Consumer Psychology
Inhoudsopgave
1 Introduction.....................................................................................5
1.1 Consumer psychology................................................................................... 5
1.2 Consumer information processing.................................................................6
1.2.1 Mere exposure effect............................................................................... 7
1.2.2 Persuasive heuristics............................................................................... 8
1.2.3 For Communication Scientists.................................................................8
2 The consumer’s mind: attitudes, beliefs and information processing. .9
2.1 Individual differences.................................................................................. 10
2.2 Attitudes...................................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Attitude-belief-model............................................................................. 12
2.2.2 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)..........................................................13
2.2.3 Attitude-behaviour-link..........................................................................14
2.2.4 Dual process models (different routes).................................................15
2.2.5 Alternative directions in attitudes research...........................................16
2.2.6 Paper Petty, Cacioppo, Schumann – ELM (Elaboration Likelihood Model)
....................................................................................................................... 16
2.2.7 Paper Gorn............................................................................................ 20
2.2.8 Weather and consumer behaviour........................................................23
2.2.9 Attitude measurement..........................................................................24
2.3 Consumer information processing...............................................................26
3 Emotions.......................................................................................27
3.1.1 Different types of emotions...................................................................28
3.2 Different research traditions........................................................................30
3.2.1 Jamesian tradition: body – physiology...................................................30
3.2.2 Cognitive tradition: appraisals – cognitive processes............................31
3.2.3 Neurological tradition: brain – neural processes...................................31
3.2.4 Evolutionary tradition: all components – adaptive value (why?)...........32
3.2.5 Theory of constructed emotions............................................................34
3.3 Measuring emotions.................................................................................... 34
3.3.1 Self-report............................................................................................. 34
3.3.2 Physiological measures.........................................................................35
3.3.3 Research emotion types........................................................................37
3.3.4 Paper Pleasure to Play, Arousal to Stay.................................................38
3.4 Hope and self-regulatory goals applied to an advertising context...............41
1
, 3.4.1 Hope in CB (consumer behaviour).........................................................41
3.4.2 Hope in advertising............................................................................... 41
3.4.3 Paper Hope – regulatory focus..............................................................42
3.4.4 Paper Fransen et al................................................................................ 47
3.5 Evolutionary Psychology.............................................................................. 48
3.5.1 Mental adaptions................................................................................... 49
3.5.2 The brain is a physical system…...........................................................50
3.5.3 Designed by natural selection…............................................................50
3.5.4 Brain is composed of many functionally specialized circuits.................52
3.5.5 Formed over the course of our species’ evolutionary history................52
3.5.6 That largely operates outside of our awareness....................................53
3.5.7 Paper Fear and loving in Las Vegas.......................................................53
3.5.8 Paper Many shades of rose colored glasses..........................................57
4 Introduction to neuromarketing......................................................59
4.1 Autonomic nervous system (ANS)...............................................................60
4.1.1 Electrodermal activity (EDA).................................................................60
4.1.2 Heart rate variability (HRV)...................................................................62
4.1.3 Cardiac measurements.........................................................................64
4.2 Central nervous system (CNS).....................................................................66
4.2.1 Electroencephalography (EEG)..............................................................66
4.2.2 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).....................................70
4.3 Other experimental techniques...................................................................71
4.3.1 Eye-tracking.......................................................................................... 71
4.3.2 Biomarkers............................................................................................ 72
5 Sex differences in consumer behaviour and their evolutionary roots. 74
5.1 Basic concepts............................................................................................ 74
5.2 Evolutionary Psychology (EP)......................................................................75
5.2.1 Natural & sexual selection....................................................................76
5.2.2 Handicap principle................................................................................ 76
5.2.3 Parental investment.............................................................................. 77
5.3 Women’s biology......................................................................................... 79
5.3.1 Detection of earning capacity...............................................................80
5.4 Male mating strategy.................................................................................. 82
5.4.1 Men & short-term mating: The costs.....................................................82
5.4.2 Men and long-term commitment...........................................................82
5.4.3 Cues to assess Reproductive Value.......................................................83
5.5 Sex differences in consumer behaviour.......................................................83
2
,6 Heuristics......................................................................................91
6.1 Rationality................................................................................................... 91
6.1.1 Logicality............................................................................................... 91
6.1.2 Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky........................................................92
6.2 The availability heuristic............................................................................. 94
6.2.1 Negativity bias...................................................................................... 97
6.2.2 Context effect........................................................................................ 98
6.2.3 Anchoring.............................................................................................. 99
6.2.4 Analysis of advertisements.................................................................100
6.3 Confirmation bias ..................................................................................... 102
6.3.1 The spotlight effect............................................................................. 103
6.3.2 Social projection.................................................................................. 104
6.3.3 Bias blind spot..................................................................................... 106
6.3.4 Hostile media bias (HME)....................................................................106
6.3.5 Rationality behind confirmation bias...................................................107
6.4 Attribution................................................................................................. 108
6.4.1 Self-serving bias & fundamental attribution error...............................109
6.4.2 Miss attribution................................................................................... 109
6.4.3 Because justification........................................................................... 110
6.4.4 Post-purchase rationalisation/choice-supportive bias..........................110
6.4.5 Ads...................................................................................................... 111
6.5 Scarcity heuristic....................................................................................... 112
6.6 Effort heuristic........................................................................................... 113
6.6.1 Sunken cost fallacy / escalation of commitment.................................114
6.6.2 The ultimate engagement (addiction) equation..................................115
6.7 Social proof (consensus)............................................................................117
6.8 Ads (of all the heuristics)...........................................................................118
6.9 Sales techniques....................................................................................... 119
7 How to promote healthy foods? An evolutionary lens – gastcollege
Katrien Maldoy (21/10)....................................................................123
7.1 How come that we do not eat healthy?.....................................................123
7.2 How can we promote healthy foods from evolutionary perspective?........125
7.3 How can advertising promote healthy food...............................................126
7.3.1 Does advertising for healthy foods differ from advertising for unhealthy
foods regarding social context?....................................................................126
7.3.2 What if we portray healthy foods in a more social way?.....................127
8 LDV United – gastcollege Lorien Verachtert (7/11)..........................129
9 Types of exam questions...............................................................129
3
,Course
Journal articles: classic studies as an illustration of themes and theories we
discuss in class
Empirical studies (mainly experiments) will be extensively discussed.
Overview papers provide background with the theories discussed in class.
Evaluation
Written exam 60%
o Empirical studies (+ explain studies + show insights in the theory,
methods and results + apply in broader contexts + critically
evaluate)
o Theories, terms/concepts
Assignment 40%
4
,1 Introduction
Emotions
“Emotions are no disfunctional or irrational by-products, but are essential
for rational thinking and behaviour.”
o Emotions have been looked at like they are irrational. But they
learned that people who leaked emotions behaved strangely, we
wouldn’t see it as normal/rational
o Maybe it’s not I think therefore I am (Descartes), but I feel therefore
I am
You can measure it but only by asking how people feel (self-report), and
they need to be on a conscious level for that
1.1 Consumer psychology
All behaviors that relate to people as consumers
What makes them like/choose/buy?
Emotions, rational behaviour? Choice processes? Situational influences …
o Preferences etc. can change due to hormones, throughout the day, …
How do consumers deal with persuasion attempts?
Influence, resistance/reactance, persuasion knowledge, young consumers
….
(Resistance = when you try to go against the ads. For example, anti-smoke
campaigns and you resist the campaign by keep smoking. Or vaccination
campaigns and people think this
restricts their individual decision so don’t vaccinate themselves.)
o Sometimes people do the opposite of the purpose of the persuasion
attempts
Psychological methods (experiments), focus on (underlying) processes of
attitudes & behaviour (and individual differences or other moderators)
Examples
How TikTok has put beauty and selfcare to the front now it is booming
Pro-social behaviour= good actions for the people/society ; when they see
themselves better, they will do better for others
Tips & tricks
Asking a question or use a statement it depends on the type of product
you promote
o Calm ads/situations = questions – exciting ads/situations =
statement
Use emotional ads for expensive products – informational ads for cheaper
ones
When % off vs $ off: store-wide = % – product discounts = $
It’s a combination to rely on science and your own knowledge about the
brand, customers…
5
, Applies psychological theories to understand consumers and consumer behaviour
(CB).
Core themes:
o Consumer information processing (attention, elaboration,
decision making)
o Motivation and affect
o Persuasion, attitudes, social influence
! Not only for academic and managerial purposes, goal is also to
advance knowledge for consumer wellbeing (+ public policy).
=Sub-division of the American Psychological Association (division 23)
Related disciplines (Media psychology, Social psychology,
Environmental psychology)
Society for Consumer Research – Website: http://www.myscp.org/
1.2 Consumer information processing
How do people process (consumer-related) stimuli?
o There is a hierarchy in different steps that lead to an effect or not.
o First there is exposure, then attention (you pay attention to it or
not), if you pay attention to it you will start to comprehend it
(making sense, give it meaning, is it good or
bad) and this opinion leads to the individual
accepting it or not (retention).
Information overload (home, media, shops, other
ppl)
o We are constantly in information overload,
that impacts how we process all the messages
How does this affect their beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviour?
Many things are just happening underneath, just because it
doesn’t happen in conscious awareness doesn’t mean we can’t study it.
Deliberate path: people unconsciously process every incoming stimulus (not
everything deliberately, not with the same attention because it would take to
much energy)
o Ex. When you buy something expensive you think about the
purchase really hard (high involvement/risk situation) when you
buy chips you are not thinking so deeply about it
6
Inhoudsopgave
1 Introduction.....................................................................................5
1.1 Consumer psychology................................................................................... 5
1.2 Consumer information processing.................................................................6
1.2.1 Mere exposure effect............................................................................... 7
1.2.2 Persuasive heuristics............................................................................... 8
1.2.3 For Communication Scientists.................................................................8
2 The consumer’s mind: attitudes, beliefs and information processing. .9
2.1 Individual differences.................................................................................. 10
2.2 Attitudes...................................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Attitude-belief-model............................................................................. 12
2.2.2 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)..........................................................13
2.2.3 Attitude-behaviour-link..........................................................................14
2.2.4 Dual process models (different routes).................................................15
2.2.5 Alternative directions in attitudes research...........................................16
2.2.6 Paper Petty, Cacioppo, Schumann – ELM (Elaboration Likelihood Model)
....................................................................................................................... 16
2.2.7 Paper Gorn............................................................................................ 20
2.2.8 Weather and consumer behaviour........................................................23
2.2.9 Attitude measurement..........................................................................24
2.3 Consumer information processing...............................................................26
3 Emotions.......................................................................................27
3.1.1 Different types of emotions...................................................................28
3.2 Different research traditions........................................................................30
3.2.1 Jamesian tradition: body – physiology...................................................30
3.2.2 Cognitive tradition: appraisals – cognitive processes............................31
3.2.3 Neurological tradition: brain – neural processes...................................31
3.2.4 Evolutionary tradition: all components – adaptive value (why?)...........32
3.2.5 Theory of constructed emotions............................................................34
3.3 Measuring emotions.................................................................................... 34
3.3.1 Self-report............................................................................................. 34
3.3.2 Physiological measures.........................................................................35
3.3.3 Research emotion types........................................................................37
3.3.4 Paper Pleasure to Play, Arousal to Stay.................................................38
3.4 Hope and self-regulatory goals applied to an advertising context...............41
1
, 3.4.1 Hope in CB (consumer behaviour).........................................................41
3.4.2 Hope in advertising............................................................................... 41
3.4.3 Paper Hope – regulatory focus..............................................................42
3.4.4 Paper Fransen et al................................................................................ 47
3.5 Evolutionary Psychology.............................................................................. 48
3.5.1 Mental adaptions................................................................................... 49
3.5.2 The brain is a physical system…...........................................................50
3.5.3 Designed by natural selection…............................................................50
3.5.4 Brain is composed of many functionally specialized circuits.................52
3.5.5 Formed over the course of our species’ evolutionary history................52
3.5.6 That largely operates outside of our awareness....................................53
3.5.7 Paper Fear and loving in Las Vegas.......................................................53
3.5.8 Paper Many shades of rose colored glasses..........................................57
4 Introduction to neuromarketing......................................................59
4.1 Autonomic nervous system (ANS)...............................................................60
4.1.1 Electrodermal activity (EDA).................................................................60
4.1.2 Heart rate variability (HRV)...................................................................62
4.1.3 Cardiac measurements.........................................................................64
4.2 Central nervous system (CNS).....................................................................66
4.2.1 Electroencephalography (EEG)..............................................................66
4.2.2 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).....................................70
4.3 Other experimental techniques...................................................................71
4.3.1 Eye-tracking.......................................................................................... 71
4.3.2 Biomarkers............................................................................................ 72
5 Sex differences in consumer behaviour and their evolutionary roots. 74
5.1 Basic concepts............................................................................................ 74
5.2 Evolutionary Psychology (EP)......................................................................75
5.2.1 Natural & sexual selection....................................................................76
5.2.2 Handicap principle................................................................................ 76
5.2.3 Parental investment.............................................................................. 77
5.3 Women’s biology......................................................................................... 79
5.3.1 Detection of earning capacity...............................................................80
5.4 Male mating strategy.................................................................................. 82
5.4.1 Men & short-term mating: The costs.....................................................82
5.4.2 Men and long-term commitment...........................................................82
5.4.3 Cues to assess Reproductive Value.......................................................83
5.5 Sex differences in consumer behaviour.......................................................83
2
,6 Heuristics......................................................................................91
6.1 Rationality................................................................................................... 91
6.1.1 Logicality............................................................................................... 91
6.1.2 Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky........................................................92
6.2 The availability heuristic............................................................................. 94
6.2.1 Negativity bias...................................................................................... 97
6.2.2 Context effect........................................................................................ 98
6.2.3 Anchoring.............................................................................................. 99
6.2.4 Analysis of advertisements.................................................................100
6.3 Confirmation bias ..................................................................................... 102
6.3.1 The spotlight effect............................................................................. 103
6.3.2 Social projection.................................................................................. 104
6.3.3 Bias blind spot..................................................................................... 106
6.3.4 Hostile media bias (HME)....................................................................106
6.3.5 Rationality behind confirmation bias...................................................107
6.4 Attribution................................................................................................. 108
6.4.1 Self-serving bias & fundamental attribution error...............................109
6.4.2 Miss attribution................................................................................... 109
6.4.3 Because justification........................................................................... 110
6.4.4 Post-purchase rationalisation/choice-supportive bias..........................110
6.4.5 Ads...................................................................................................... 111
6.5 Scarcity heuristic....................................................................................... 112
6.6 Effort heuristic........................................................................................... 113
6.6.1 Sunken cost fallacy / escalation of commitment.................................114
6.6.2 The ultimate engagement (addiction) equation..................................115
6.7 Social proof (consensus)............................................................................117
6.8 Ads (of all the heuristics)...........................................................................118
6.9 Sales techniques....................................................................................... 119
7 How to promote healthy foods? An evolutionary lens – gastcollege
Katrien Maldoy (21/10)....................................................................123
7.1 How come that we do not eat healthy?.....................................................123
7.2 How can we promote healthy foods from evolutionary perspective?........125
7.3 How can advertising promote healthy food...............................................126
7.3.1 Does advertising for healthy foods differ from advertising for unhealthy
foods regarding social context?....................................................................126
7.3.2 What if we portray healthy foods in a more social way?.....................127
8 LDV United – gastcollege Lorien Verachtert (7/11)..........................129
9 Types of exam questions...............................................................129
3
,Course
Journal articles: classic studies as an illustration of themes and theories we
discuss in class
Empirical studies (mainly experiments) will be extensively discussed.
Overview papers provide background with the theories discussed in class.
Evaluation
Written exam 60%
o Empirical studies (+ explain studies + show insights in the theory,
methods and results + apply in broader contexts + critically
evaluate)
o Theories, terms/concepts
Assignment 40%
4
,1 Introduction
Emotions
“Emotions are no disfunctional or irrational by-products, but are essential
for rational thinking and behaviour.”
o Emotions have been looked at like they are irrational. But they
learned that people who leaked emotions behaved strangely, we
wouldn’t see it as normal/rational
o Maybe it’s not I think therefore I am (Descartes), but I feel therefore
I am
You can measure it but only by asking how people feel (self-report), and
they need to be on a conscious level for that
1.1 Consumer psychology
All behaviors that relate to people as consumers
What makes them like/choose/buy?
Emotions, rational behaviour? Choice processes? Situational influences …
o Preferences etc. can change due to hormones, throughout the day, …
How do consumers deal with persuasion attempts?
Influence, resistance/reactance, persuasion knowledge, young consumers
….
(Resistance = when you try to go against the ads. For example, anti-smoke
campaigns and you resist the campaign by keep smoking. Or vaccination
campaigns and people think this
restricts their individual decision so don’t vaccinate themselves.)
o Sometimes people do the opposite of the purpose of the persuasion
attempts
Psychological methods (experiments), focus on (underlying) processes of
attitudes & behaviour (and individual differences or other moderators)
Examples
How TikTok has put beauty and selfcare to the front now it is booming
Pro-social behaviour= good actions for the people/society ; when they see
themselves better, they will do better for others
Tips & tricks
Asking a question or use a statement it depends on the type of product
you promote
o Calm ads/situations = questions – exciting ads/situations =
statement
Use emotional ads for expensive products – informational ads for cheaper
ones
When % off vs $ off: store-wide = % – product discounts = $
It’s a combination to rely on science and your own knowledge about the
brand, customers…
5
, Applies psychological theories to understand consumers and consumer behaviour
(CB).
Core themes:
o Consumer information processing (attention, elaboration,
decision making)
o Motivation and affect
o Persuasion, attitudes, social influence
! Not only for academic and managerial purposes, goal is also to
advance knowledge for consumer wellbeing (+ public policy).
=Sub-division of the American Psychological Association (division 23)
Related disciplines (Media psychology, Social psychology,
Environmental psychology)
Society for Consumer Research – Website: http://www.myscp.org/
1.2 Consumer information processing
How do people process (consumer-related) stimuli?
o There is a hierarchy in different steps that lead to an effect or not.
o First there is exposure, then attention (you pay attention to it or
not), if you pay attention to it you will start to comprehend it
(making sense, give it meaning, is it good or
bad) and this opinion leads to the individual
accepting it or not (retention).
Information overload (home, media, shops, other
ppl)
o We are constantly in information overload,
that impacts how we process all the messages
How does this affect their beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviour?
Many things are just happening underneath, just because it
doesn’t happen in conscious awareness doesn’t mean we can’t study it.
Deliberate path: people unconsciously process every incoming stimulus (not
everything deliberately, not with the same attention because it would take to
much energy)
o Ex. When you buy something expensive you think about the
purchase really hard (high involvement/risk situation) when you
buy chips you are not thinking so deeply about it
6
