certain behavior with positive output, very effective as a strategy.
2. Negative reinforcement: It reinforces a behavior that allowed one to avoid something
unpleasant (annoying light, noise, alarm clock). Lower motivational drive.

Punishment

It occurs when unpleasant events follow a response. Result of temporarily decreasing the
intensity or frequency of behavior. For example: no purchasing Will result in a loss of points.

Extinction

No outcome follows a behavior. Example of a special offer for some products, when the offer
stops there is no longer urged to buy those products. Reactions of frustration and anger.

The gamification

The tendency to make boring routines in the form of a game, making them EXPERIENCES. It is a
widely used strategy. Learning styles according to the reward/punishment rule. How to gamify
a routine (eg fitness app):

- Dynamic digital environment Multiple long and short-term goals

- Frequent feedback
- Rewards in the form of badges
- Friendly competition in a low-risk environment
- A manageable degree of uncertainty

COGNITIVIST APPROACH

Reaction to behaviourism (1960s). Focus on mental processes; study individuals’ language,

thought, decision making. Cognitivists who assessed that opening the “black box” of the
human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn.

This perspective views people as problem-solvers who actively use information they receive
from the world around them to master their environment.

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SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY BY ALBERT BANDURA

The initiator of social cognitivism, detachment from behaviorism - the importance of the social
dimension of learning and social experiences in the formation of knowledge. We need to
recognize the existence of:

- Direct learning
- vicarious learning: when we observe the actions of others and notice the reinforcement
they receive for their behavior. We need vicarious learning as we do not have the time and
energies to learn everything by ourselves.

The bobo doll experiment

The experiment with an adult and a group of children; The children repeat the adult’s
behaviour. A pretty powerful way of learning.

Observational learning

MOTIVATION

The etimology of the word «motivation»: derives from the term motus “moto”, past participle
of the verb movere “to move” VOLUNTARY ACTIONS TOWARDS A GOAL (MOTIVATE – ACTION)
Psychological processes involved:

- Behavior description
- Description of the reasons for the behaviors
- Prediction of future behaviors

THE MOTIVATION IS A PUSH (EVEN AN INNER STATE). Features:

- Temporal
- Linked to a goal to be achieved

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TO BE MOTIVATED MEANS TO BE MOVED TO DO SOMETHING (Ryan & Deci, 2000). THE
MOTIVATION, WITH RESPECT TO BEHAVIOR:

- ACTIVATES IT (situation)
- LEADS IT (objective)
- SUPPORTS IT (energy)
- MAKES IT PERSISTENT (goal achievement)

MOTIVATION- THEORIES

Theories that analyzed contests of motivation- What is motivation?

- Maslow (The theory of the hierarchy of needs- 1954)

- McClelland (The three orders
- Alderfer (The tripartite division of needs- 1972)

Dynamics linked to motivation: Flow as an optimal experience.

THE THEORY OF THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS- MASLOW

Motivation is characterized by five specific needs placed in a hierarchy. Motivation is a push

and we recognice it when whe have a need. The pyramid can be divided into two.

- Maslow classifies the basis as primary needs: Linked to biological needs, they do not
present interpersonal variability in the ways of satisfaction within a given culture.
- The top three as secondary needs: Psychological needs, the interpersonal variability in
present.

We cannot satisfy one if the one before is not satisfied. Let’s analyze all of them:

1. Pysiological need: need for food, shelter, curing during

diseases, sexual desire… Their satisfaction is a prerequisite for
the occurrence of any other kind of need and guarantees,
along with individual survival, the preservation of the species.
2. Safety needs: Protection, membership, stability… It is about
the need to ensure both the elements that protect physical
integrity and a stable and secure social dimension.
3. Love and belonging needs: love, friendship, approval, recognition… Need to form
relationships and seek acceptance by individuals and exchange with them, even within
the social context.
4. Esteem needs: power, success, adequacy, respect, control, importance, dignity… Need
to build a positive self- image, their satisfaction feeds feelings of self- confidence and
self- enhancement in the individual.
5. Self-actualization needs: Self-acceptance, spontaneity, ability to live profound
experiences and positive human relationships, creativity… Maximum development and

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 full use of individual abilities that allow each individual to become what he is capable
of becoming.

Across the manifestation of other needs, Maslow identifies the need for knowledge, that
is: the need to acquire information (we reduce errors ...) and to construct explanations of
the observed phenomena (we are attributors of causes!).

Be careful not to simplify!

- Consumers do not move from one level to another in such a schematic way
- A product / brand does not necessarily satisfy only one need (but several needs at the
same time!)
- Consider cultural aspects (e.g. in collectivist cultures the need for belonging is more
relevant than safety)

ATTRIBUTORS OF CAUSES

People need to explain ... and explain the events and causes of events ... The motivational push
depends on several factors and, when a goal has been achieved or failed, we ask ourselves
questions about the causes.

Attribution and role of the locus of control (Rotter, 1966) (internal locus vs external locus -
internal or external attribution of successes or failures)

LOCUS OF CONTROL

(internal locus vs external locus - internal or external attribution of successes or failures)

Having an internal locus of control allows you to:

- create and control events in your life

- being able to change things for the better (I increase my commitment)
- establish their own performance standards
- believe that our efforts make a difference
- be more curious about ways to improve their lives
- in general, be more successful

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TYPOLOGIES OF NEEDS (MURRAY )

The need organizes and guides behavior in order to keep the body in a balanced condition The
set of needs is universal and differs in individuals due to the different priority attributed to a
particular need. Four dimensions of needs:

1. - Primary needs (physiological origin - I am dehydrated, the need for water is active) -
secondary needs (psychological origin – they emerge after the primary ones, linked to
selfrealization and sociality: ambition, materialism, status, power, sadomasochism,
social conformity, affection and information).
2. Positive or negative needs (if the subject is attracted to or moves away from the object
- depending on the result that the subject wants to obtain, positive that is close or
negative, that is, far from the object or event in question)
3. Manifest or latent / secret needs (whether the need leads to a real or imaginary
behavior: I act or not a behavior)
4. Conscious or unconscious needs (I know my needs or not - sometimes I see them in
dreams, sometimes others see them ...!)

MCCLELLAND (1961)

McClelland identifies three main motivations, three basic themes that

can be expressed in different behaviors. The three orders do not have
a hierarchy / subordination relationship.

- Motivation for power (and avoidance of addiction): push to

influence people and to change situations according to personal
intentions, thus placing themselves in relation with control, guidance and authority.
- Motivation for success (and avoidance of failure): the desire to achieve desired goals, fully
realize one’s abilities and continuously improve one’s performance.
- Motivation for affiliation (and avoidance of isolation): the orientation to create a wide and
dense network of social relationships with other individuals.
- Motivation for competence: the push to continuously develop skills and to carry out the
assigned tasks while maintaining high quality standards.

ALDERFER 1972

Alderfer’s theory is in line with the theory by Maslow and

McClelland.

- Needs for existence individuals are contantly oriented to

meet those needs which include physiological and safety
factors.
- Need for relationship: interpersonal needs that include both being recognized,
understood, accepted, loved by those with whom one comes into contact, and the
development of attitudes, feelings and thoughts common to the social groups to which
one belongs.

pág. 25
- Need for growth: the desires for self-esteem and selfrealization refer to the need to have
conceptual and material tools to interpret the events we are witnessing and to act on the
environment in which we live, making full use of the skills possessed and continually
developing new ones.

FROM MOTIVATION TO CONSUMPTION MOTIVATION : CONSUMER REASONS AND BEHAVIOR

- Why do consumers behave the way they do? - Why do they buy one product and not
another? - Why are they attracted to some advertisements and not others? Primary needs?
Secondary needs? Motivation for success?

CONSIDER:

1) motivation as the result of a process on which the individual, social and cultural dimensions
are crucial

2) the relationship and interactions between the environment and the subject: The
determinants of consumer behavior model.

THE DETERMINANTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

THE BEHAVIOR OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS ORIENTED TO SATISFY CERTAIN NEEDS THROUGH THE
ACTIVATION OF SPECIFIC BEHAVIORS. IS IT ALWAYS TRUE IN THE CONSUMER SOCIETY? In the
consumer society this distinction becomes more nuanced, as consumption now transcends the
only functional value to biological or physiological satisfaction.

The desire becomes the driver of consumer behavior.

pág. 26
Motivation for success: A study on the relationship between fashion and needs (Ericksen &
Sirgy, 1985) highlight that women with a high need for success are: - more oriented towards
the purchase of products related to the professional sphere and business - less inclined to the
choice of uniquely feminine clothing.

It all starts from within (the basis of needs and personal fulfillment)

We must distinguish…

1) INNATE NEEDS (Natural, genetic, linked to the human being)

2) ACQUIRED NEEDS (Cultural, social, linked to experience, to environmental conditions, to the

evolution of the society)

Flow experience: the optimal experience in consumption

THE FLOW EXPERIENCES (POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY )

Situations in which the individual is completely absorbed in the actions related to the task
he/she is carrying out, so much so that he forgets him/herself, the external reality, the sense
of time that flows and he/she experiences a state of deep and pleasant concentration at the
same time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).

Daily life offers many examples of absorption in an activity: «the computer fanatic, who only
when his back hurts in the middle of the night, realizes that he has again spent many hours in
front of the video, forgetting both to have dinner and the appointment he had set; the chess
player, who declares that he could also fall the roof on his head, but he would not notice it; in
short, all the cases in which the conscience is completely absorbed by the execution of the
activity» (Rheinberg, 1995, tr.it p. 143).

At the base of the flow experiences, there is… HIGH LEVEL OF CHALLENGE OF THE SITUATION,
BALANCED BY AN EQUAL HIGH LEVEL OF SKILLS THAT THE INDIVIDUAL HAS. ... In other words,
a condition for the occurence of the flow experience is the balance between challenges and
skills, in which there is a «combination of high levels of challenges and high levels of skill»
(Salanova et al., 2014, p. 436).

pág. 27
The involvement of a person in an activity can be
determined by the sum of the momentary experiences
that will lead to different outcomes….

Flow can be described as a short PEAK EXPERIENCE Main

elements of flow (from a psychlogical perspective):

- ABSORPTION (immersion and concentration)

- ENJOYMENT (cognitive and affective evaluation of the

experience)

- INTRINSIC MOTIVATION (not linked to rewards)

CHARACTERISTICS OF FLOW EXPERIENCES

the action takes place smoothly and without obstacles, one step automatically follows the
other, as if the event slips away guided by an internal logic (it is from this character that the
term flow derives). You know exactly what is right to do at all times and without thinking;
despite the difficulty of tasks, you are sure to keep the event under control.

All the cognitive processes that are not immediately directed to regulate the performance of
the action disappear. The temporal experience is strongly distorted: the individual forgets the
time and does not know how much he has been immersed in his/her activities, the hours fly
away like minutes.

Concentration in the activity does not require an effort of the will, but comes by itself, as
happens with the breath. There is a loss of reflexivity and self-awareness, which involves the
disappearance of any sense of separation between oneself and the activity that is taking place,
one feels completely absorbed by it (absorption).

Motivation rises with the possibility of doing the activity you love.The positive experience is
processed in an experience of awareness which, in turn, leads to motivation towards an
activity that determines pleasant experiences. Such an experience occurs especially when
people have:

- clear goals
- immediate feedback and not ambiguous
- control over the situation - support e sharing (risouces)

Adaptive consequences of flow over time and willingness to repeat experiences.

MEASURING FLOW: E XPERIENTIAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC METHOD: THE ESM

ESM = Experience Sampling Method (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1987) Use of specific tools,
such as beepers. During the day, the beepers randomly ask the individual: - the activity in
progress - the emotions felt - experiences related to the activity at the specific time.

RETROSPECTIVE AND PSYCHOMETRIC METHOD: FLOW AS A STATE OR AS A TRAIT

(Jackson e Eklund, 2004; Jackson e Marsh, 1996; Jackson, Martin e Eklund, 2008)

pág. 28
Flow as a STATE: development of the Flow State Scale (FSS-2) which measures the intensity of
the flow as a state, detecting the data immediately after the activity and asking participants to
answer the questionnaire referring to the activity just carried out.

Flow as a TRACT: development of the Dispositional Flow Scale (DFS-2), considers the flow as a
trait and measures the frequency with which the flow occurs while participating in an activity.
Participants are asked to answer the questionnaire thinking in general about personal
experience during the performance of an activity.

PSYCHOMETRIC MEASUREMENT OF FLOW AT WORK

In line with these studies, Bakker (2008) proposed the detection of the flow during a work
activity through the Work-Related Flow Inventory (WOLF) What we have done? - We have
adapted it to Italian - We administered it - We measured the flow at work in Italy (I-WOLF)
How did we do it? Through a psychometric methodology.

FLOW EXPERIENCES & CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Flow appears more and more relevant in the online navigation and, in general, in the
electronic market (Esteban-Millat et al., 2014; Obada, 2013; Koufaris, 2002)

Why? Two elements to considerar:

1) The way the website allows to enjoy the navigation experience can induce flow in
consumers

2) Flow experiences can have an impact on the consuming experience for the user

FROM MOTIVATION TO CONSUMPTION MOTIVATION : CONSUMER REASONS AND BEHAVIOR

pág. 29
The motivational drive process, therefore, is not only linked to biological aspects, but also to
the set of psychological processes that influence motivation Emphasis on the value of
expectations, curiosity and competence in determining consumer behavior.

In line with the EXPECTANCY THEORY: the subject is motivated by the expectation of obtaining
positive rewards and by avoiding negative experiences. An example… 27 we choose a
toothpaste in particular because we expect that, in addition to cleaning well, it leaves us a
good taste.

In line with the EXPECTANCY THEORY: the subject is motivated by the expectation of obtaining
positive rewards and by avoiding negative experiences. Another example… 28 a weight loss
product: we expect it to work and it saves us the bad experience of gaining weight.

In line with the EXPECTANCY THEORY …online... 29 A site from which to buy online: we expect
ease of navigation, it avoids the frustration of not being able to perform an operation
(simple ...!).

FLOW ONLINE: A RESEARCH DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Mirar diapos de la 26 a la 36. Son análisis de negocios online.

THE FLOW EXPERIENCE FROM THE NEUROSCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

By scanning the brain, when a subject is in flow, his cognitive activity and the activity of the
prefrontal cortex stops. The experience is comparable to «Autopilot», automatic experience
and crucial on performance and, therefore, on consequences. Flow becomes
adaptive over time.

DORSOLATERAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX: is responsible for organizing and

planning complex behaviors and higher-level cognitions, ranging from
voluntary and logically ordered actions, to motor programming, verbal
fluency, learning and the use of concepts and strategies. DURING THE FLOW
EXPERIENCE THE ACTIVITY OF THIS PART IS CONSIDERABLY REDUCED! … THE
FLOW PUTS OUR INNER BOSS TO REST….

EMPIRICAL ASPECTS

Kramer’s (2007) study of flow during a video game: A videogame showing the characteristics of
flow is recreated: - Immediate feedback - Clear goals - Level adapted to the player’s skills A
specific stimulus (the videogame) is used with the intention of inducing a flow state to be
measured together with performance levels …

EEG e Skin Conductance measured before and during the videogame: Results: - EEG: prefrontal
regions with decreased activity and correlation with increased performance (particularly

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during the game) - SC: arousal (in terms of emotional intensity) positively correlated to
performance

Wang & Hsu’s (2014) computer learning study - business manager course for adults: It tracks: -
Experience of flow through the use of the questionnaire, in particular for the dimensions of
enjoyment, telepresence, attention, involvement, time distortion, satisfaction with learning -
positive correlations - (psychometric survey) - Decreased activity of prefrontal regions during
online instruction / teaching (EEG).

Senses and perception

There is an important different between this concepts:

 Sensation: refers to sense, the origin. Sensation as the information that is simply
presented to our different senses.
 Perception is when stimuli we get from our senses are selected, organized or
interpreted.

The information that we get through sensations are processed in the brain. Perception also
happens through the brain. It combines perceptions with past experiences.

SENSATION :

 Extroceptive sensations: The five senses, temperature, and ache.

 Interoceptive sensations: like thirst and hunger.
 Proprioceptive snesations: related to position and balance like vestibular senses or
kinaesthesia.

Sensory experiences

- A product is what the consumer perceive.

- A product is a mental construction.
- Perception is an individual activity that depends from the context and from our previous
experiences.

We analyze experience with: seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting and the body sense.

PERCEPTION :

The Gestalt psychology:

School of thought founded by Wertheimer (1880-1843), Kohler (1886- 1941), and Koffka
(1887-1967). As a reaction and answer to Wilhem Wundt (1832-1912) and the Lipsia Lab
whose idea of perception was that things needed be decomposed in elementary units. They
started from the idea that human beings are looking for order and human brain tries to
organize the information it receives. Wertheimer: a perceptual whole is different from what
one would predict based on only its individual parts.

Gestal laws or principles

The principles govern how the human brain works

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 1. Law of good form – objects grouped together tend to be perceived as a simple figure
2. Law of proximity – objects tend to be grouped together if they are close to each other
3. Law of similarity – objects tend to be grouped together if they are similar
4. Law of continuation – when there is an intersection between two or more objects,
people tend to perceive each object as a single uninterrupted object
5. Law of past experience – elements tend to be perceived according to an observer’s
past experience
6. Figure/ground organization – human brain instinctively puts objects in the foreground
and differentiates figures (subject) and grounds (background)
7. Law of closure – human eye tends to complete the missing part in a design

The brain is an interpreter

When some information is missing, our brain tries to fill the gaps. The brain sometimes is
mistaken.

THE PERCEPTUAL THRESHOLD

Can you venture to guess how many stimuli hit our senses in a day?

NOT ALL SENSORY INFORMATION DETERMINE PERCEPTION.

Absolute threshold: when the stimulus have a sufficient strength to be noticed by the
individual (the alarm clock ticking on the chestboard). It is influenced by the individual
motivation or expectations or cognitive processes.

Difference threshold: is the measure of how different two stimuli must be for the subject to
notice that they are not the same. The mathematical formula is K=∆I/I where K is costant and I
in the intensity and it depends on the intensity of the initial stimulus

Perception can be trained (f.i. visually impaired)

The weber- Fechner Law

It relates the stimulus to perception. As the intensity of our sensation increases we are less
sensitive to an increase in intensity. The more strong the initial stimulus the more you need to
add in order to have perception

SEEING

Humans are visual creatures. The act of seeing is basically interpretation (Gombrich, 1960 in
Kandel, 2012). Sight is our first sense, the second one is smell. My visual feed is the area we
detect movements and edges (200º) but only 2º is the angle that we really see.

Vision processing in the brain

Information passes through THE OPTICAL NERVE to the deep brain structures and reaches the
PRIMARY VISUAL CORTEX (in the Occipital lobe where information from the two eyes is
united).

In the PVC there are PROCESSORS that are responsible for what draws our bottom-up
attention:

- General pattern of recognition - Contrast

- Depth and distance (stereotopic vision) - Colour

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- Brightness - Complex Movement

After processing the visual information in the different modules of PVC, it

passes its conclusions to the temporal and parietal lobes. The optical nerve
passes through THE THALAMUS that acts as a filter for intense information
and is near to the area of emotions management and this allows to react
very rapidly to visual signals of danger.

Vision decoding

PRIMARY VISUAL CORTEX: The visual cortex is the primary cortical

region of the brain that receives, integrates, and processes visual
information relayed from the retinas.

SECUNDARY VISUAL AREAS (memory): The area immediately surrounding the primary
visual cortex (see striate cortex) in the occipital lobes, receiving signals from it
secondarily for analysis and further discrimination of visual input in terms of motion,
shape (particularly complex shapes), and position.

It passes its conclusions to the temporal and parietal lobes -> from visual sensation to visual
cognition.

Convergence in the temporal cortex: The brain is treating different information for you to have
one coherent experience. For example; to understand a rose you use: colours, shape and
perfume.

To understand vision better we use tools as eye tracker.

Visual perception and food

Through sight we begin to taste food. Sight is the first alert about quality, freshness and state
of preservation.

Colours: - Experiment with different colours in food (Weathly 1973) - Taste a drink just visually
– orange for orange, yellow for lemon (Zampini 2007) - Non consistent colours (blue or lemon).
In this experiment people started eating food, and one the color of this changed, they didn´t
want to eat it anymore.

HEARING

The sound as a mental experience requires one´s

presence to be heard. As a vibration, no presence is
required; it is just something mechanical.

How does hearing work?

The auditory signals that hit the medial geniculate

nucleus pass to the auditory cortex. Then they pass
to: the temporal lobe in which the sound is
identified and categorized and the frontal lobe that
memorizes it. (The temporal lobe is near the
amigdala and the hippocoampus).

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COMPARISON WITH VISUAL SYSTEM

Auditory and visual memory:

They are usually thought to work in the same way, but they don’t. If an image is complex some
information will be missed, this does not happen in auditory information. concerning change
detection the auditory memory has a storage duration that is 20 times the storage duration of
the iconic memory (retinotopic).

Selective attention:

Visual performance is strongly dependent on selective attention and auditory information isn’t.
Small auditory changes can be detected automatically across temporally long gaps using and
implicit memory system.

Sound effects on unknown brands.

Study by Ramsoy, Friis-Olivarius, Jacobsen, jensen & Skov, 2012.

To what extent can contextual events affect preference on a first impression towards brands?
Tests were applied to assert whether contextual unpredictability had a negative effect on
preference for novel visual items:

- Predictable sounds did not engage any particular emotional response to brand preference
- Unpredictable sounds negatively affected judgements of brand logos or of abstract art
paintings.

The negative effect of unpredictable sounds on preference was associated with a stronger
arousal response as indexed by pupil dilation responses. The results suggest that unpredictable
sounds engage an emotional response that affects the first impression of a concurrently
presented visual object.

The consumer´s sounds

Products sounds are important as they produce emotional reactions. Hearing and food:

Consistency, fragrance, greasiness (the apple crunching, the sound of the opening of a can of
beer, the taste of chips just after opening the bag or after a week…) An important role in the
sensory experience:

- Crunchy as a plus -> considered tastier, fresher, more appetizing (study by Zampini &
Spence, 2004)
- Sound theme in general (study by Spence 2006 on bacon and scrambled eggs and the
dominant flavour
- Melodies and sounds influence: Speed of meal intake, Satiety, Memory, Pleasantness of
the experience.

SMELLING

Chemical sensors move from the throat and the nose and reach the olfactory nerve. In the
olfactory bulb there is odour discrimination, odour detection, filtering of background odours.

pág. 34
The amygdala receives the information and emits emotional responses together with the
Habenula.The memorization of odours and the recollection of past memories about odour
happen in the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus Odours and tastes are strongly related
to memory.

The use of scents and consumer memory

Study by Morrin & Ratneshwar, 2003 a.

Does a particular ambient scent have an impact on consumer preference and on consumer
memory? On branding and brand memory? b. Does the scent need to be specific?

- Brand attention: yes if it is a scent that is congruent with the category of the product that
is sold.
- Brand recall: yes either if it is a congruent or uncongruent scent with the category of the
product that is sold.
- Brand recognition: yes either if it is a congruent or uncongruent scent with the category of
the product that is sold.

Smelling and food

Together with sight it is responsible for our first reaction to new food and contributes to the
global perception of the overall taste of the food.

Perception that decreases over time and with age. Smelling is part of our choice and
consumption processes (fabric softener, fruit):

• Studies by Dalton (2000, 2002) on multisensoriality (combination of the smell of almonds

with a sweet taste or not)

• Osterbauer's studies on color / odor combination (lemon) if congruent they increase the
activity of the orbitofrontal cortex if incongruent they decrease it.

We can see how several images makes us think of specific odours (smells/ olores).

The sensory marketing experiment

Experiment with fruit tea by Rosenlacher & Tichy. Through sight we obtain 80 to 90% of
information from the external environment. The second sense is smell:

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- Most sensitive sensory organ
- Olfactory receptors travel directly into the emotional experience of a person

Limits about the type of product and the senses involved.

TASTING

How does taste work in the brain?

On the tongue and on the throat there are the taste cells. Signals
coming from the taste buds in the taste cells are sent to the
brainstem nuclei. Then they are sent to the thalamus where
olfactory information are gathered and sent to the insula
(emotional regulation and recollection of negative taste
experiences).

In the amigdala pleasure and desire and disgust originate and also
hunger and fullness feeling. It also stimulates salivation. The two
senses of smell and taste merge.

Taste and food

Taste senses (sweet, bitter, salty, acid, umami (glutamate), fat). The sensorial threshold; In
psychophysics, sensory threshold is the weakest stimulus that an organism can sense. Unless
otherwise indicated, it is usually defined as the weakest stimulus that can be detected half the
time, for example, as indicated by a point on a probability curve.

Neuromarketing in Haute cusine grastronomic experiences

Kiko Moya, 2-Michelin-stars chef in Alicante. Objective of analysing the mixed construct type
experience of a consumer in response to the presentation and the tasting of food in the
restaurant. The methods:

- Galvanic skin response

- Eye tracking
- Electroencephalography

Presentation and tasting are both part of the emotional gastronomic experience. The order of
dishes counts in the emotional experience. The level of emotional intensity decreases over
time as well as the interaction with the dishes. A haute cuisine gastronomic experience is the
result of many aspects and neuromarketing can be very helpful:

- in understanding highly valued aspects

- in regulating emotional activation all throughout the experience
- In creating a more efficient commercial strategy

Many aspects more need to be analyzed repeated experiences, the influence of wine, the
duration of the experience.

THE BODY SENSE

There are many body senses getting information like fingertips, skin, hair follicles, temperature
sensors, pressure sensors. Stimulus translated into electrochemical signals. Electrochemical
signals are sent back to the spinal chord and up towards the brain. If the event is harmful, this

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will lead to an immediate response by the spinal chord. Information related to the body sense,
if the stimulus is not harmful, go to the SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX.

There are some aspects that we tend to correlate to understand better a product. For example
with TV controlers, we relate weight with quality. Another example is some fruits with touch.

Evaluation of texture of food. Tactile sensations; on the hand, on the mouth…

- Mouthfeel (viscosity, greasiness, softness, astringency)

- Kinaesthetic (hardness and flexibility of elements )
- chemestesic (freshness, heat, spiciness –trigeminal nerve

Attitudes

THE 4 P´S OF MARKETING

Consumer psychology insight is needed to address main marketing issues.

 Product: What attributes are the most important for my target? How should be the
product packaged? How should the product differ from competition?
 Price: What is the best retail price? What is the impact of volume discount on
consumer perception? What price strategies should be adopted and when?
 Place: Where should be sold the product? What distribution channels ? What design
for the retail store?
 Promotion: What type of advertising should be adopted? What persuasion straegies?
What type of media?

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
POSITIVE ATTITUDES AND APPROACH BEHAVIOURS: the more positive the attitude the higher
the probability to buy a product and even to become faithful to it.

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People have developed strong and lasting commitment to the extent that many are willing to
cue outside the stores. Approach behaviors fostered by positive attitudes are the ultimate goal
of any marketing campaign.

ATTITUDES VS FEELINGS OR MOOD

Attitudes refer to opinions or personal evaluations- often revealing of feelings as they may be
expressions of beliefs about personal feelings.

“I really appreciate apple!” = attitude.

“I feel very excited when using this smartphone” = description of a feeling.

ATTITUDES DEFINITIONS

Some definitions focus on the relation between attitudes and behaviours

• A mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive
and dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which
it is related (Allport, 1935)

• Positive or negative feeling, general and lasting toward a person, object or topic” (es.
Cacioppo)

• Attitudes are predisposition to react to certain stimuli with certain responses (es. Hovland)

“I like fruit” is an attitude that drives to a behavior consumption.

In the influencial book ‘The Psychology of Attitude’ (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993) :

Attitudes are evaluative judgments ATTITUDE ARE : ‘a psychological tendency that is expressed
by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor’. Inherent in this
definition is the idea that reporting an attitude involves the expression of an evaluative
judgement about a stimulus object. In other words, reporting an attitude involves making a
decision concerning:

LIKING VS. DISLIKING, APPROVING VS. DISAPPROVING OR FAVOURING VS. DISFAVOURING A

PARTICULAR ISSUE, OBJECT OR PERSON.

As evaluative judgements, attitudes can vary in two important ways:

1. ATTITUDES CAN DIFFER IN VALENCE, OR DIRECTION:

• Some attitudes that a person possesses are positive (like your attitudes towards your
favourite team/singer/actor)

• Others are negative (like your attitudes for poisoned food)

• And yet others are neutral (like your attitudes towards any sport you are not a fan.. ).

2. ATTITUDES CAN DIFFER IN STRENGTH: For example, while one person might feel very
strongly about ‘global warming’, a second person might feel much less strongly about
the same topic.
The strength of an attitude since it relates to its durability and impact has become
among the most important indicator of consumer behavior.

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About attitudes…

A lasting, general evaluation of people (including oneself), objects, advertisements, or

issues.Anything toward which one has an attitude is called an Attitude Object.

An attitude is:

- Lasting because it tends to endure over time.

- General because it applies to more than a momentary event.

Attitudes help us make all forms of choices such as: Very product-specific behaviors, and more
general consumption-related behaviors.

ATTITUDE DIMENSIONS
1. ATTITUDE VALENCE : positive vs negative : I like vs I dislike..
2. ATTITUDE EXTREMITY : the extent to which they deviate from neutral (Abelson, 1995)
3. ATTITUDE ACCESSIBILITY: meausured by looking at the speed with which an attitude
come to mind (Fazio, 1995)
4. ATTITUDE AMBIVALENCE: co-existence of positive and negative beliefs about the
same object that being conflicting can reduce attitude strenghts (Thompson, Zanna &
Griffin, 1995). Is a key factor for the elaboration of consumption predictive models
People’s expressed attitudes may account for different conflicting evaluations without
that they necessarily become aware of it (Priester and Petty, 1993) ATTITUDINAL
AMBIVALENCE AFFECTS BEHAVIOR, SLOWING DOWN DECISION MAKING AND
PRODUCING INCOHERENT/INCOSTANT CONSUMER CHOICES (Olivero & Vaccani, 2007)

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CONCEPTUALIZATIONS ARE ASSOCIATED TO DIFFERENT MEASUREMENT
METHODOLOGIES

1. ‘ONE COMPONENT MODEL’ (THURSTONE, 1931): ATTITUDE CONSISTS OF A

SENTIMENT TOWARD A CERTAIN TARGET AND CAN BE MEASURED BY MEANS OF
ATTITUDINAL SCALES FOR THE DESCRIPTION OF THE DEGREE OF THE POSITIVE OR
NEGATIVE EVALUATION.
Since the ground-breaking paper ‘Attitudes can be measured’ written by the social
psychologist Louis Thurstone in 1928, the logic of adopting self-reporting for the
measuring of psychological constructs has been massively adopted as the elective
method to investigate people thoughts and motives
2. SELF-REPORTS TWO COMPONENT MODEL : attitudes are mental states that influence
behaviour in a generalised and consistent mode. They cannot be observed except
through its behavioural consequences.

LIKERT SCALE (1932)

The most common tool for the self-report measurement of attitudes. Likert scale is a five or
seven point scale which is used to allow the individual to express how much they agree or
disagree with a particular statement. The scale provide possible answers to a statement that
allow respondents to indicate their positive-to-negative strength of agreement or strength of
feeling regarding the question or statement. A Likert scale assumes that the strength/intensity
of an attitude is linear, i.e. on a continuum from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and makes
the assumption that attitudes can be measured.

SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE (O SGOOD ET AL. 1957)

It measures attitudes by presenting pairs of bipolar,
or opposite, adjectives describing the attitude object.
The difficult part about the semantic differential
technique is coming up with words that are truly
opposites.

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FROM SELF- REPORT TO IMPLICIT MEASURES
EXPLICIT MEASURES OF ATTITUDES HAVE DOMINATED EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF ATTITUDES HOWEVER A NUMBER OF CONCERNS HAVE BEEN RAISED OVER
THEIR USE – WHICH HAVE BEEN SEEN AS REASONS AFFECTING THE PREDICITVENESS OF
ATTITUDES WHEN MEASURED THROUGH SELFREPORTS:

(1) individuals might sometimes be unaware of their attitude towards an object (Fazio,
Jackson, Dunton & Williams, 1995; Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).

(2) research has demonstrated that subtle differences in the way in which items are presented
can influence responses to direct measures of attitude (see Haddock & Carrick, 1999; Schwarz,
1999).

(3) direct measures of attitude may be affected by people’s motivation to give socially
desirable responses. This refers socially desirable responding a deliberative attempt to
misrepresent responses so as to present oneself in a favourable (socially acceptable) way.

IN AN ATTEMPT TO MINIMIZE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH DIRECT MEASURES OF ATTITUDE,

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE DEVELOPED A NUMBER OF INDIRECT OR IMPLICIT RESPONSE
STRATEGIES.

Implicit measures: categorisation tasks to measure the speed of answers – the faster is the
answer the stronger and reliable the attitude valence.

EVALUATIVE PRIMING: According to Fazio (1995), the strength of the associations between
attitude and attitude object should affect how quickly an individual responds to an evaluative
word after having been briefly presented with the attitude object.

1. participant is seated in front of a computer.

2. The attitude object is briefly presented on the computer screen (e.g., the term ‘Brussels
sprouts’) and then replaced by an evaluative adjective (e.g., ‘disgusting’).

3. The participant’s task is to indicate the valence of the adjective as quickly as possible. That
is, the participant indicates whether the adjective means something positive or negative

4. the speed with which the participant makes this response reveals the strength and the
direction of an attitude

5. E.g. If one dislike brussels sprouts: the presentation of ‘Brussels sprouts’ should produce
faster responses to negative adjectives and slower responses to positive adjectives.

What is the relation between attitude and behavior?

Since early research – attitudes have been shown not to be an easy – straightforward –
predictor of behaviour

A point has been made on the need to interpret the complex relationship between evaluative
judgements and behaviours:

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 IS THE BEHAVIOUR AFFECTED BY ATTITUDES THAT ARE ACCESSIBLE TO A PERSON
CONSIOUSNESS ?

 IS THE BEHAVIOUR AFFECTED BY ATTITUDES THAT PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO DISCLOSE?

 WHAT ARE THE ATTITUDES COMPONENTS AND WHICH OF THE THEM WILL BE MORE
STRONGLY RELATED TO BEHAVIOUR? MULTIATTRIBUTE MODELS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO
MEASURE ALL THE DIFFERENT ATTITUDES THAT A PERSON MAY FORM TOWARD ALL THE
ATTRIBUTES OF AN ATTITUDE OBJECTS …

 ARE THERE MOTIVATIONAL OR EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING BEHAVIOUR REGARDELSS OF

ATTITUDE?

Besides a long and well-established tradition of research methods based on deliberative self-
reports measures, in the last years an important body of research has developed focusing on
the implicit assessment of attitudes. The approach underlying implicit measures points to the
major role of implicit and automatic evaluative associations (Gawronski and Payne, 2010).
IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST is today’s most common method to assess implicit attitudes.

THREE COMPONENT MODEL- ABC MODEL OF ATTITUDE (ROSEMBERG AND

HOVLAND 1960)

THREE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES- EXAMPLES

1. I love yoga (affective component) because I get to do meditation and I believe it helps
me relax (cognitive component) so I will got to classes every week (behavioral
component).
2. I am frightful of rollercoasters and believe they are stupid, so I will be on the carousel
at the park.

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AFFECTIVE COMPONENT OF ATTITUDE
Feelings or emotions associated with the attitude object. Feelings can become associated with
attitude objects in several ways:

A number of researchers have used CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (see lecture on LEARNING)

paradigms to show how pairing affective information with an attitude object can produce a
positive or negative attitude.

 Zajonc and colleagues (e.g., Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980; Murphy & Zajonc, 1993; Zajonc,
1968) found evidence for a mere exposure effect for which the repeated exposure to a stimuli
can influence an attitude.

 In accordance to the exposure effect: a large number of studies have revealed that stimuli
that have been presented many times are liked more than stimuli that have not been seen
before.

Repetition is the key strategy explaining positive attitudes for brands such coca-cola

COGNITIVE COMPONENT OF ATTITUDE REFER TO BELIEFS, THOUGHTS, AND

ATTRIBUTES WE ASSOCIATE WITH A PARTICULAR OBJECT

 A person’s attitude might be based primarily upon a consideration of the positive and
negative attributes about the attitude object. For example, when we buy a new car, we devote
considerable attention to factors such as different vehicles’ safety records, petrol mileage,
resale value and repair costs…and attitudes towards the different cars are formed via a
conscious consideration of the positive and negative characteristics of each car.

 Cognitions have an impact on many types of attitudes. For instance stereotypes are usually
considered as beliefs about the attributes possessed by a particular social group.

 Cognitions, in the form of beliefs, are a key part of one approach to attitudes, which argues
that attitudes are derived from elementary cognitions about the attitude object (see Fishbein
and Ajzen’s (1975) expectancy–value model)

Comparisons sites allow consumers to evaluate product attributes

BEHAVIORAL COMPONENT OF ATTITUDE- REFERS TO PAST BEHAVIORS OR

BEHAVIORAL INTENTION ASSOCIATED TO AN ATTITUDE OBJECT

People attitudes can be a consequence of previous behavior. The idea that people might infer
their attitudes on the basis of their previous actions was developed by Bem. According to
Bem’s (1972) SelfPerception Theory, individuals do not always have access to their opinions
about different objects (see also Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Bem argued that this is especially
likely when the person’s attitude is particularly weak or ambiguous, in such case people will
rely on previous behaviour to express their attitude.

 Behaviour can be associated to attitudes also when it refers to the intention to act in
conformity with personal beliefs.

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 Behaviour can be associated to strong attitude too. This, according to Festinger’s Cognitive
Dissonance Theory (1954) happens when people form (and change) their attitudes in order to
justify their behaviour in a search for consistency and self-protection.

Multiattribute attitude models assume that a consumer´s attitude (evaluation) of an attitude

object will depend on the beliefs he or she has about several or many attributes of the object.

EXPECTANCY- VALUE THEORY (EVT)

Dr. Martin Fishbein is credited with developing the expectancy-value theory (EVT) in the early
to mid1970s. EVT has three main principle:

1) Individuals respond to novel information about an item or action by developing a belief

about the item or action.

2) individuals assign a value to each attribute that a belief is based on.

3) an expectation is created or modified based on the result of a calculation based on beliefs

and values.

For example, a student finds out that a professor has a reputation for being humorous. The
student assigns a positive value to humor in the classroom, so the student has the expectation
that their experience with the professor will be positive. When the student attends class and
finds the professor humorous, the student calculates that it is a good class.

FISHBEIN AND AJZEN (1975)- THE EXPENTANCY- VALUE APPROACH OF THE THEORY
OF RESONEAD ACTION

- EXPECTANCIES are beliefs or subjective probabilities that the object possesses a certain
attribute; these beliefs may range from 0 to 1 in strength.

- VALUES, OR EVALUATIONS, are ratings of the attributes, normally from −3 to +3. An attitude
object will be evaluated positively if it is seen as leading to, or associated with, positive things
and avoiding negative things. Only salient beliefs count towards the overall attitudes; these are
beliefs that a person considers most relevant.

- Example: A person might think that golf is (1) a valuable form of exercise, (2) a good way to
see friends and (3) frustrating. Each of these beliefs will have both an expectancy and a value.
For example, exercise might have a high expectancy (.9) and positive evaluation (+3); seeing
friends might be perceived as having a lower expected outcome (.7) that is somewhat positive
(+2); while frustration is (thankfully!) somewhat infrequent (.3) but very negative (–3). The

pág. 44
individual’s overall attitude towards golf is computed by summing the belief–evaluation
products (e.g., 2.7 + 1.4 − .9 = 3.2)

THEORY OF REASONED ACTION

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) represented the expectancy value theory with the following
equation where attitudes (a) are a factorial function of beliefs (b) and values (v). the TRA can
be expressed as the following equation: B I = ( A B ) W1 + ( S N ) W

THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (AIZEN, 2002) – THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED

CONTROL

Predictive models such as Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned behaviour assume
that behaviour follows information processing and attitude formation. However such standard
hierarchy of effects happens under conditions of high involvement when choice is the result of

pág. 45
an expression of preference. In other cases preferences may follow purchase or even precede
it with no much cognitive effort and information search.

- Low- involvement hierarchy: Attitude based on behavioral learning processes (the

consumer has limited knowledge of the brand, the real judgement is developed after
consumption).
- Experimental hierarchy: Attitude based impulsive liking and by hedonic factors. The choice
is influenced by intangible attributes, like packaging and environmental variables in the
store. Experiential perspective = role of sensorial stimulation and enjoyment (what you like
and makes you feel happy regardless of complex cognitive processing).

MOTIVATIONAL RESEARCH
Freudian motivation theory posits that unconscious psychological forces, such as hidden
desires and motives, shape an individual's behavior (like their purchasing patterns).

Survey research had predicted housewives would embrace such an easy baking- tool. However
once launched sales were much lower than expected.

Consumer sentiment and market research: The consumer sentiment index is an economic
indicator that measures how optimistic consumers feel about their finances and the state of
the economy.

GEORGE KATONA (1901-1981)

Hungarian-born American psychologist – the first to advocate interdisciplinarity between
economics and psychologists. ‘The father of modern behavioural economics’

- CONSUMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEND AS A RELIABLE INDICATOR OF ECONOMIC TRENDS.

In contrast with previous economic theory explanations, Katona showed the significant
role of attitudes and expectations such as ‘willingness to buy’ as opposed to ‘ability to
buy’.
- ‘UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONSUMER SENTIMENT INDEX’. A questionnaire to measure
consumer expectations for the application of psychological principle to macroeconomics
- This index enabled the prediction of the post-war boom in the United States at a time
when conventional econometric indicators were predicting a recession.

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ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE- HOW TO CHALLENGE ONE´S BELIEF SYSTEM?
The KNOWLEDGE FUNCTION of attitudes reflects the human need for balance and coherence,
guiding a person, through information processing, to favor interpretations conformed with
what he or she knows and not contradicts the belief system.

When faced with a new product or an unknown brand, consumers who are not too prone
toward innovation can develop a negative attitude and reject any new information conflicting
with the beliefs that justified past purchases.

BALANCE THEORY- HEIDER (1946)

In accordance to the need for cognitive coherene it formulates the existence of a triad of
attitudinal structures that tend towards cognitive restructuring in the case of imbalance.

Imbalanced attitudinal structures are unstable and

tend towards a change. For instance if my favorite
singer is an affectionate consumer of a certain
fashion brand then my attitudes toward that brand
will be positively affected. The Balance theory
justifies the effectiveness in the use of testimonials
in advertising.

Example of unbalanced triad: a person A loves

person B who has a positive attitude toward the
object C. A will need to restructure his/her love for
B or/and his/her attitude toward the object C.

The use of testimonials to foster the formation of positive attitudes toward a brand is
exemplified by the Barilla communication strategy in the 90’s, when the brand attempted to
expand in countries such as Spain, France and Germany using famous national idols such as the
Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo, the French actor Gerard Depardieu and the German
tennis player Stefi Graf.

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PERSUASION
Before the80’s, most of the theories of persuasion and attitude change emphasized systematic
processing. They assumed that attitude change was mediated by the message recipient’s
detailed processing of the persuasive arguments contained in the communication.

The two most influential theories of systematic processing have been:

THE INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL (McGuire, 1969, 1985) – Persuasion depends upon
successful completion of subsequent 5 steps:

(1) attention,

(2) comprehension

(3) yielding

(4) retention and

(5) behavior

This frameworks shows how difficult it is to reach behavioral change.

THE COGNITIVE RESPONSE MODEL (e.g., Greenwald, 1968; Petty, Ostrom & Brock, 1981). -
Attitude change is mediated by the thoughts, or ‘cognitive responses’, which recipients
generate as they receive and reflect upon persuasive communications, and that the magnitude
and direction of attitude change are functions of the extent of message-relevant thinking as
well as its favorability.

It is not the reception of arguments which mediates attitude change but the thoughts
(cognitive responses) stimulated in the recipient by those arguments. Messages persuade if
they evoke predominantly favourable thoughts, and they fail to persuade if they evoke
predominantly unfavourable thoughts.

DUAL- PROCESS THEORIES OF PERSUASION

Do people sometimes change their attitudes without systematic processing of persuasive
arguments? What factors determine whether people process messages systematically or
superficially? How can we explain attitude change which is not based on systematic processing
of argument?

Advertisements often work through processes of classical conditioning or mere exposure!

How are classical conditioning and mere expousure related to systematic processing?

DUAL-PROCESS THEORIES OF PERSUASION – postulates two modes of information processing:

systematic and non-systematic (e.g., classical conditioning, selfpersuasion, heuristic
processing)

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THE ELABOTATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL (ELM)- PETTY CACIOPPO (1986)
The model posits two routes of persuasion: THE CENTRAL ROUTE and THE PERIPHERAL ONE -
These two routes mark the endpoints of a continuum that ranges from thoughtful to very non-
thoughtful strategies (i.e., the elaboration likelihood continuum)

EXPERIMENT STUDY SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATION ON TYPES OF INFORMATION

PROCESSING - Petty, Cacioppo, and Goldman (1981)

College students heard a message suggesting that the administration at their college was
proposing to institute a new comprehensive exam that all students would need to pass in
order to graduate, and then rated the degree to which they were favorable toward the idea.
The researchers manipulated three independent variables.

Message strength. strong arguments (persuasive data and statistics about the positive effects
of the exams at other universities) vs weak arguments (relying only on individual quotations
and personal opinions).

Source expertise. expert source (the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, at Princeton
University) or by a nonexpert source (a class at a local high school).

Personal relevance. exam would begin before they graduated (high personal relevance) or
after they had already graduated (low personal relevance).

Students for whom an argument was not personally relevant based their judgments on the
expertise of the source (spontaneous processing), whereas students for whom the decision
was more relevant were more influenced by the quality of the message (thoughtful
processing).

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PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATORS
- Attractiveness: liking and trust: positive association (priming) with message content/
product/ brand.
- Similarity: liking and trust
- Expertise: Communicatos who speak confidently, quickly, and in a straightforward way are
seen as more expert than those who speak in a more hesitating and slower manner.

SLEEPER EFFECT
When a message is presented by someone whom we perceive as untrustworthy we may be
persuaded after discarding the message.

When we first hear that person’s communication, we appropriately discount it, and it
therefore has little influence on our opinions.

However, over time there is a tendency to remember the content of a communication to a

greater extent than we remember the source of the communication. As a result, we may
forget over time to discount the remembered message. This attitude change that occurs over
time is known as the sleeper effect (Kumkale & Albarracín, 2004).

When a message is presented by someone whom we perceive as untrustworthy we may be

persuaded after discarding the message. When we first hear that person’s communication, we
appropriately discount it, and it therefore has little influence on our opinions. However, over
time there is a tendency to remember the content of a communication to a greater extent
than we remember the source of the communication. As a result, we may forget over time to
discount the remembered message. This attitude change that occurs over time is known as the
sleeper effect (Kumkale & Albarracín, 2004).

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TO SUM UP
✔ Communicators are more effective when they help their recipients feel good about
themselves. Attractive, similar, trustworthy, and expert communicators are examples of
effective communicators.

✔ Attitude change that occurs over time, particularly when we no longer discount the impact
of a low-credibility communicator, is known as the sleeper effect.

✔ The messages that we deliver may be processed either spontaneously or thoughtfully. This
depends on personal relevance/involvement/products and individual differences (need for
cognition)

Attention and consciousness

ATTENTION EVERY SECOND

Million of bits drop unsensed, unperceived, and unexperienced.

Attention is the taking possession by the mind and vivid form, of one out of what seem several
simultaneous possible objects and trains of thoughts…

Attention is a cognitive process that lead us to select between the stimuli we continuously
receive.

SCHOLARS´ATTENTION TO ATTENTION
Behavioral scholars worked on the stimulus- response association and Gestalt focused on
perception. Around the 50ies when the stimuli became too many, it was obvious for the
scholars to turn their own interest on attention:

- They found out that the individual’s interpretation of stimuli does not simply depend on
the stimuli themselves.
- They found that it has a crucial role in perception

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ATTENTION AS A FILTER
Attention decides what has priority to enter our brain system. When does attention intervene?
○ The Bottleneck model by Broadbent (1958)

○ The cocktail party effect ( Cherry 1953)

The cocktail-party effect refers to the ability to focus one’s attention (tune into) a particular
stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli (tune out)

Auditory stimuli are processed in a selective way by salience

Our mind focuses on something, while maintaining some other channels in a pre-attentive
state

○ The Attenuation theory by Treisman (1960)

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○ The Late attention theory by Deutsch & Deutsch (1963)

The attention operates at a biased level, it favours the access of inputs towards the higher
processes of elaboration of those contents that seem to have more relevance to the
expectations, habits, needs and purposes that the organism pursues in a point in time.

ATTENTION IS LIMITED
It needs a lot of cognitive effort

ATTENTION, PROCESSES AND TYPES

- Shifting attention

Alternating two attentional focuses

- Selective attention

The information one is focusing on is processed in a more efficient way and can be used for the
access to other cognitive processes and to guide the choice of the answers .

Two aspects of selective attention : - Focus on some objects -> activation before selection -
Neglect of others -> response inhibition for not relevant information.

- Sustained attention

The ability to focus one’s attention on an object persistently for a long period of time.

It is influenced by personal traits and characteristics of the stimulus

Habituation when the stimuli are predictable and unchanged

- Divided attention

It is the self -regulatory capacity that allows us to divide our attentional resources and to direct
them into several tasks at the same time. It depends on the kind and nature of tasks, on the
level of automatism and consequently of cognitive load.

Higher automatism -> lower attentional control

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Whenever an unexpected stimulus happens, all attentional resources are re -activated and
converge towards the problem.

ATTENTION BIAS
There is limited attention. Our nervous system is wired to assign value and relevance to
stimuli. And it can make mistakes.

- Inattentional blindness
- Change blindness
- Attentional blink- 500ms

INFLUENCE TO THE ATTENTIONAL FOCUS

Experience: Whether some object has been experienced before

- Top- down goal directedness:

It´s study time!. Top down attention is the kind of attention we normally think of when we use
the term.

When you shift your attention VOLUNTARILY ○ the intentional allocation of attentional
resources to a predetermined object or space ○ It is driven by the individual and his or her
interests ○ It is influenced by:

■ Prior experience

■ Knowledge

■ Goals

I has three vital characteristics: is controlled, slow and volitional. In the brain:

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- Bottom- up environmental cues:

What a noise! Something happens and it leads you to focus your attention to an object.

Information that is visually salient is detected:

▷ Movement ▷ Contrast ▷ Density ▷ Brightness

Three vital characteristics:

▷ Automatic ▷ Fast ▷ Non-volutional

Distraction is a form of bottom- up attention. In the brain:

Shifted by some environmental stimulus and it consists of an automatic response, our brain
uses a saliency-based model of interest. In some cases of strong saliency, information bypass
VC and are directly sent to the insula and anterior cingulate cortex through the thalamus
(visual, auditory, somatic stimuli etc)

Visual salience bias: the bias by which the most salient images are most likely to be processed
in the brain and it is mainly present under common fast or pressured decisions suche as
impulse buying (Milosavlijevic et al. 2012)

HAS SALIENCY EFFECTS ON CONSUMER CHOICE? (MILOSAVLJEVIC ET AL., 2012)

- Premises: Visually salient attributes of stimuli affect the location and duration of fixations
The amount of attention given to some products affects the choice.
- Objective of the study: to measure the size of the visual saliency bias see how it changes
with decision speed and cognitive load.
- Tools: eye tracking.

1st Experiment

7 participants without food for 3 hours before the two-phases experiment. Indicate their food
preferences by ranking 15 snack food items from 1 to 15 (measure of subjective value of the
items). Then, they made 1050 choices between pairs of foods. They tested the choice for
products by alterning the brightness and contrast of selected products. Different exposure
times.

Results:

○ Visual saliency bias with brief exposures especially when preference was weak

○ Preference dominated choice over long exposure and long decision times

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DURING RAPID DECISIONS VISUAL SALIENCY INFLUENCE CHOICES MORE THAN PREFERENCES

2nd experiment

5 participants. On every trial the central fixation cross changed its colour. The participants had
to comply different tasks considering different colours. At the same time they had to make
choices. Longer time was given

Results: The visual saliency effect was longer lasting and stronger in the presence of cognitive
load.

THE COGNITIVE LOAD MANIPULATION IS SLOWING DOWN THE COMPARATOR PROCESS AND
MAKING THE EFFECT OF THE VISUAL SALIENCY BIAS LONGER.

Attention is easier if you are not cognitively loaded. Noise renders attention more difficult.

ATTENTION AND THE CONSUMERS

ATTENTION AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Our brain uses a systematic method to determine objects of interest or ‘salient objects’.

ATTENTION AND ADVERTISING

In the past the theme of attention was considered as very important

▷ Attention -> comprehension ->Ad effectiveness

▷ Low attention -> low comprehension ->low impact

Shapiro and colleagues (1997) found that:

- though information seems to be ignored, it can nonetheless be processed at a

nonconscious pre-attentive level
- Preattentively processed stimuli can affect consumer judgements about an ad or brand
- Under certain conditions preattentive processing leads to more favorable ad evaluations
than attentive processing.

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BOTTOM- UP ATTENTION IN ADVERTISING
Factors facilitating bottom-up attention

▷ Emotionally relevant factors

▷ Moving objects

▷ Unexpected events

Attention is deeply involved in novelty. Surprise is the basic mechanism of attention shifting.

Let’s see ads before entering the painting shop:

CONSCIOUSNESS
ATTENTION IS A CONSCIOUS PHENOMENON. You can’t pay attention to something without
being aware that you’re paying attention to it. What is consciousness?

Consciousness as a state

Sleeping, being in a coma or under anesthesia are unconscious states (brain deactivation). So
consciousness is the STATE in which we are AWAKE.

Consciousness as content

Conscious processing of information. Our conscious experiences that are fully linked to our
ability to report them. Our unconscious mind is continuously making decisions.

CONSCIOUSNESS VS UNCONSCIOUSNESS
Conscious processes are slow and effortful, but seem highly flexible and great for problem
solving, for creativity and for all domain-unspecific problems.

Unconscious processes are good for automatization they are fast, rule-based with little effort
but also little capacity to modify themselves.

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CONSCIOUSNESS , UNCONSCIOUSNESS , AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consciousness and self-report. AUTOMATICITY as an important characteristic of consumer
behavior and it is based in the basal ganglia. The repeated purchase of products is related to
the stronger engagement in the basal ganglia and this may suggest that brand loyalty is more
related to habitual behavior than to conscious continual deliberation (Plassmann, 2012).

AUTOMATIC BEHAVIORS
Unconscious processing has a deep impact on our daily lives through:

▷ Instinctual behaviors ▷ Habits and automatic behaviors ▷ Evaluation and labelling

SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION
Subliminal perception is any information you receive from your senses that you are not
consciously aware of happening.

THE FIRST STUDY ON SUBLIMINAL

El experimento de James Vicary nació cuando este investigador de mercados quiso probar el
efecto de la percepción subliminal para inducir a la gente a comprar , utilizando como medio el
cine.

Vicary llevó a cabo su famoso experimento durante la proyección de la película Picnic en Fort
Lee (New Jersey). Lo que hizo fue introducir una serie de frases ocultas , en las cuales decía
“Beban Coca-Cola” y “Coman palomitas”. Utilizó para ello un instrumento llamado taquiscopio,
el cual es capaz de mostrar varias imágenes en lapsos muy cortos.

La velocidad con la que eran transmitidas las imágenes impedía que los espectadores fueran
conscientes de que esos mensajes estaban allí. En otras palabras, los letreros se exhibían ante
los ojos de ellos, pero ninguno era capaz de captarlos de manera consciente. Ese era
precisamente el objetivo: probar el impacto de esos mensajes.

Finalmente, en 1962, James Vicary confesó, a través de un artículo publicado en la revista

Avertising Age, que en realidad su experimento jamás había sido llevado a cabo. Había hecho
todo un montaje porque su empresa estaba en condiciones difíciles y necesitaba de la fama
para levantarla. Sin embargo, nunca se supo si el experimento realmente fue hecho o no como
lo dijo Vicary.

SUBLIMINAL
Pessiglione et al. 2008 - Subliminal cues.

The sample was presented different abstract symbols and others that were indicative of
subsequent loss or win or neutral proposed in a subliminal way.

The result was that people exposed to symbols of loss tended not to take risks while people
exposed to win symbols tended to gamble.

Study by Merikle & Daneman (2000) about patients undergoing surgery Earphones and tape
with some words mentioned during anesthesia and surgery Then they were asked to complete
some words like ‘gui’ or ‘pro’.

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 A PROUSTIAN EXPERIENCE: cases of smell, experiences and consumption
choices

MARCEL PROUST AND THE RECHERCHE (1913-1927)

His research came from when he was having a bad day and his mom gave him tea with cake
(madeleine). When he introduced it into his mouth his day completely changed, he was full of
a powerful joy. The interpretations he gives:

It emerges the theme of involuntary memory given by the association between a remembered
fact and an emotion associated with it.

The sweet of the madeleine (sensory stimulus) is uniquely and indivisibly linked to the
nostalgia of childhood (emotion). It is involved the most advanced memory area that
distinguishes us from other living beings: in the secondary sensory cortex. The brain identifies
that element as unique and not divisible (madeleine + nostalgia).

The gustatory and olfactory senses play a fundamental role in the recovery of memories.

SMELLS, PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING AND CONSUMPTION

Body odor involves basic biological messages that plays a role in social interactions. The use of
perfumes has reached universal characters. According to Lenochova et al. (2012), the
fragrance market has increased from $ 12.9 BILION in 1999 to $ 22 BILION in 2010.

Studies indicate that odors are involved in three elements in particular:

1) Social judgement
2) Interactions
3) Behaviour

For example:

- Sweet smell> pain tolerance

- Odor detergent for cleaning> cleaning behavior

Smells can interfere with the evaluation of faces (as well as cleanliness, social status,
personality ...). The fragrance of a product is defined by studies as the main driver in the
consumer decision-making process (Schroiff, 1991; Milotic, 2003). - The satisfaction of a
consumer is also dependent on the role of the fragrance.

The smell of a product can interfere in the purchase choice in the following ways:

- A perfume must confirm the performance of the product

- A perfume determines consumer satisfaction when using the product.
- A perfume can have a strong impact on the brand as it allows it to be different.
- The easy distinction of a perfume can play a role in the formation of preference, compared
to several products with similar characteristics.
- A perfume can increase this distinctive power if associated with a unique selling proposal
(USP = Unique Selling Proposition).

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The research on the role of perfumes has indicated that the fields in which the smell has a role
of driver in the purchase choice are: Drinks, Body and skin care, House cleaning, Packaging,
Variants of food (coffee), Cigarette and Stores.

SMELL AND STORES

Elements related to the atmosphere of the store are considered antecedents of the sensorial
evaluation of the product. These main elements in stores are:

- Music (volume, type, scheduling)

- Colors (brightness, freshness, homogeneity)
- Size and shape of the store
- Style / tone of the environment
- Temperature
- Perfume

SMELL AND PRODUCT DESIGN

When the perfume is a driver in choosing the product :

- There must be a congruence between the packaging (material, consistency, color) and
perfume. The smell must be able to permeate outside the packaging (packagin design)
- The consumer must be put in the condition to smell the product (tester) - design of spaces
in the store that allow you to smell the products
- Together with ease of use, aesthetics, price, the good smell starts to establish itself as a
basic element in the demand for product.

SMELL… GUIDELINES FOR CONSUMPTION

Identifying perfumes is more complicated than identifying any other element (colors,
shapes ...), an aspect linked to experiences and subjective characteristics / abilities. To make an
evaluation, we first consider: the first impression (immediate reaction), the consumer
evaluation (evaluation at home and in store) and the evaluation of the performance (quality
and intensity of the perfume).

We have to take into account the context. The perception of a fragrance is modified by the
context in which the fragrance itself is smelled.

SMELL AND COLORS

A study by the American National Bureau of Standards suggests that :

- There are about 10.000 different odors

- There are about 7.500 different colors

The ability to label odors is very poor compared to the ability to label colors .... why?

- Difficulty to call to the mind odors

- Difficulty making use of visual or verbal elements when smells are described (easier

with colors).

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HOW CAN WE SOLVE THE GAP?
A color consistent with a particular odour can help in its classification, as it provides descriptive
elements of an odour, which should have the characteristics of a colour (Goldstein, 1999).
Research indicates that the ability to identify odours depends on the degree of colouring of a
product.

When there is a match between color and smell, consumers are better able to identify the
smell (Nusbaum, 1999) and the purchase choice is more guided by this congruence. Colors
provide symbolic and associative information on a product category or on a specific brand.

SMELLS AND SHAPES

Recent studies by Gottfried and Dolan (2003) have shown that people identify the presence of
an odor more quickly and accurately when a semantically congruent image is presented in
parallel . Interactions between visual and olfactory stimuli have been demonstrated both
behaviorally and neurally, even when the stimulus consisted of a simple patch of color.

Sakai et al . (2005 ) conducted one of the few studies showing that people rate the intensity of
a smell higher when viewing an appropriate image (e . g . , the image of an apple while
smelling the smell of apple juice), than when they display an inappropriate image (e . g . the
image of a pear while smelling the smell of apple juice) .

ODORS AND IMPACT ON CONSUMERS

The recognition of odours is linked to an effort by the subject, therefore attention and
therefore possible activation of the rational part. To favour the part of the choice process
related to emo>on, the perfume of a product must have the following characteristics
(Spangerberg et al., 1996):

- PLEASENTNESS (approach-avoidance behavior towards the product. If the product smells

good, the consumer will tend to handle it more, smell it ...)
- AROUSAL (arousal has an interaction with pleasantness, therefore with an approach
behaviour)
- INTENSITY (the intensity must not be excessive, it can modulate the pleasantness or not of
a product).

The recognition of odours is also linked to the characteristics of the subjects which then make
them merge into specific targets. As regards the ability to recognize odours, there are:

- ANOSOMY: inability to discriminate odours from each other (can also be linked to
experiences and ages - Wysocki et al., 1991).
- AGE: the ability to recognize odours decreases (special needs for this segment also for
proposals in the food sector).
- ADAPTATION: the ability to smell decreases with the adaptaOon to the smell itself
(relevance in different fields such as air fresheners, bath products, OR essenOal oils à
diminishes interest).

Odours can be used to maximize the attractiveness of a product when focusing and selling
through the senses (Brayfield, 2000). In market demand, odour has taken on the role of quality

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indicator (Milotic, 2003) Perfume plays a fundamental role in the purchasing decision. Perfume
becomes a competitive advantage of the product and the marketing associated with it.

SOME EXAMPLE OF SCENT ADV

Bloom grocery stores: ‘smell of grilling steak’ Billboard displays impaled piece of beef; inside
this billboard a fan was installed that scatters to the surroundings the smell of black pepper
and charcoal, which customers use when cooking the beef (Frucci, 2010).

McCain Corp.: ‘baked potato-scented frozen aisles’ When people press a button on a poster, a
hidden heating element warms the fiberglass 3-D potato and releases the aroma of oven-
baked jacket potato (Advertising Age, 2012; Magda, 2013).

Lipton tea brand In the Czech Republic the Lipton company launched an ‘aroma ad’. They
installed 3D pyramids from fruits, which look like bags of Lipton on the bus statoons in Anděl
and Florenc (Prague). There, an intensive tea fragrance was sprayed at 5 minutes intervals
(Media Guru, 2012).

ODORUS AND SENSORIAL MARKETING

We have several types of fragange, we will analyze the following ones:

- Citrus fragrance: lemon, cedar, bergamot, a pinch of grapefruit.

- Woody fragrance: cedar wood, sandal, patchouli, a pinch of mug pine
- Sweet fragrance: Vanilla, ginger, pepper, cardamom, chocolate pin
- Floreal fragrance: pure jasmine

When making a study:

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pág. 63
pág. 64
CITRUS FRAGANCE- FIRST PHASE OF THE NEUROPHYSIOLOGIC ANALYSIS OF THE
BOTTLE - FRAGANCE ASSOTIATION

- Visual exploration of each bottle

All bottles show heatmaps with a large focus zone on the top and cap
areas. The phenomenon is completely natural and is due to the
presence of a greater number of elements able of attracting attention.
All the bottles are explored in their entirety.

The data on the total sample must be interpreted in the light of gender
differences which, in relation to the stimuli of the bottle shapes, we found to be particulary
decisive in explaining the valance parameter.

- Exposure to fragrances and detection of neurophysiological parameters

With regard to fragrances, the total sample relevant information are as follows: 1. All the
variants are able to elicit an emotional quality of a positive nature; 2. The sweet fragrance
obtains markedly superior emotional responses compared to the alternatives; 3. Wood quality
gives rise to the lowest valence value. The following information will also find confirmation
elements from the data from the questionnaire.

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Sul totale campione le fragranze capaci di risultare maggiormente coinvolgenD sono
rappresentate, rispettivamente, da quella dolce e floreale. Viene confermato il dato di valenza
anche nei riguardi della variante legnosa, la quale si dimostra essere quella con il valore di
asimmetria più basso (pur rimanendo nella gamma delle emozioni positive) e, al contempo, la
qualità in grado di attivare emozionalmente in misura minore rispetto alle altre.

- Fragrance-bottle association

The entire sample tends to associate the citrus fragrance with tall bottles. The
choice, in fact, can be deduced from the heat map form B and form D.

From D, however, is less explored than the others, implying a lower need for
exploration before choice and a greater level of association.

The citrus fragrance is mainly associated with the square-high shape of the
bottle. In second place we find the association with the rounded-high bottle and in third the
square- low bottle. This highlights a strong association of the fragrance with slender and
especially square shapes.

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- Free association colors / words

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WOODY FRAGRANCE
- Valance of fragrance

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- Eye tracker/ bottle- fragrance association

The analysis on the total sample shows a greater

distribution on all bottle shapes. However, the forms A,B,C
are those with a higher level of overall visualization and
greater associative strength.

The characteristics of the fragrance do not allow for a

unique and prevalent association with a bottle shape. The
sample distributes heterogeneously among the four
forms. The exception in the choice concerns the low
rounded shape, chosen only by 18.8% of the total sample.

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SWEET FRAGRANCE

pág. 70
Eye tracker: The association with the sweet fragrance achieves better
performance with regard to the C shape (rounded low). The second-
choice button with the most lit heatmap is that of form B. The second
choice buttom with the most lit heatmap is that of form B. Therefore, a
clear association with rounded shapes is evident. The square shapes A
and D are hardly taken into consideration.

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The choice is unequivocal. The analysis on the whole sample directs the choice towards the
low rounded shape. In second place we find the shape B (rounded high). The association that
stands out is therefore that between rounded shapes and sweet fragrances.

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FLOREAL FRAGRANCE

On the total sample the fragrances capable of being more engaging are represented,
respectively, by the sweet and floral ones. The value data is also confirmed with regard to the
woody variant, which proves to be the one with the lowest asymmetry value (while remaining
in the range of positive emotions) and, at the same ;me, the quality capable of emotionally
activating to a lesser extent Compared to others.

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The HeatMaps on the total sample show, also in this case, a preference
towards rounded shapes. In particular, the B shape (rounded high)
seems to have a higher overall exploration rate and a greater level of
focus on the choice button.

The choice for the floral fragrance falls mainly on the rounded shapes.
The differences are less marked than the sweet fragrance, but
decidedly more homogeneous than the woody one.

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pág. 75
 Emotions and feelings

WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?

Google: strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with
others.

Plato compared the soul to a person driving a chariot pulled by two flying horses. One horse is
beautiful and noble; it wants to soar into heaven. This horse is our finer spirit. The other horse
is ugly and bad.

In Christian theology emotions=sins. Our emotions and affections are intended to bring glory
to Him, and as we trust and rest in His sovereignty, we are enabled to orient them for Him and
to Him. God's sovereign control over all things brings order and sense and meaning and
purpose to our lives, and our emotions.

Damásio refers to René Descartes' separation of the mind from the body (the mind/body
dualism) as an error because reasoning requires the guidance of emotions and feelings
conveyed from the body.

Damasio formulated the somatic marker hypothesis, a theory about how emotions and their
biological underpinnings are involved in decision-making (both positively and negatively, and
often non-consciously). Damasio has posited that the ability of humans to perform abstract
thinking quickly and efficiently coincides with both the development of the ventromedial (VM)
cortex and with the use of somatic markers to guide human behavior during evolution.

Today, the idea is that emotions are intertwined with reasoning.

Emotions are a brief episode of coordinated brain, autonomic, and behavioral changes that
facilitate a response to an event. They are lower level responses, coded in our genes. Feelings
are high-level responses which provide a mental and perceptual representation of what is
physically happening inside our bodies.

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CUOTES
Reason may not be as pure as most of us think it is and wish it were» Damasio, 1994

«there are no emotional states without a cognitive and expressive dimension» Caruana &
Viola, 2018

Emotions are what drive our cognitive and behavioural responses (Ramsoy, 2015)

95% of the consumer choices happen without an attentive rational process Zaltman, 2003

FEELING: HAPPINESS
- Physiological activation: Your heart rate increases
- Sentiment: You feel a positive sentiment
- Facial expression: You smile
- Behavioral reaction: You hug a friend
- Cognitive processes: Your memories and expectations lead you to
recognize happiness

DEFINING EMOTIONS
A complex reaction that includes physiological variations and subjective
experiences accompanied by mimic behavior (Caruana & Viola, 2018).

Now we will see the main theories and models that have appeared in time while studying
emotions.

THE DARWINIAN STUDY OF EMOTIONS

The first scientific answer to the question ‘What emotions are?’. The expression of the
emotions in man and animal (1872). His aim was rebutting to those who thought that
emotions were typically human and states that there are universal emotions shared by all.

In 1872, Darwin published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, in which he
argued that all humans, and even other animals, show emotion through remarkably similar
behaviors. For Darwin, emotion had an evolutionary history that could be traced across
cultures and species—an unpopular view at the time.

WILLIAM JAMES AND THE THEORY OF PERIPHERAL EFFECTS

He was neglected for a very long period but his Principles of Psychology is one of the most
influential books in psychology. He was brought back to fame by Antonio Damasio in the 90ies
who proclaimed himself neo jamesian after his Theory of emotions. The most important
exponent of the Theory of peripheral effects (1890).

James (1890) presented a bold proposal in The Principles of Psychology: emotions are the
sensation of bodily changes, or as he put it, “the bodily changes follow directly the perception
of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion”

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JAMES- LANGE THEORY OF EMOTIONS
Emotion derives from the perception of a physiological activation. The perception of external
events determines peripheral bodily modifications, which are then processed retroactively at
the cognitive level, and labeled as emotion or emotional feeling. It is peripheral, it assigns a
primary role to the visceral reactions of the autonomic nervous system that are part of the
peripheral system. Emotions are accompanied by the perception of physical reactions such as
tremor, sweating, increased heart rate and so on.

Emotion stimulus creates a physiological response pattern that creates an affective experience.

Criticism: James's peripheral hypothesis leads toa corollary, according to which each emotion
must correspond to a specific body correlate.

CANNON´S CENTRAL THEORY

Cannon proposed a theory of central effects, which emphasizes the role that central structures
play on emotions. The same visceral changes occur in very different emotional states, and even
in non-emotional states (Cannon, 1927). Hypothesis that the origin of the emotions is in the
Thalamus.

When an emotionally triggering stimulus is perceived, the thalamus sends impulses to the
sympathetic nervous system which produces physiological reactions. At the same time, the
thalamus also sends impulses to the cerebral cortex, thus producing awareness of the
emotion.

Modern neurophysiology does not confirm that the Thalamus is the basis of emotions, but the
Cannon-Bard theory is interesting for the idea that an emotion-carrying stimulus produces
both physiological changes and, separately and simultaneously, the subjective experience of
emotion.

CANNON- BARD THEORY OF EMOTIONS

(1934)
The Cannon-Bard theory states that the
lower part of the brain, also called the
thalamus, controls your experience of
emotion. At the same time, the higher part
of the brain, also called the cortex, controls
the expression of emotion. It is believed
that these two parts of the brain react
simultaneously.

DESCARTES ERROR (DAMASIO 1994)

Emotions are essential to decision-making. Patients with damages in emotional centers.
SOMATIC MARKERS, describe how emotion impact perceptions, evaluations, decisions and
behaviour, they are essentially memories of bodily responses to past experiences.

- Negative somatic marker –an unpleasant gut feeling

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- Positive somatic marker – is a sort of stimulus, a shortcut towards the options that gave in
the past godd results

‘We are not thinking machines we are feeling machines that think’

All this is "obvious" but its major implication is under-appreciated: "Nature appears to have
built the apparatus of rationality not just on top of the apparatus of biological regulation, but
also from it and with it." (p. 128.) Failure to see this, Damasio says, is Descartes' error.

THE THEORY OF FACIAL FEEDBACK BY EKMAN (1969)

He recalled Darwin’s idea of universal emotions and also William James . The FACIAL
FEEDBACK THEORY emphasizes the role of facial muscles on the perception of emotions. At the
basis, the idea that emotions have an innate character, therefore a specific facial configuration
is associated with or determines a specific emotion (studies in New Guinea) transversal to all
cultures.

Three empirical evidences in favor of this theoretical conception:

1) The universality of facial expressions, as evidenced by the ability of adults to associate

facial expressions of subjects belonging to different cultures with specific emotions.
2) The presence from the birth of different emotional expressions eg. anger, disgust in
response to specific physical stimuli.
3) The ability to differentiate and process an identical percentage of facial expressions by
blind and non-blind children.

THE SEVEN UNIVERSAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS THEORY

The sensory feedback that comes from the facial expressions contributes to the emotion we
feel in a given moment.

HOW MANY EMOTIONS ARE THERE?

- BASIC EMOTIONS – there is a discrete set of biologically basic emotions that are universal
across individuals and cultures. Are the building blocks of mental states and cannot be
deconstructed beyond the emotion (Ekman, 1972). Only Basic emotions are universal.
- SECONDARY EMOTIONS – connected to primary emotions, past experiences or context.

THE DIMENSIONS OF EMOTIONS

AROUSAL: the strength of emotions, from low to high, it is not directional. Key property of an
emotional experience. It can be Positive or negative, people usually value the intensity of the
experience. It affects:

- attention, usually it narrows it to salient and goal

relavant cues
- memory, it is enhanced by integral arousal
- persuasion
- evaluative judgements, it makes positive and negative
evaluations more extreme.

In the pic we can see the optimal level of arousal

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Arousal and consumer in-store behavior: Can a store atmosphere that evokes pleasure
increase consumers spending, their time spent in the store, and their desire to come back and
to recommend the store to others? Previously the role of perceived arousal at the POS was
debated ◦ (Groeppel-Klein, 2005)

EXPERIMENT: In the fruit and veg department of 2 grocery stores in

Austria. The experimental store was decorated according to the
principles of environmental psychology evinces a higher arousal
than that of the control store ◦ Analysis through EDR (phasic
electrodhermal reaction). Arousal proved to be an important
construct for the explanation of the buying behaviour (higher EDR in
buyers than in non buyers). The time spent in the shop, buyers spent
6 minutes longer than non buyers in the shop.

VALENCE: the direction of emotions it can be positive or neutral or

negative.

WHAT EMOTIONS DO? EMOTIONS IN CONSUMPTION

The data clearly suggested that the more emotions are at the center of a campaign the bigger
the business impact. Emotional information benefits from priority processing in the brain
(rapid orientation and increased attention to emotional stimuli over non-emotional stimuli)
Understanding the emotional drives behind purchase decisions is important because they can
provide the right insight to push products and brands in the market. Emotions lead to:

Action - Pessiglione and Knutson studies are examples. Emotions lead us to run away from
dangerous situations or to buy products (impulse purchase). Change in our cognitions -
Emotional responses can drive cognitive processes, perception and choice. Unpredictable
sounds engage the amygdala and lead to avoidance behaviour (Ramsoy).

Behavioural guides - Kahneman & Tversky and cognitive shortcuts, the heuristics, guided by
emotions that help us when we need to make decisions. Example of the study by Pessiglione
and colleagues (2008) on subliminal cues Social signalling - They are our social vehicles to
communicate with other people (Facial expressions, Language, Intonation, Gestures, Blushing)
Often as result of unconscious processes.

THE EMOTIONAL AREAS IN THE BRAIN

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THE AMYGDALA
The amygdala seems to modulate all of our reactions to events that are very important for our
survival (imminent danger, the presence of food, potential sexual partners, rivals, children in
distress, etc.

According to previous studies, it was seen as functioning primarily with negative affect as a
‘protection device’ preventing animals from engaging in potentially harmful behaviours or as a
fear module. Recent studies recognize to it a role in positive affect as well (f.i the study by
Somerville et al. 2006).

It has connections with all the sensory system. Amygdala is forming associations with events
for instance sounds coming in different situations and having different meanings (Pavlovian
associations). The amygdala mediates not only unconscious biases and preferences about
objects but also similar feelings about abstractions such as ideas concepts and beliefs also
dreads hopes and dreams.

THE NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS

The Nucleus Accumbens is responsive to anticipated positive rewards. This
means that it activates when you foresee some sort of reward following
some behaviour ◦ It plays a key role in modulating behavior to aversive and
painful stimuli ◦ It plays a role in the expression of anxiety.

THE ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX

The orbitofrontal cortex is among the least understood regions of the human brain. It is an
important nexus for:

- Sensory integration – it is activated by auditory, gustatory, olfactory, somatosensory

and visual inputs
- Emotional processing - It receives information from the visceral sensory system
- Hedonic experience

It is involved in decision-making and expectation. It has a role in emotional disorders like

depression. It is strongly related to the anterior cingulate cortices (decision-making, choice
conflict, social reasoning).

THE INSULA
Highly involved in emotion processing. It was initially
considered as related exclusively to negative emotions as
disgust or aversion. It is highly engaged in most emotions, be
they either positive or negative. Generally, saliency of
content, heightened emotions and social processing all show
activation in the insula as well as excessive price (Tusche et
al. 2010).

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HOW TO MEASURE EMOTIONS? EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS IN NEUROSCIENCE
“Maximise reward, minismus pain” Ramsoy, 2015.

Feelings: Relation to the sensible world (Damasio, 2004).

An organism’s experience of being in a certain emotional
state; With awareness and introspective.

Emotions: An organism’s expression of bodily inner states

without/before awareness.

Measuring emotions and feelings

"When positive emotions energize us, we are able to

focus better, understand the social connections of a new
workplace or school, broaden our thoughts and
attention, maintain interest in a task, allowing us to bring
it to fulfillment EMOTIONS ARE NOT a disturbing
element, BUT FAVOR COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES "

The neuromarketing toolbox

INTRODUCTION
Which is the added value of using neuromarketing tools for marketers? The American
Marketing Association defines consumer behavior as «the dynamic interaction of affect and
cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange
aspects of their life» This to say that Consumer behavior is a complex phenomenon for
investigation and is a heterogeneous field. The study of a complex phenomenon therefore
requires the use of many different tools capable of capturing the many different dimensions of
the phenomenon.

➢With neuromarketing techniques, companies have “just” the opportunity to better

understand the consumer behavior and which are the process underlying the decisionmaking
process.

➢Neuromarketing tools do not constitute the “buy button” to induce to buy products or
services which companies promote.

➢Neuromarketing should not be perceived as a challenge to traditional consumer research

but constitutes a complementing advancement for further investigation of specific decision-
making behavior.

In this scenario neuromarketing techniques could be defined as the third dimension of

consumer behavior researches (after qualitative and quantitative marketing research).

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The Behavior and BrainLab IULM was born in 2009 at the IULM
University of Milan as a Consumer Behavior laboratory. Within
a few years it introduces the most advanced techniques of
neuroscientific analysis. The laboratory, today, is one of the
main reference points for Neuromarketing in Italy thanks to
the multidisciplinary skills of the researchers who work there.

The main aim of the lab is to integrate traditional survey

techniques with the behavioural and neurophysiological
aspects of consumers, in order to improve the experience,
communication and marketing of companies.

The possibility to study the emotions, cognitive and

behavioural processes of consumers requires constant
updating of the latest technology and scientific discoveries.
The possibility of integrating consultancy with the academic world and publications in
international scientific journals has allowed the laboratory to grow exponentially over the last
decade, guaranteeing universally recognized quality and professionalism.

11 people: including professors, researchers and experts in: pshycology, marketing,

neuroscience, engineering, bioengineering.

NEURO RETAIL BRAIN LAB: TOOLS (INSTRUMENT AND INDEXES)

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- Neuroanalysis with egg: Analysis of cognitive aspect
- Eye tracking: Analysis of visual and perceptive exploration of stimuli.
- Bioanalysis: emotional activation analysis from physiological point of view
- Facial emotion recognition: analysis of the emotional experience through the analysis of
the micro- muscular face movements.

Analysis of the perceived: Comparison with the rational analysis of experience obtained
through questionnaire or in- depth interview.

NEUROANALYSIS (Brain- related activities, egg, process and output)

The technological development has permitted the creation of different brain imaging
techniques. These instruments are able to map the cerebral activity and to visualize the areas
with more activation. This type of analysis allows us to understand “which” areas are activated
and with which intensity.

All Brain Imaging techniques are based on different assumptions and operations. Thay can also
be classified on the base of Spatial resolution and Temporal resolution. Describe, respectively,
the ability to distinguish individual elements that are spatially close together and the minimum
time required to record a phenomenon that is being observed.

➢ Functional magnetic resonance imaging

(fMRI): is characterized by high spatial
resolution (<1mm) and it signal is related to
metabolic dynamics. Is a powerful tool for basic
research since it is possible to highlight the
activations of different brain structure also from
deep areas.

➢ Positron emission tomography (PET): The

logic behind this is to inject a traceable substance in the blood flow. Researchers can then
trace the blood flow that is required by the brain during an activity.

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It is possible to combine the us of fMRI and PET, to enhance results with information on what
happens at every moment (PET) and where the change occurs (fMRI).

WHY EGG?
- It is portable. How can you think to transport an fMRI or a PET in an on-field
experiment?
- It is economic in terms of time spent to put the sensors
- It is economic in terms of money you need to use to do a study
- It is economic in terms of analysis you need to do on data
- It has the best temporal resolution compared to other techniques (but it has
the worst spatial resolution).

HOW CAN YOU SEE THE BRAIN BY EEG ANÁLISIS

EEG analysis doesn’t give us data about subcortical structures
and we can’t visualize or map which are the most active areas.
EEG gives us information about electrical activity of the cortex
where the sensors are positioned.

EEG can describe which kind of brain activity there is. How?
With a difference in the calculation of electrical activity
between an active point, (on the scalp) and a point close to a
neutral zone (e.g.: lobe of the ear) where there is no brain
activity.

Density: is represented by the number of sensors. A high number of sensors allows us to

compensate the lack of spatial resolution. On the other hand a large number of sensors takes a
long time for the set up, but ensures a high quality data.

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Sampling rate: is determined by the amount of data that the helmet is able to collect in a
second. A 128 Hz sampling indicates that data is sent from all sensors 128 times in a second. If
we have a higher sample rate, we will have a better data quality.

Usage: Field versus laboratory

Cost: Sampling rate and density affect the cost of the helmet

NVX – 52/36 Channels

➢ Density: Good density, set up around 10-15 min. Very high quality data.

➢ Usage: Field and laborator

Raw output

Each sensor produces a numerical output for each instant of time (the total value of which is
linked to the concept of «sampling»). This numerical value is the result of the visual difference
between the active and neutral electrodes (Reference). Raw output should be carefully filtered
of any movement or determined by the same instrumentation artefacts.

And then, what can we do?

Raw EEG data is collected over time. This means that we typically control the data within the
time domain. An algorithm ( fast Fourier transform) allows us to transform the data from the
time domain to the frequency domain.

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Spectral analysis

The spectral analysis works on the cerebral rhythms. Each type of brainwave is related to a
rhythm and it is the expression of a specific activity of our brain.

From spectral analysis to indexes… Indexes consider cerebral rhytmys and through the
application of specific algorithms, they are able to determine cognitive performance indicators.
It is possible to divide the indicators into…

Approch-Withdraw index

In general when people interact with a stimulus (a product, a brand, an images) thy can be
ether attracted to it or not One of the most important indicators in our work is the pre-frontal
asymmetry (Aka AWI). This indicator allow us to understand the valence of the stimulus, or
rather the quality of the cognitive activation.

The frontal asymmetry is a subtraction between the left frontal sensors activity of alpha waves
and the right frontal sensors activity. This metric is based on an important assumption:

▪ An activation of left frontal cortex is more related with a positive attitude on a stimulus.

▪ An activation of the right frontal cortex is more related with a negative attitude on a stimulus

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Spectral analysis gives rise to numerous cognitive indeces…

➢Workload index (theta bands): while making decision, people invest effort to process
information. Because of its close relationship with human performance (human performance
usually decreases when mental workload becomes too high or too low) it is a very relevant
concept in the field of humans decisions process.

➢ Attention and Memorization index (theta and delta bands): each second, people receive 11
million bits of unfiltered information (advertisement, products, brands, images, colours,
sounds etc.) through all their sense. Humans are capable of processing a small part of it,
around 50 bit. For consumer research it’s fundamental understand which information gets
prioritized over other available information and which variables influence consumer behavior
such as brand awareness, product experience and advertising recall.

➢ Engagement index (alpha/beta bands): to assess cognitive involvement with a task, brands
or a webpages

➢ Global field power and Global Power (in theta and delta bands): indices that gives
information about a mediative state of the consumer. Is correlated with the level of relaxation.

➢ Willingness to pay (gamma bands): the consumer must be willing to spend to purchase a
product. This indicator answers the research question “is this packaging make the consumer
fell to spend money for my product?”

EYE TRACKING : SIGHT, TYPES OF EYE TRACKER AND OUTPUT

The large number of cortical and subcortical areas, crossed by visual information, makes sight
one of the most developed and important sense. 25% of our brain contains areas involved in
processing of visual information. The interconnection of these structures reveals a strong link
between perceptual data and cognitive-attentive processes.

The interconnection of these structures reveals a strong link between perceptual data and
cognitive-attentive processes. At the bottom of the Eye Tracker operation there is MIND-EYE
HYPOTHESIS (Hoffman, 1998).

MIND-EYE HYPOTHESIS: Theory based on Neuroscience It declares that what we observe

reflects what we are thinking about or what we are interested in.

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Loomis et al. highlight that VR is currently one of the best trade-offs for preserving ecological
validity while meeting the research objective.

➢ While the laboratory condition allows high control over the

experiment and manipulation of variables, this results in a loss
on ecological validity.

➢ Conversely, the natural observation of events under non-

laboratory conditions allows to increase the ecological validity
of the experiment, greatly reducing the ability to control and
manipulate the experimental setting.

The Eye Tracker works with infrared light technology. It is

extremely sensitive to sunlight and is not suitable for outdoor
environments without adequate protections.

About glasses: The Eye Tracker glasses (field and dynamic

acquisition version) is a very useful tool when you want to analyze
environmental contexts.

•Retail and Store analysis

• Dynamic Human Performance

• App Analysis

• Product Placement

• Real Packaging Analysis

When you have collected all data, the Eye Tracker provides
different types of output that differ according to the kind of information sought on the
stimulus. Among the various outputs, we can find a distinction between those that offer
comparable metrics (quantitative) and those that provide visual feedback on exploration
(qualitative).

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Heatmaps

The heatmap is specific device that uses the amount of fixations on a stimulus to give a very
intuitive output. The areas marked by red color are the most displayed, those in green the
least displayed.

The analysis of curbside advertising can happen contrasting to different situations like day or
evening. The heatmap can also be obtained on environmental contexts, projecting on a static
image (snapshot) the video portions recorded through the eye tracking glasses. The software,
using the image recognition based on A.I., projects the fixations on the snapshot.

It can also be used to analyze of store experiences (store that is set up and one that isn´t).

Focusmap

The heatmap can also be obtained on environmental contexts, projecting on a static image
(snapshot) the video portions recorded through the eye tracking glasses. The software, using
the image recognition based on A.I., projects the fixations on the snapshot.

Scanpath

Although our view seems to us a fluid and continuous path, it is instead represented by a
continuous sequence of shots. The real moment in which a person observes is represented by
the fixations. Very rapid shifts between fixations are commonly referred to as saccade or
micro-saccades. During normal vision, humans normally spend 90% of the time fixating on
objects, with the remaining time consisting of saccades.

The Scanpath faithfully reproduces the ocular path of a subject

on the visualized stimulus. It’s a qualitative output. It allows you
to sequentially reproduce the visual path. However, it is
composed of circle and connecting lines which provide
information about fixations and saccades.

➢ Circle: represent eye fixations. That is, the moments when

the eye is stable and the information is really perceived and
reworked. The larger the circle, the longer the duration of the
fixation.

➢ The connecting lines: represent instead the saccades.

The example shows the overlapping ScanPath of 3 users (characterized by the different color
of the route) on an e-commerce.

The Scanpath can be also represented in a «aggregated» way and not only on the individual
user. In this case, the display is a mix between the traditional Scanpath and a dynamic
heatmap.

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Area of interest

The Area of Interest is more practical. This is designed by the researcher according to his goals
and the elements that he wants to analyze. Once the area of interest has been selected and
drawn, it is possible to extract indicative measures on performance. Among the indicators of
performance we can find:

• TIME SPENT : time spent on area

• ENTRY TIME : entry time on area or time to first

fixation

• SEQUENCE : sequence of visualization of area

• HIT RATIO : percentage of the sample that displayed

the area.

• REVISITS : average revisits on area

• REVISITORS: number of subjects that has revisited

the area

• FIXATION COUNT : number of fixation on area

• FIXATION AVERAGE: average fixations on area

Other output:

Blinking is the frequency with the eyes physiologically close for short ranges of time. This
seems to indicate the level of satisfaction of a stimulus. The greater the time span between
blinks, the greater the level of involvement in stimulus (Dunning et al., 2010)

Pupilometry or pupillometric analysis focuses attention on pupil variations. This type of

analysis, already used since the 1970s, is very complex because, besides emotions and
cognitive load, pupil amplitude is subject to exogenous variables such as brightness and
endogenous variables such as cognitive stress level. Pupil dilation and restriction is strongly
influenced by different luminance condition.

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The bias gaze allows us to evaluate with a good predictive ability which element of a couple of
stimuli attracts more attention. The output is based on a simultaneous exposure of two stimuli
for a total of 6 seconds. The visual behavior between 4 and 6 second are predictive of the final
choice.

BIOANALYSIS (skin conductance, heart rate variability, respiration and electromyography)

Two key concept In experimental psychology emotions are
mapped in a two dimensional space where horizontal and vertical
axes are related to arousal and valence.

What is under control of autonomic nervous system?

- Skin conductance; heart rate

- Respiration; muscle activity

Skin conductance

Skin conductance gives an indication of the electrical conductance

of the skin related to the level of sweat in the sweat glands. The
sweat glands are involved in emotion-evoked sweating. They cover
the all body but are most dense on the palms and the soles of the
feet.

When there is more activation of the autonomic nervous system, there will be more sweat
secretion and consequentially a higher level of skin conductance and an emotional activation.
Direct connection between emotion and micro/macro changes in sweating.

- Heart rate; Blood volume Pulse (BVP): Photoplethysmography is a simple and low-cost
optical technique that can be used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular
circle. Blood volume is associated to HR. Heart rate can give an indication of the valence of
an emotional response. Positive stimuli evoke an increase in the heart rate, while negative
stimuli generally lead to decrease in the heart rate.
- Electromiography: The analysis of micro-movements and micro-muscular contractions of
the face (corrugator or zygomatic muscles) and other muscles of the body can be an

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 important feedback for the emotional activity and physiological arousal of the subjects.
(e.g smiling)

Respiration

Two elastic breathing detection bands are positioned: On the diaphragm and On the abdomen
Breathing is a very useful parameter, especially when it is combined with the conductive
activity of the skin and HR.

FACIAL EXPRESSION (Theories of P.Ekman, face reader, F.A.C.S)

Why analysis of facial expression is useful? Human face is considered to be the richest source
of information among nonverbal channels for emotion expression. In everyday life conditions,
humans frequently exchange social information and one of the richest and most powerful
tools in what is called “social communication” is the face, from which people can quickly and
easily get information about identity, gender, sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
physical health, attractiveness, emotional state, personality traits, pain or physical pleasure,
deception, and even social status.

After several years of study of a tribe of Papua New Guinea, Paul Ekman concludes that there
are 6 universal basic emotions: sadness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise, happiness. In 1992 he
added 11 emotions

F.A.C.S (Facial action coding system)

System of decoding facial expressions made by Ekman, Friesen and Hagen. The face is divided
into precise portions called Action Unit (AU) 44 AU for facial expressions 14 AU for change of
look and head direction Each AU is scored in letters (A to E) to indicate the degree of
involvement of the unit in the facial expression.

Manual analysis technique: A certificate is required for operators who want to do F.A.C.S
analyses.

Face reader

Automatic software that can create a 3D mask on the face and provide a feedback on the
emotion felt or the overall value of the emotion (positive vs negative).

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It takes less time for the analysis and low implementation costs. Requires attention during the
analytic stage for possible signal distortion and is less accurate.

FaceReader enables researchers to identify real-time facial expressions of customers and

classify emotions into diverse types. FaceReader can combine both basic emotions and
dimensional emotion approach (i.e., arousal and valence).

ATTENTION! The particular shape of some subjects could mislead the software. If you have an
accentuated downward shape of the mouth, the software could read it as “sadness”. For this
reason, it is important to make a BASELINE of the face.

RATIONALITY (Sam & semantic differential, likert scales, open ended questions, deep
interviews)

Semantic differential

A psychometric technique realized by Osgood, Suci and Tannebaum in 1957. It allows us to

understand the «implicit» level of semantic meanings. The subject is free to position himself
along a continuum between two extremes representing opposites of a specific dimension (eg:
beautiful vs ugly).

Sam (Self assessment manikin)

Iconographic technique to understand different underlying dimensions to the emotional /

cognitive state experimented. The subject is free to position himself in any box between the
extremes of three different dimensions: the pleasure, the arousal and the dominance.

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Integrated output The likert scale on the liking of a short advertisement/stimuli (extremes 1 = I
did not like at all; 6= I loved it)

Implicit association test

According to Fazio's definition, an attitude is a cognitive structure consisting of the association

in memory between the representation of an object and its evaluation.

- Cognitive-based attitudes: formed on the basis of

a rational evaluation of the object: "I prefer Pepsi
to Coke because it contains less sugar and less
bubbles.”
- Emotionally based attitudes: they are based on
the emotions an object conveys to us.
a) They do not result from rational examination
b) They are not sensitive to logical arguments
c) Often related to the person's value system, so
people feel aggressed when they are
contradicted
- Classical conditioning: A stimulus that causes an
emotional reaction is felt simultaneously with the presentation of the object. A child
witnesses continuous parental arguments while at the dinner table at dinner time. In that
family, it is usual to put Coca-Cola on the table.
- Operant conditioning: the object is linked to positive and negative consequences. Any
time Pepsi is chosen instead of Coca-Cola, the child picks up signs of approval from those
around him.

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THE IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST (IAT) CONSISTS OF 5 BLOCKS
Block 1: Learning. This is a sensory discrimination task. Instruction: Press the E key when you
see images of Coca-Cola and the I key when you see images of Pepsi

Block 2: Learning. Participants are asked to distinguish adjectives. Instruction: Press the E key
when you see positive words and the I key when you see negative words.

Block 3: First target block. Participants are asked to distinguish images and adjectives.

Block 4: Learning. Response keys of block 1 are inverted.

Block 5: Second target block. Participants are asked to distinguish images and adjectives.

The rationale behind the task is as follows: The subject will take less time to perform the task
where the associations between presented images and words are consistent In addition, the
task with consistent associations will be performed more accurately.

DUAL PROCESS THEORY

Humans make decisions by relying on two systems

1) System 1 Processes information in parallel, operates automatic processes. Quick and

instinctive decisions.

2) System 2 Processes information serially, handles controlled processes. Weighted decisions.

Richard West

This mode of operation proves to be very effective for human beings: System 1 enables us to
make minor decisions quickly, leaving mental energies free to support the operation of System
2, which is deputed to more complex decisions that require mental effort.

Implicit consumer preferences and their influence on product choice

Recent theories in social psychology assume that people may have two different attitudes
toward an object at the same time- one that is implicit and corresponds with spontaneous
behavior. The research presented in this article tested this assumption in the consumer
domain with an experimental approach.

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Participants whose explicit and implicit preference regarding generic food products and well-
known food brands were incongruent were more likely to choose the implicitly preferred
brand over the explicitly preferred one when choices were made under pressure.

The opposite was the case when they were made under time pressure. The opposite was the
case when they had ample time to make their choice. On the basis of there results, the
discussion stresses the importance of impulsive behavior and implicit measures for research in
the area of consumer behavior.

Introduction to food consumption and taste psychology

“Eating is the only thing we do that involves all the senses. I don´t think that we realize just
how much influence the senses have on the way we process information from mouth to
brain”. (Tasting Menu, The Fact Duck). Studies how taste combines with smell and the other
senses to produce what we call taste, but which is actually flavour.

HOW TO STUDY SMEELS AND TASTES?

Neurogastronomy, Molecular cuisine, Physiology, chemistry and biology, Neuroscience and
psychology, Food sociology, Marketing and Neuromarketing, Sensory analysis.

From taste to flavour

• Flavour: complex perception resulting from different sensory modalities.

• Taste: sensation elicited by food or drink in the mouth. Taste enables the identification of
nutrients or toxic substances and guides food choices. Conditioned by expectations and
environmental variables (lighting, temperature, music).

Adult has 2000/5000 buds, each containing from 1 to 100 cells. Short span life,
around 10 days (excluding colds, trauma or burns). A taste map: Taste buds are
NOT specialized according to their location, they can perceive all tastes anywhere
on the tongue wherever they are positioned!

During chewing particles of the nutrient dissolved in saliva activate receptors,

chemical stimulus is translated into nerve impulse and the signal conveyed to the
brain via the cranial nerves.

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The “journey” of the taste massage:

Taste messengers: facial nerve (or gustatory nerve), glossopharyngeal nerve (ninth cranial
nerve) and the vagus nerve (tenth cranial nerve). The three nerves reach the nucleus of the
fasciculus solitarius, in the posterior part of the brain, and then pass to the ventral postero-
medial nucleus of the thalamus and reach the different areas of the primary gustatory cortex
located in the frontal lobes, in particular the insula and the frontal cortex of the operculum.

Others nerves reach the hypothalamus and amygdala which are areas of the limbic system, the
centre of emotional life and regulator of certain primary needs.

OLFACTORY PHYSIOLOGY
The sense of smell is useful from an adaptive point of view for environmental exploration and
survival. We have orthonasal olfaction (animals) and retronasal olfaction (humans).

Olfactory cells: Man has around 350 olfactory receptors that can perceive from 4000 to 1000
odours. Surface area 5 cm2. Olfactory mucosa has two layers: a deeper layer (mucus, blood
vessels, connective tissue and receptor neuron axons) olfactory epithelium (receptor cells).

The retronasal pathway: Chewing disperses volatile food molecules inside the mouth, they
reach the nasal cavity activating olfactory receptors. Air circulation between the mouth and
nose allows odorous substances to reach the nasal cavity by ascending behind the soft palate,
then reaching the olfactory sensory neurons. Several brain regions are involved: the olfactory
bulb and the orbitofrontal olfactory cortex.

<<Clip test>>: The sense of smell is the most involved in tasting, both from the cognitive point
of view of evaluating food, and from the affective-emotional point of view of estimating the
pleasantness of food (Holley & Pizzone, 2015).

FLAVOUR AND MEMORY

Episodic memories are multisensorial (smells, sounds, images). They are not stored in a single
centre (the hippocampus), but distributed among different areas, so that they are also
awakened by a single sensory channel (Gottfried et al., 2004).

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Smells are able to recall autobiographical episodes in extremely vivid, detailed and emotionally
connoted manner (Chu & Downes, 2000).

PROUST EFFECT
The anatomical proximity of the olfactory system to the structures responsible for emotion
(amygdala) and memory (hippocampus) is seen as evidence in favor of Proust Syndrome
(Nezelof & Millot, 2010). It is possible to establish a lasting association between an odour and a
state of mind, which may be recalled subsequent to the perception of the odour (Kirk Smith,
Van Toller & Dodd, 1983).

THE ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX AND THE INSULA

Gustatory perception depends on the integration of numerous pieces of information at both
the gustatory and multisensory levels. Areas of multisensory convergence where all sensory
data integrate and take on meaning: orbitofrontal cortex and insula.

PRIMARY TASTE
- Sweet presence associated with carbohydrates, an energy source. On a biochemical level
mediated by sugar receptors = analgesic effect (Nature, 2019)
- Salty At birth it is indifferent, from six months preference for slightly salty water
(Beauchamp, 1986). Indicator of the presence of sodium (Na+) useful for maintaining body
fluid balance. Ability to perceive saltiness is not static, but changes.
- Sour can be a sign of spoiled or unripe and harmful. From a physiological point of view, H+
hydrogen ions are involved in reception, acting by controlling the permeability of a channel
used by potassium ions K +.
- Bitter repulsion from an evolutionary point of view. They indicate naturally occurring toxic
substances. No total repulsion Coffee? Beer? Dark chocolate? Li & Lemon (2019) studying
the relationship between taste and temperature in rats. Crossing of bitter and pain
pathways: parabrachial area part of the midbrain.
Bitter and PROP (Propiltiouracile) or PTC (Feniltiocarbamide): Genetic differences influence
sensitivity: Not taster, Taster, Super taster. Bitter products act on receptors linked to a
communication system (gustducin), the gene family of these receptors comprises more
than a hundred genes capable of detecting substances harmful to the body (Bartoshuk,
2000).

UNAMI
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) increases flavour intensity. Protein aminoacid and
neurotransmitter with brain receptors. Innate appreciation. By adding MSG to broth, infants
express their pleasure. Prescott and Young (2002) judged the enjoyment and propensity to buy
of two soups, to one of which MSG had been added and to the other nothing. The results
showed that the soup samples containing MSG were liked and more willing to buy.

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OTHER POSSIBLE FLAVOURS: FAT?
Fats are a major energy source in Western diets. Texture characteristics that would make food
more desirable: creaminess or crunchiness. Lifelong preference. Gene CD36 would detect fatty
acids -> Still under investigation.

Psycho-Physiological Mechanisms

ACQUOLINA IN BOCA
From a physiological point of view, the sight of a dish can stimulate the automatic nerves so
that they activate the production of saliva by the salivary glands and gastric juices preparing
the body for the ingestion and digestion of food.

SPECIFIC SENSORY SATIETY MECHANISM (ROLLS ET AL., 1981)

When eating large quantities of a food, the level of enjoyment will gradually decrease until it
becomes neutral. Prevents a highly monotonous diet. Allows to vary the nutrients.

«CHRISTMAS TABLE» EFFECT

Cornell et al., 1989 made a sample with a group of students. He offered large meal to exclude
physiological hunger; followed by ice cream and pizza. After consuming large quantities of
both foods, food cravings elicited by the presence of food.

CROSSMODAL TRANSFER
Is phenomenon of perceptual enhancement due to interaction between systems. What is
perceived via one sensory modality can modify the experience of the stimulus on another
sensory channel.

It talks about associative learning (e.g. colour and temperature), it´s very common among most
individuals and ased on perceptual and structural neurological phenomena.

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HOW MUCH DO COLORS MATTER?
If food coloring is added to a flavoured solution, the intensity of the perceived
aroma will increase. For example, more color, more sweetness. Are certain
colors more associated with tastes? Zampini et al., 2007 said that he could
identify the taste, without drinking!. Coloured solutions strongly associated
with specific tastes.

MORROT, BROCHET AND DUBOURDIEU, 2001

Faculty of Oenology, Université Bordeaux Segalen studied with wines and expert tasters. White
wines coloured red mistaken for real red wines.

TOUCH
Somatosensory receptors: sensitive to temperature, pain, touch (depressions, skin roughness
and stretching) and pressure. Evaluation of consistency and texture, often a reason for
rejection (viscosity, lumpiness and softness).

- Astringency: foods with tannins ('dry' wines, tea, nuts, unripe bananas, blueberry juice).
- 'Brain freeze': nerves in the back of the palate, the sphenopalatine ganglion, sensitive to
cold food, send painful information to the brain.

Capsaicina: La capsaicina es una sustancia que se encuentra en los chiles. Su acción consiste en
afectar las células nerviosas de la piel que están asociadas con el dolor, lo que provoca una
disminución de la actividad de estas células nerviosas y una menor sensación de dolor.

It´s effect is located in the fifth cranial nerve: trigeminal, and it creates a chemesthetic
sensation: tactile, thermal, chemical and painful (Prescott & Stevenson, 1995).

VR1 and VRL-2 receptors when temperature exceeds 43° and 52°, capsaicin has the right shape
to activate them allowing passage of calcium ions into cell membrane which transmits pain
sensation. Opposed to ingestion (slowing down or stopping breathing, lachrymal, nasal
secretion and sneezing).

Advantages: Vitamin A and C. Social inclusion peer group and community, cultural mediation.
Intense trigeminal stimuli may release endorphins as compensation.

HEARING
Fragrance and crispness, also physical and chemical properties. The sounds used to determine
the level of maturity and make our taste experience more or less pleasant It would seem that
crispier foods in fact produce louder sounds when bitten and this affects the judgement of the
enjoyment of the dish as crispier is considered to taste better (Bourne, 2002).

Zampini and Spence (2004): Subject of investigation: role of sound sensations on the taste
experience.

Procedure: The participants took a single bite with their incisors out of 180 potato crisps with
their mouths close to a microphone and assessed their freshness and crispness.

Experimental conditions: they heard the bite sound with appropriate intensity, attenuated or
amplified.

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Results: The crisps rated fresher and crispier when the sound was more intense The judgement
was conditioned by the sound stimuli.

Misophony (Jastreboff, 2001): Reduced tolerance to specific sounds (straws, soup,

mastication). Negative emotional and physical reactions. 42 subjects, 20 "misophonic". You
could see activity in the anterior insula cortex. They were hearing chewing sounds.

How do music and taste interact? The more rounded notes seem to increase the perception of
sweetness. Classical music seems to be associated with a greater perception of sophistication
and willingness to spend.

<<Sensory transfer>> effect: More we enjoy the background music, more we will appreciate
the dish we are tasting. The sensations aroused by the music are transferred to the food.
Melodies that can 'trick' the brain and taste buds!

Social communication

COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION VS SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION is functional to the development/dissemination of a
company/brand. It aims to promote:

- Product and/or services

- Brands
- Institutional images
- Individual images
- Different types of activities related to trade, manufacturing, the image of a company and
even the profession.

Profit logic: provides merchandise optimization software solutions. The Company offers
products that provide automated decision support to retailers at each point in the
merchandising process, from buying to allocation/replenishment to price, promotion, and
markdown management.

SOCIAL COMMUNICATION: It uses advertising communication tools but with different

purposes:

- Public utility and public interest

- Collective wellbeing

Commercial tools at the service of society. Social communication can have a difficult definition.
Several debates on the nature of the type of communication have stated that social
communication transmits:

- Messages of public interest/utility

- Communication declined as public communication

In the debate that lasted twenty years, social communication finds its positioning also thanks
to the definition after the 90s, defined as characterized by (Mancini, 1996):

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- public service communication (public utility services, implemented by public or private
entities).
- social communication (promotion of an idea or a controversial value, coming from public,
semi-public or private institutions)
- communication of social responsibilities (promotion of the interests of a company or an
entity, associated with the defence of the consumer/community welfare)

THE BIRTH OF PUBBLICITÀ PROGRESSO [PUBLIC INFORMATION ]: AN IMPORTANT

ITALIAN CASE
Born in 1970: a period of great contestation, it inserts issues related to collective wellbeing in a
moment of great investment in consumption.

1971: success of Pubblicità Progresso thanks to the very successful blood donation campaign

Over the years, Pubblicità Progresso has become aware of important aspects such as:

- citizen not only as a recipient, but as an active subject able to make requests and intervene
- it realizes the role and effects it can have on citizens/institutions communication, opening
a new dialogue between the two parties
- It sees the support of communication/advertising agencies
- 1987: Pubblicità Progresso enters with a national commission at the Presidency of the
Council of Ministers to help the public administration in the choice of campaigns of public
utility

In its institutionalized capacity, the commission defines the criteria for the choice of themes:

1) THE THEME MUST BE OF A WIDE RECALL AND MUST HAVE AN INTEREST ON A

NATIONAL SCALE. The topic must be of public interest, interest is indicated as the only
factor to ensure attention on the issue. The wide interest can be determined by
referring to the social interest of the topic.
2) THE THEME MUST HAVE A UNIVERSAL CHARACTER. It must not be commercial in
nature. It must not contain information of a political nature. It must not involve
interests of specific associations and / or institutes It refers to the value of human
solidarity towards: disadvantaged categories, tolerance, respect for others, the rights
of citizens.
3) THE THEME SHOULD RAISE THE INTEREST OF PROFESSIONALS PROMOTERS AND ALL
THE ARGUMENTS MUST JUSTIFY THE USE OF TECHNICAL ADVERTISING (not be
commercial) The theme must be suitable for the use of advertising techniques and
therefore characterized by: brevity, conciseness, repetitiveness

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 SIMPLIFICATION OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE THEME (SUCCESS OF THE CAMPAIGN
AGAINST SMOKING in 1975

4) PUBBLICITA’ PROGRESSO CAN RESUME A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT ISSUE Principle

of repetition of the campaign for maintaining the information already conveyed.

Need to respect and maintain interest (and therefore attention to the issue)

SOCIAL ADVERTISING
Social advertising defined on 3 litotes that indicate not what they include, but what they
exclude (Gadotti, 2001): Non commercial, Non profit, Non product advertising.

Social advertising makes use of information campaigns using commercial tools to address non-
commercial issues, in order to induce a change in behavior. Especially in health care, there is a
«trap» of communication that suggests that the recipient will change its behavior, once the
information is received…

This situation is determined by factors such as:

- The pleasure experienced by implementing the risky behavior (smoking)

- Unrealistic optimism towards one’s health
- Scepticism about health communications
- The increase of the sources that make the messages ambiguous

Functions

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 a) Reinforcement function: The aim is to REINFORCE issues that have already been
taken into consideration by public opinion (e.g. cleaned towns symbol of modern
society).
b) Recall function: Relevant problems which, however, do not have particular
attention. The aim of the recall function is to REAFFIRM the importance of the
topic to discourage incorrect behaviors (e.g. eliminate the myth of the house as a
«safe nest»).
c) Amplification function: Emergency and relevance of the theme. Typical function of
social campaigns that present a new theme but on which public opinion exists.
Need to provide MORE INFORMATION or CORRECT information (e.g. bad
information about AIDS infection was giving rise to a «cultural disaster»
https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=k33ta6HB otc).
d) Aim to deal with issues on which there is LACK OF ATTENTION as there is not yet
adequate information (e.g. information on elderly distress and advice on extended
and united families à anticipation of new realities à population aging and
prolungation of life).

The evaluation, which aims to understand the memory of a message and its
effectiveness in changing an attitude (Martini and Falletti, 2005), is carried out
through: Focus group, Focused interviews, Questionnaires, Innovative technologies,
the tools of neuromarketing.

AIMS
- Verify the emotional effectiveness of the commercial on potential donors
- Comparing the emotional activation and visual attention of the creative proposals;
- Identify the most effective narrative steps from an emotional and cognitive point of view
- Verify the memorability of the message and the brand
- Evaluate the presence of frames that can be deleted if one wants to reduce the seconds of
the spot duration.

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INSTRUMENTS
- NEURO TRACKER: AW Index. It measures approach or avoidance. Indicator of INTEREST
- EYE TRACKER: It measures visual attention. Indicator of ATTENTION
- SKIN CONDUCTANCE: It measure the emotional activation. Indicator of ENGAGEMENT
- FACIAL EMOTION RECOGNITION (Face Reader e FACS): It measures the micro contractions
of the facial muscles. Indicator of EMOTION
- SELF REPORT QUESTIONNAIRES and SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW: in-depth analysis
RATIONAL ANSWER AND STORAGE

Neuroanalysis

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PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIVATION
It allows to analyse the physiological response resulting from the emotional involvement.
There are different technologies that can be used: skin conductance, heartbeat. It can also be
used to evaluate the pleasantness of a product/service in field (e.g. during the tasting phase)
These data are useful for assessing emotional intensity.

EYETRACKER

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

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HABITS

RESULTS OF THE EYE TRACKER

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pág. 109
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RESULTS - SUMMARY
- SPOT A : BEST NARRATIVE CHOICE
- KEY FACTOR: SURVIVAL BEYOND DEATH IN MEMORY OF WHO RECEIVES THE DONATION
- AFTER THE SPOT à 35% INCREASE IN DONATIONS!

ASSESSING THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE IN SOCIAL COMMUNICATION: THE ROLE OF

NEUROMARKETING

Social advertising is designed to have an impact on the behavior of the target audience to
improve the welfare of both the individuals and the society. The challenge for social marketing
is to respond to the exchange process in a social perspective, considering that non- profit
actions are perceived as intangible since they deal with services. As donations, the the
neuroscience applied to consumer behavior is an added value since it offers elements
explaining the reactions of the individuals and to understand the possibility the message can
change the behavior of the target audience.

The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the Unicef bequest campaign in terms of
emotional response, comparing different creative proposals to optimize communication,
applying neuromarketing tools to the social area.

The experiment involved 70 participants (35 males, 35 females; mean age 68,94) and
compared two different spots and flyers. The progeny factor was introduced to assess the
different impacts of bequests depending on the presence or absence of potential heirs. The
neuromarketing tools such as electroencephalography (egg), skin conductance (s), and eye-
tracker were used for instrumentation purposes. Analysis of the two spots showed statistically
significant differences in both the approach- withdrawal index (awi), for the cognitive
involvement, and the SC, the emotional activation indicator, particularly for those not having
children (target audience) and in specific spot that linked the possibility to live after death.

The detection of the emotional responses through neuromarketing tools, associated with the
non-profit communication, resulted particularly effective and verified an increment of 35% of
the donations. Analyses performed with neuromarketing techniques allowed to understand
both emotional intensity and cognitive involvement and to understand the best solution,
according to the target audience and the aim of unicef.

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 Decision making

A matter of limited rationality. The Theory of Bounded Rationality (Simon, 1981)

In order to make decisions as according to the principle of coherence and maximization, actors
should have the availability of:

(1) ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION

(2) COGNITIVE COMPUTATION ABILITIES

(3) TIME

Consequences? Apropriateness?

The disappointment/ fear to lose is “higher than the

pleasure to win.

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INSIGHTS FROM KAHNEMAN AND TVERSKY
 BECAUSE OF LIMITED RATIONALITY, PEOPLE USE SIMPLE RULES OF THUMB
(HEURISTICS) TO HELP THEM MAKE JUDGMENTS AND FORECASTS

 THE USE OF THESE HEURISTICS LEADS TO SYSTEMATIC ERRORS (BIASES)

 RANDOM ERRORS WOULD NOT MATTER TO ECONOMIC THEORY, BUT SYSTEMATIC

ERROR IS A BIG DEAL!!

Framing effect

Levin and Gaeth (1988) have found that people ‘s perception of food quality vary significantly if
the information focuses on positive rather than negative attributes:

CONSUMERS REPEATEDLY SHOWED TO PREFER MEAT THAT WAS LABELED ‘LEAN FOR THE
75%’ THAN THE MEAT DESCRIBED AS ‘FAT FOR THE 25%’.

A. WITH PROGRAMME A 200 PEOPLE WILL SURVIVE

B. WITH PROGRAMME B THERE IS 1/3 OF PROBABILITY THAT ALL THE 600 PEOPLE WILL
SURVIVE AND 2/3 PROBABILITY THAT NO ONE WILL BE SAVED

C. WITH PROGRAMME C 400 PEOPLE WILL DIE

D. WITH PROGRAMME D THERE IS 1/3 PROBABILITY THAT NO ONE WILL DIE AND 2/3
PROBABILITY THAT 600 PEOPLE WILL DIE.

Imagine that your country is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual disease, which is
expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been
proposed. Assume that the exact scientific estimate of the consequences of the programs are
as follows:

Participants were randomly assigned to either condition 1 or condition 2. The two groups
received two versions of the programs which were identical, except for the framing of the
outcomes. In condition 1, the two reported programs were stated in positive terms (lives
saved):

- If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.

- If Program B is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3
probability that no people will be saved.

In condition 2, the two reported programs were stated in negative terms (lives lost):

- If Program A is adopted 400 people will die.

- If Program B is adopted there is 1/3 probability that nobody will die, and 2/3 probability
that 600 people will die.

Both the groups were asked which program between A and B they would have favored.

Framing the outcomes in positive vs. negative terms produced a reversal of participants’
preferences for the two programs. In condition 1, the majority of respondents (69.4%) favored
Program A, exhibiting risk aversion. In condition 2, the majority of respondents (65.3%)
favored Program B, exhibiting risk seeking.

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ENDOWMENT EFFECT..STATUS QUO BIAS (KAHNEMAN, KNETSCH,
THALER, 1990)
- Token experiments: Markets worked just as in text books.
- Mugs experiments: Too little trading… initial assignments seem “sticky”!

Why?

- Loss aversion: Mug owners demanded about twice as much to give up their mugs as non-
owners were willing to pay to get one.
- Status quo bias, the tendency to stick with what you have.
- Other reinforcing factors: The comfort of the known vs the unknown. And inattention,
laziness and procrastination. For example: television watching.

A wine-loving economist we know purchased some nice Bordeaux wines years ago at low
prices. The wines have greatly appreciated in value, so that a bottle that cost only $10 when
purchased would now fetch $200 at auction.

This economist now drinks some of this wine occasionally, but would neither be willing to sell
the wine at the auction price nor buy an additional bottle at that price. Thaler (1980) called this
pattern—the fact that people often demand much more to give up an object than they would
be willing to pay to acquire it—the endowment effect. The example also illustrates what
Samuelson and Zeckhauser (1988) call a status quo bias, a preference for the current state that
biases the economist against both buying and selling his wine.

COGNITIVE BIAS CODEX

The Cognitive Bias Codex is a handy visual tool that organizes biases in a meaningful way;
however, it is worth pointing out that the codex lists heuristics and biases both as 'biases. ' If
you decide to rely on the Cognitive Bias Codex, then keep in mind the distinction between
heuristics and biases mentioned above.

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These biases play a major role in determining the success of selling tools and approaches in
several contexts.

Selling tools:

- Selling script
- Selling approach
- Leaflet (panfletos)

Examples of industries:

- Financial services
- Telecom
- Retail

CHOICE ARECHITECTURE : NUDGE AND PUBLIC POLICY

Choice architecture describes how the decisions we make are affected by the layout/
sequencing/ and range of choices that are available. For example, getting students to eat more
helpfully might involve altering the design of the school or college restaurant.

Smart building designs might make it more attractive/ easier to make the stairs rather than use
a lift! Choice of architecture is often more effective when it encourages simplicity in the
decisions that people have to make and in which the benefits and costs are made.

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CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS

THE KEYWORDS OF THE CONSUMER JOURNEY

Emotions play an important role in decision making. They drive information selection and
assessment, explain impulsive buying and are the main drive for HEDONISTIC CONSUMPTION

• Prefrontal Cortex functions indicate that emotions are fundamental for a correct
cognitive functioning

• When purchase decisions are taken in conditions of high uncertainty, such as lack of
information and lack of time (note that this is quite a usual condition in the day-to-day
life of consumers!) emotions have a main significant role in determining consumer
preferences (Noda, M., Takai, J., & Yoshida, T., 2007; Olivero, N. & Maggioni, E., 2016).

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PLANNED CONSUMPTION
1) Information search
2) Information evaluation
3) Choice

I´ve got a problem; I need…

Marketing strategies can stimulate consumers´primary or secondary demand

- Primary demand: explain advantages of the future condition and emphasise the limits of
present situation
- Secondary demand: Focus on product traits and give reasonswhy are “better” than
compettitors. Provide symbolic associations.

INFORMATION SEARCH- FOR PLANNED PURCHASES ONLY

4 main stages of the purchasing process for FTV (Market research for Philips).
- 1st spark: General Interest for innovation, technology, design and entertainment. The
largest FTVs are an appealing product. Consumers start being receptive to advertising and
communication. Involvement increases steadily.
- Store exploration and decision to buy: This is after up to 6 months. Consumers explore
stores to experience technology: watching and touching. Excitement turns into high
involvement when the decision to bring technology at home is taken. Decision to buy is
associated with decision regarding size and approximate budget.
- Comparison. This is from 1 week till 2 months. Consumers compare models and prices in
various shops. Consumers read information cards and interact with sales assistant. A
second decision is taken on the model and on two-three possible brands. Only a few used
the Internet (youth).
- Final decision. This is the same day of the comparison till 2-3 weeks/ 1 month. Decision is
negotiated within the family. Sales assistant can solve last question marks and affect final
decision with a personal opinion . Key factors: picture quality, design and technological
extras. Brand is less important and may be suggested by the sale assistant.

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Information search, experience and risk perception. This can classify the consumer in “highly
involved” and “lowly involved”.

What are the strategies adopted by consumers to cope with risk perception?

IMPULSE BUYING
Behavior is not always planned and rational. We also have impulse buying caused by:

- Gratification
- Salience
- “Convenience”

This can be caused by: packaging- store layout- promotions and symbols!!The meaning
dimensions in impulse purchases:

1) Instrumental: For example, batteries.

2) Symbolic: For example, perfume.
3) Experimental: For example, an ice cream.

We can see impulse buying vs planned consumption because it is excessive and compulsive.

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INFORMATION CHANNEL USAGE PATTERNS AND CUSTOMER JOURNEYS
ZMOT IDENTIFIES THE VARIOUS DIGITAL INFORMATION CHANNELS WHERE CONSUMERS
SEARCH FOR INFORMATION DURING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY BEFORE PURCHASE:

SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, THIRD PARTY REVIEWS, DEAL SITES, PRODUCT PAGES OF
TARGET RETAILERS AND COMPETING RETAILERS.

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Customer journey and information collection is messy:

Is there any difference in the digital decision- making process?

Hedonistic characteristics often coexist with utilitarian motivations. Digital channel can
restructure traditional product categorization. Speeding up the customer journey and by
stimulating habit formation.

An anchoring effect is when we see for example “ SPECIAL OFFER” or “Sale” in a product

Leer: in search of Homo economicus

Are there emerging consumer experiences?

What is an experience? It is a paradigm shift. A practical contact with and observation of facts
or events. We can see it from a hedonistic consumption point of view (Holbrock e
Hirschman, 1982) or from experiential marketing ( Schmitt 2006, Pine Gilmore, 2000 and
2004).

RESEARCH STREAMS ON CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

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Schmitt (1999) categorizes experiential marketing into different dimensions:

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ATMOSPHERIC CUES:
Key roleof facility-basedenvironmentalcueson buyer behaviour. Kotler’s (1973)
pioneeringcontributionon atmospherics. Consumers are influenced by physical stimuli: at the
point of purchase and while exploring the shopping environment.

The “experience design” paradox (Olivero 2005)

Tools for monitoring the consumer experience: towards an empirical foundation of experience
design. 

- EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: Atmospheric planning as an important marketing strategy for

any exchange environment Managers and architects plan a retail environment in the
attempt to control its impact on clients 
- LACK OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH AND OF THEORETICALLY BASED FRAMEWORKS:
“experience design” relies on personal taste and intuitions rather than on empirical data…

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COLORS INFLUENCE:
- Purchasing rates
- Time spent in a store
- Pleasant feelings
- Arousal
- Store and merchandise image
- Attraction toward products displays

e.g.: people are attracted to warm colors but they find them to be more unpleasant and it has
been shown that consumers reacted more favorably to a blue environment (compared to red),
which also resulted to higher purchase rates.

SOUND
Has an immediate and, to a large extent, cognitively unmediated impact on recall and
emotions. The music played in a store has a significant impact on:

- Sales, arousal, perceptions of and actual time spent in the environment, in-store traffic flow,

impact of visual stimuli etc...

- The impact of music on behaviour can be observed even when consumers are not aware of it.

However its relative impact can be mediated by:

• Age of the shopper

• Tempo

• Volume

• Music preferences
CROWD
Some consumer control over the environment modulates the negative impact associated with
crowding. Task-oriented shoppers perceived more crowding than non task-oriented shoppers.
Crowding has a negative impact on:

• Satisfaction

• Browsing and comparative shopping

• Number of purchases

• Quality perception

• Switch to other shops etc…

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What does this mean for product and experience design?

- 90 % of the information transferred to the brain is VISUAL

- SMELL affects emotions 75% more than other senses
- TASTE triggers strong emotional reactions
- TOUCH delivers more simultaneous information than other senses
- EARING/sound impacts recall

We have gone from a product focus to a seamless totally immersive experience

EMOTIONS CAN BE ELICITED WITH SENSORIAL STIMULI AND WITH PERVASIVE

AESTHETIC

Empirical research based on S-O-R paradigm shows that visual appearance attractiveness of
technological artifacts is significantly associated to positive emotions leading to impulse buying
and enjoyment.

The physical form of a product is associated to affective responses of customers, which in turn
lead to approach or avoidance behaviors. The “Beautiful is good” rule should be always applied
to customer strategy and strategy and product design.

SMELL CASE STUDY: SONY STYLE STORES 17

SONY uses special fragrance (vanilla and tangerines) appositely designed to attract women and
make them stay longer in the store. The fragrance is relaxing and pleasant – it is sprayed both
within and outside the store (es. NY). Tests showed that the fragrance:

- Increases feelings of calm and relax

- Increases the liking for the store
- Significantly increases dwell time – gender differences are strongly reduced – women stay
longer in the store.

SENSORIAL APPROACHES TO RETAIL STRATEGY AND DESIGN

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Smell connects more directly (than any other senses) to the limbic system- the most ptimitive
part of the brain which organizes emotions and memory.

Olivero innovative research method integrating neurophysiologic measures with implicit

attitudes tests and consumer research.

- Definition of objectives for use of fragances in target

department.
- Software design from implicit attitude test, software
and questionnaire design for buying propensity and
mood tests.
- Selection of fragances from those available in the
market.
- Preliminary coherence and preference test (150
panelist).
- Experimental test measuring impact on emotions,
propensity to buy and brand perception.
- Test in laboratory stores of preselected fragances,
measuring impact on experience, perception during
time and sales.
- Definition of “plug- in” kit and launch of the roll- out
on the full store network.

RETAIL DESIGN STRATEGY

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PIONEERING LONDON´S RETAIL ECOSYSTEM
We find the dandy lab; “ The store of the future”. This is a store that thanks to your mobile
phone you can learn (about the product) , shop (with unique advice) and share (with your
contacts). all with a personalized experience.

Children and Consumption, socialization and advertising

They are called as the unvoiced category. This is because they do not have a voice, don´t
express their needs or claim for attention. We really need to focus on them as adults. We
should give them a voice and try to understand. Children are children, not “adults to be”.

The dichotomous child

Scholars make a divisions:

- Vulnerable child: developmental psychology. If you consider them vulnerable you will try
to protect them. You won´t let them be free. He won´t experiment. There is a limitation of
freedom
- Empowered child: marketing, sociology. You might think children are ready for things that
are not. Sometimes they cannot face some content. We create an anticipated/ hurried

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 time management.

The correct way of seeing a child is considering both characteristics.

«There is growing public concern that heavy media exposure and consumption are making our
children more materialistic and that this, in turn, has a negative impact on their wellbeing.»
(Nairn, 2009)

THE CRITICAL RELATION BETWEEN CHILDREN AND CONSUMPTION

The ubiquity of the marketplace in children´s everyday life. They are in retail stores, see the
products and ask for products purchases. For example, let´s put an alarm on food marketing
(where people are worried about the constant advertising of unhealthy food), access to adult
contents, consumerism, materialism (they are becoming every time more consuming).
Companies take as an advantage that children are unexperienced. There is an exploitation of
the unexperienced child while them being exposed to advertising.

Can the child not be a consumer?

Becoming a consumer is not an option (Buckingham, 2011). It is an spontaneous process. The

child is a consumer <<from cradle to grave>> (Schor, 2006). Consumption is part of children´s
lives the child experiences consumption in an active way (Valkenburg, 2018). The world of
consumption is a privileged key to understand it builds children´s personality and identity
(Marshall, 2010).

The child is a developing human being who interacts incessantly with the environment around
him by processing actively the stimuli that derive from it.

PIAGET´S GENETIC EPISTEMOLOGY

Cognition: Children have limited cognitive capabilities compared to those of an adult.

Environment: Development as a self- regulating interaction between the child and the
environment around him: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

Stages: The growth pf the child in stages as an ongoing process and a discontinuous
phenomenon. There are four stages of cognitive development (1937):

1) Sensori- motor: From birth to 2 years. The child mainly focuses on immediate sensory
and more experiences and only has rudimentary thinking skills.
2) Pre- operational. From 2- 7 years. The child learns to understand basic and symbolic
thoughts and focuses on just one dimension for the evaluation of an object.
Egocentricity.
3) Concrete operational: From 7 to 12 years. Children can classify and organize objects.
They can start to preform logical mental operations. They are able to deal with several
dimensions of a stimulus.
4) Formal operational: From 12 to adulthood. They have the ability to process
information in a more adult-like pattern in that they can deal with complex thoughts
and hypothetical scenarios.

OTHER THEORIES ABOUT CHILDREN´S DEVELOPMENT

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The social learning theory suggests that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating
the behavior of others (Bandura 1971). The psyche´s development development is guided and
influenced by the social and cultural context (Vygotskij, 1931)

Have today´s child any different?

This is obvious because there have happened many changes in our life; physical and
physiological changes. There is an advanced of pubertal development in girls and boys. There
as also being social changes:

- Old parents (+ financial resources, - less children)

- New family structures
- Liberalization of the parent- child relationship in Western society which means decision
making skills and influences on the adult

About media changes there has been a adultization; the movement of the child towards the
adult. Adults ‘former control of knowledge and access to means of tools that were once
inaccessible. Adults are not the owners of knowledge. Media trend to suggest more and more
anticipated passages. Usually, media tend to go to a more adult content.

Children have a role in decision making; they are part of the family democracy. Even some
decisions that are not completely related to the child itself. So, we are looking as children as
consumer.

CHILDREN IMPORTANCE TO THE MARKET (MCNEAL 2007;1992)

Children should be consider as three types of consumer in one:

- Immediate consumer: They are in the primary market; children spend their pocket money
for their needs with no or few supervision by adults.
- Mediator of adult consumption: They also participate in the secondary market; children
influence the adult´s consumption regarding products addressed to them or products
destined to an adult audience.
- Future consumer: Future market; children are fidelized by firms even towards products
that are not using.

CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION
Conceptualized first in the 70ies when marketing began to give direct attention to children.
Today it is still one crucial theory through some changes are intervening.

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The processes by which young people acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant to their
functioning as consumers in the market place. We have two types of consumer socialization:

- Direct consumer socialization: All the activities associated with the acquisition of goods
and services.
- Indirect consumer socialization: All the perceived rules, like social motivation, materialism
or other aspects that are part and stimulate the act of consumption in the marketplace

THREE PERSPECTIVES OF CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION (Tartas and De la Ville, 2010)

- Classical: based on stage development: individual process

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- Socio- active: Consumer socialization as a social process

- Cultural: Consumer socialization as a cultural process

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<<Children´s consumer socialization has become intricately bound up with children´s time
spent in front of some screen>> (Kline, 2010)

CHILDREN WITH THE MEDIA

Children use new and traditional media. There has been a development of new media but they
still repurposing of traditional media. There are more programs online and more recorded
programs. They often use a second screen while they are watching in order to comment, to
avoid advertising, to stay in contact with other people.

There is a division made in 2001 by Prensky when talking about digital: digital natives, digital
immigrants and digital late.

Children has been seen as digital natives (for example by Prensky, 2001). Digital natives are
those who are able to use digital technologies in an intuitive way, without effort (is this a
matter of generations or of the time they devote to digital media? Riva, 2014

There are four generations of digital natives:

- Text generation: Born from 2007 (Iphone) and 2010 (ipad) onwards Birth of the APP
Overcoming language barrier Susceptible to direct manipulation from a very young age Birth of
the digital native baby.

- Web generation

- Social media generation

- Touch generation

CHILDREN AND ADVERTISING

Traditional advertising is no longer in the dominant position now we have in the picture
product placement, advergames, influencers’ actions. We need to know how children interpret
the world around them. Do they really understand advertising? Some think that “advertising
interrupts the program because superheroes are tired of fighting”. What type of messages
does the consumer world communicate to children? Identities, values and relations.

What do they understand? Advertising is not completely understandable to children. In

children differently from age to age there is a confusion between real and imaginary worlds.

What the consumer world conveys: the consumer/media world contextually to the suggestion
of purchase conveys codes and messages that give rules, fix values and pass meanings that
children learn.

Traits of the advertising to children:

- Poor quality advertising

- Simplicity of situations
- Many colours clearly distinguishing male and female products o usually red, blue, yellow
for boys or pink, light blue for girls
- Well-defined themes and settings o action-adventure, sports, play for male; nurturing,
physical attractiveness, friendship and romance for female

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- Older children with respect to the targe

What do children like about advertising?

Space- time, repetition, simplicity, text, images, verbal- iconic simplicity, easy-to-memorize
situation, speed of actions, paradoxical humorous playful aspects, interesting topics, catchy
music, smiling and reassuring characters and a climate of serenity friendship success.

Studies about advertising

When talking about children and advertising we need to focus on: exposition, attention,
comprehension, memorizing and effectiveness. Advertising to them can have either intended
effects or unintended effects. They can also have defense from advertising effects such as age
and cognitive defenses, educational processes (by families or schools) or advertising literacy.

Intended effects: Information, brand knowledge, product knoweldge, sale, fidelization.

Acquisition of behaviours and lifestyles - Materialism, Consumerism, Parent-child conflict, Nag

factor, Adultization, Stereotypes, Unhappiness, Obesity

How does advertising comprehension work?

- Around 5 year: Children single out advertising in a programme they are watching on TV
- Around 7/8 years: They actually recognize the persuasive purposes of adverting
- Around 10/12 years: They recognize strategies and bias of advertisers

FIRST EXPOSURE TO ADVERTISING AT AROUND 8 MONTHS TIME (Valkenburg, 2012)

For example, Santa´s letter and advertising:

Exploration of the effectiveness of toy advertising through Santa’s letters.

N=83 preschoolers interviewed N= 16 nursery schools, questionnaire to parents about the

contents of Santa’s letters Children who watched more advertising. Requested a greater
number of items. Required more branded items The children’s request did not correlate
significantly with the most frequently advertised products 90% of the advertised toys were not
mentioned in the letters -> name recall is poor under 7? Positive correlation between watching
television alone and number of requests.

THE NAG FACTOR

The nag factor describes children’s persistent requests that influence parents’ purchases in
order to obtain a specific consumer good, under the pressure of the peer group and/or
advertising It is an action of harassment perpetrated by the children against their parents Two
kinds (Idell, 1998):

• Persistent nagging

• Importance nagging

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CONCLUSIONS
- Responsibility: we have a role and a responsibility to create in the future marketing,
advertising or communication campaigns that consider their sensibility or their ability to
process emotions.
- Education: We have a role as educators, as future parents, older brothers and sisters,
future teachers, to work on their critical thinking, reasoning, understanding on things in
order to allow the to defend themselves from what is uncorrectly proposed to them

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