Consumer Psychology
DO NOT only pay attention to the research question and results, but also to the methods and why
they were chosen why do we take each step?
1 Introduction
consumer psychology = all behaviors that relate to people as consumers
o what makes them like/choose/buy? emotions, rational behavior, …. (eg people buy more
lottery tickets when it’s raining)
o how do consumers deal with persuasion attempts? influence, resistance, young consumers, ..
o psychological methods (experiments), focus on (underlying) processes of attitudes & behavior
(and individual differences (M/F) or other moderators)
2 Consumer information processing
We live in a world with constant information overload, so what do we process and what affects us?
o how do they process (consumer-related) stimuli?
o information overload (home, media, shops, other ppl)
o how does this affect their attitudes and behavior?
exposure attention comprehension acceptance retention
this model only grabs the tip of the iceberg, because in more specific circumstances, people reason
more about their options etc instead of just passively taking everything in there is much more
than goes by unnoticed than what is really reasoned
cognitive resources are limited! Mental muscle, depletion (exhaustion), mental shortcuts:
1. reciprocity: you feel the need to invite someone if you are previously invited by them (bv
receiving a mint at a restaurant, people give more tips)
2. scarcity: you want more of what you can’t get
3. authority: people trust people with diploma’s, uniforms, … more accept more information
4. consistency: people are looking for voluntary small commitments
5. liking: you say yes to someone you like you like someone who is similar, who gives you
compliments and who cooperates with you)
6. consensus: you tend to agree with and act like people you like/can relate to
, we are less likely to resist impulsive/emotional purchases when we are tired/in the evening
we tend to buy more trivial things when we don’t use a shopping list because our brain gets tired
of searching for the products so at the end of the shopping trip it’s depleted so you’re prone to
marketing strategies
2.1 Mere exposure effect < Zajonc (1980)
o preferences need to inference having a preference doesn’t mean that you deliberatively
considered that this is your preference
o MERE EXPOSURE = by just repeating a stimulus on which you don’t have a specifit attitude, you
start liking it repeated exposure leads to liking
o he uses chinese science: the signs that they were exposed tomore often, where more liked even
tho they don’t understand the signs
o applied to advertising: when people read a newspaper, the ads are in their periferal processing
SO subconsiously they see the brands and are even liked better afterwards, even though they
didn’t really read the ads = INCIDENTAL PROCESSING
2.2 Individual differences
Important moderators!! = the expected effect differs depending on w ho poeple are as a person
Better insights in CP-processes
o Sociodemo’s: age, gender, cultural differences
o Behavioral patterns: e.g. restrained eating*1, disgust sensitivity*2
o Personality traits
A. Need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982)
= the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking
– I would prefer complex to simple problems.
– Thinking is not my idea of fun.
– I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve.
High NFC shows greater elaboration of message content compared to low NFC
B. Prevention/Promotion (Higgins et al, 2001) Scales!
– Regulatory focus trait: chronic disposition towards prevention/promotion (vs.
situationally induced (state))
– Promotion oriented ppl prefer gain frames (sunscreen will keep your skin healthy)
and prevention-oriented ppl prefer loss frames (sunscreen will prevent skin cancer)
C. Personality scales (Big 5)
– Biometric variables: stable physical characteristics (finger prints, iris, digit ratio*3…)
unique for every human being, but can reveal underlying traits
Still understudied in CP
,*1: restrained eating: if you’re on a diet, you’re always thinking about what you can or can’t eat so
you’re more easily depleted and as a result more vulnerable to impulse buying
*2: disgust sensitivity measures the degree in which you are easily disgusted: if it’s high, you’re less
likely to be influenced because you will avoid more things
*3: the ratio of your digits says something about you: if your index finger is shorter than your ring
finger (= low 2D:4D), you have more prenetal testosterone exposure (man) so more agresive
reactions towards aggressive music, better at playing soccer
high 2D:4D (indicating low prenatal testosterone/high prenatal estrogen) is associated with
• high CFRs and percent male mortality, may be a risk factor for severity of COVID-19 in males,
• Reduced risk of alcohol dependency
• Reduced performance in sports
• Reduced financial trading ability
• Reduced handedness and skills
• More assertiveness in females
2.3 Attitude
2.3.1 Origin
o Latin term: aptus (fitness, adaptedness)
o Until beginning 20th century: concept was used in a biological context (physiological tendency to
avoid or approach something)
o Starting 1920-ties: in social psych
o Positive or negative dispositions of an individual towards an attitude-object (first definition)
2.3.2 Definitions
o Uni-dimensional view:
• Expressions of passions and hates, attractions and repulsions, likes and dislikes for certain
people, groups, situations, objects (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994)
o Tripartite theory
• attitude = combination of affective, cognitive, & behavioral responses to an attitude-object
• Discussion: Does the behavioral component determine the attitude, or the other way around
(thus behavior as output of an attitude)?
2.3.3 Attitude formation
2.3.3.1Direct
= doesn’t need a lot of reasoning/deliberation
, 1. Classical conditioning (see further – pen experiment Gorn/pavlov experiment)
2. Operant conditioning
• « a process in which the frequency of occurrence of a specific behavior is modified by the
consequences of that behavior »
• reocurrence of positive (negative) consequences => positive (negative) attitude.
• based on rewards/punishments out of behavior if you buy a product and it preforms
well, it gives you a rewards positive attitude + buying it again
• Operant conditioning occurs when a person emits a behavior (e.g., buys a product) and
learns about the consequences of his/her behavior
– Product performs well Reward/Positive reinforcement Positive attitudes
Repurchase
– Friends ridiculize purchase Punishment/Negative reinforcement Negative
attitudes No repurchase
3. Mere exposure (see College 1 – Zajonc, Janiszewski), the more you’re exposed to it, the more
you’ll start to like something without any reasoning/deliberation
2.3.3.2Indirect
o Via beliefs: « attitudes are a function of beliefs and the values/evaluations associated with those
beliefs » (Fishbein)
o you can have ideas and opinions about something, but it doesn’t mean that they matter a lot
o attitude-belief-model: Fishbein: attitudeO = ∑ belief (bi) × evaluation (ei)
o refined model of Fishbein & Ajzen (1977): theory of reasoned action
• next to the attitude, it also matters what trelevant other think and how likely yobwill comply
with what they think
• Attitudes (beliefs + evaluations) do only partly predict behavior => rather behavioral
intention + Inclusion of subjective norms!!
• = what others think (normative belief) x the motivation to comply with this
SN= subjective norm
NBj = the normative belief that a reference
group thinks that person x should or should not
perform the behavior
DO NOT only pay attention to the research question and results, but also to the methods and why
they were chosen why do we take each step?
1 Introduction
consumer psychology = all behaviors that relate to people as consumers
o what makes them like/choose/buy? emotions, rational behavior, …. (eg people buy more
lottery tickets when it’s raining)
o how do consumers deal with persuasion attempts? influence, resistance, young consumers, ..
o psychological methods (experiments), focus on (underlying) processes of attitudes & behavior
(and individual differences (M/F) or other moderators)
2 Consumer information processing
We live in a world with constant information overload, so what do we process and what affects us?
o how do they process (consumer-related) stimuli?
o information overload (home, media, shops, other ppl)
o how does this affect their attitudes and behavior?
exposure attention comprehension acceptance retention
this model only grabs the tip of the iceberg, because in more specific circumstances, people reason
more about their options etc instead of just passively taking everything in there is much more
than goes by unnoticed than what is really reasoned
cognitive resources are limited! Mental muscle, depletion (exhaustion), mental shortcuts:
1. reciprocity: you feel the need to invite someone if you are previously invited by them (bv
receiving a mint at a restaurant, people give more tips)
2. scarcity: you want more of what you can’t get
3. authority: people trust people with diploma’s, uniforms, … more accept more information
4. consistency: people are looking for voluntary small commitments
5. liking: you say yes to someone you like you like someone who is similar, who gives you
compliments and who cooperates with you)
6. consensus: you tend to agree with and act like people you like/can relate to
, we are less likely to resist impulsive/emotional purchases when we are tired/in the evening
we tend to buy more trivial things when we don’t use a shopping list because our brain gets tired
of searching for the products so at the end of the shopping trip it’s depleted so you’re prone to
marketing strategies
2.1 Mere exposure effect < Zajonc (1980)
o preferences need to inference having a preference doesn’t mean that you deliberatively
considered that this is your preference
o MERE EXPOSURE = by just repeating a stimulus on which you don’t have a specifit attitude, you
start liking it repeated exposure leads to liking
o he uses chinese science: the signs that they were exposed tomore often, where more liked even
tho they don’t understand the signs
o applied to advertising: when people read a newspaper, the ads are in their periferal processing
SO subconsiously they see the brands and are even liked better afterwards, even though they
didn’t really read the ads = INCIDENTAL PROCESSING
2.2 Individual differences
Important moderators!! = the expected effect differs depending on w ho poeple are as a person
Better insights in CP-processes
o Sociodemo’s: age, gender, cultural differences
o Behavioral patterns: e.g. restrained eating*1, disgust sensitivity*2
o Personality traits
A. Need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982)
= the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking
– I would prefer complex to simple problems.
– Thinking is not my idea of fun.
– I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve.
High NFC shows greater elaboration of message content compared to low NFC
B. Prevention/Promotion (Higgins et al, 2001) Scales!
– Regulatory focus trait: chronic disposition towards prevention/promotion (vs.
situationally induced (state))
– Promotion oriented ppl prefer gain frames (sunscreen will keep your skin healthy)
and prevention-oriented ppl prefer loss frames (sunscreen will prevent skin cancer)
C. Personality scales (Big 5)
– Biometric variables: stable physical characteristics (finger prints, iris, digit ratio*3…)
unique for every human being, but can reveal underlying traits
Still understudied in CP
,*1: restrained eating: if you’re on a diet, you’re always thinking about what you can or can’t eat so
you’re more easily depleted and as a result more vulnerable to impulse buying
*2: disgust sensitivity measures the degree in which you are easily disgusted: if it’s high, you’re less
likely to be influenced because you will avoid more things
*3: the ratio of your digits says something about you: if your index finger is shorter than your ring
finger (= low 2D:4D), you have more prenetal testosterone exposure (man) so more agresive
reactions towards aggressive music, better at playing soccer
high 2D:4D (indicating low prenatal testosterone/high prenatal estrogen) is associated with
• high CFRs and percent male mortality, may be a risk factor for severity of COVID-19 in males,
• Reduced risk of alcohol dependency
• Reduced performance in sports
• Reduced financial trading ability
• Reduced handedness and skills
• More assertiveness in females
2.3 Attitude
2.3.1 Origin
o Latin term: aptus (fitness, adaptedness)
o Until beginning 20th century: concept was used in a biological context (physiological tendency to
avoid or approach something)
o Starting 1920-ties: in social psych
o Positive or negative dispositions of an individual towards an attitude-object (first definition)
2.3.2 Definitions
o Uni-dimensional view:
• Expressions of passions and hates, attractions and repulsions, likes and dislikes for certain
people, groups, situations, objects (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994)
o Tripartite theory
• attitude = combination of affective, cognitive, & behavioral responses to an attitude-object
• Discussion: Does the behavioral component determine the attitude, or the other way around
(thus behavior as output of an attitude)?
2.3.3 Attitude formation
2.3.3.1Direct
= doesn’t need a lot of reasoning/deliberation
, 1. Classical conditioning (see further – pen experiment Gorn/pavlov experiment)
2. Operant conditioning
• « a process in which the frequency of occurrence of a specific behavior is modified by the
consequences of that behavior »
• reocurrence of positive (negative) consequences => positive (negative) attitude.
• based on rewards/punishments out of behavior if you buy a product and it preforms
well, it gives you a rewards positive attitude + buying it again
• Operant conditioning occurs when a person emits a behavior (e.g., buys a product) and
learns about the consequences of his/her behavior
– Product performs well Reward/Positive reinforcement Positive attitudes
Repurchase
– Friends ridiculize purchase Punishment/Negative reinforcement Negative
attitudes No repurchase
3. Mere exposure (see College 1 – Zajonc, Janiszewski), the more you’re exposed to it, the more
you’ll start to like something without any reasoning/deliberation
2.3.3.2Indirect
o Via beliefs: « attitudes are a function of beliefs and the values/evaluations associated with those
beliefs » (Fishbein)
o you can have ideas and opinions about something, but it doesn’t mean that they matter a lot
o attitude-belief-model: Fishbein: attitudeO = ∑ belief (bi) × evaluation (ei)
o refined model of Fishbein & Ajzen (1977): theory of reasoned action
• next to the attitude, it also matters what trelevant other think and how likely yobwill comply
with what they think
• Attitudes (beliefs + evaluations) do only partly predict behavior => rather behavioral
intention + Inclusion of subjective norms!!
• = what others think (normative belief) x the motivation to comply with this
SN= subjective norm
NBj = the normative belief that a reference
group thinks that person x should or should not
perform the behavior
