Integrating neurophysiological and psychological approaches: Towards an advancement of brand insights

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141509/1/jcpy3.pd

Kindling the Motivation System: Impact of Incident Hedonic Cues on Subsequent Goal Pursuit

In this research, we propose that a brief experience with a hedonic cue (e.g. an appetitive drink) activates a general motivation drive, which, in turn enhances pursuit of a subsequently adopted goal (e.g., performance on intellectual goal, dieting goal etc.). Moreover, we show that given a sequence of goals, the activated motivational drive enhances pursuit for the more salient goal, that is, the goal temporally proximal to the source of motivational energy. Finally, we demonstrate that the impact of experiencing the hedonic cue on subsequent goal pursuit is attenuated if the activated motivational drive is satiated prior to the subsequent goal task. [to cite]: Monica Wadhwa and Baba Shiv Session Objectives and Overview. The broad purpose of this session is to present work that adds significantly to the growing body of research on motivational factors that drives consumption goals and choices. The more specific objectives of this session are to 1) to explore how affective and cognitive processes underlying an activated goal drive consumption momentum, and 2) to examine the role of exogenous irrelevant sources of motivation in energizing goal striving behaviors. To meet these objectives, three papers are included in this session, all of which are in advanced stages of completion. Keeping in mind the overall theme of ACR 2008 ("Port of Call"), and the diverse audience that ACR conference attracts, the papers in this session explore the factors that impact the motivation underlying consumer behavior from different, yet related perspectives. While the first paper examines how goal related attentional biases can energize momentum toward goal satiating stimuli, the second paper extends the focus of the first paper by exploring another factor-goal-compatibility-in energizing goal related actions. Finally the third paper complements the first two papers by exploring the role of exogenous motivational sources that are irrelevant to any specific goal in energizing subsequent goal striving behaviors. The session will begin with a focus on goal-driven attentional biases among impulsives and non-impulsives that drive indulgent behavior. Suresh Ramanathan will present his work that focuses on how two types of attentional biases, an initial visual attention bias toward temptations and a bias related to inability to avert attention from such temptations motivate indulgent behaviors. His results demonstrate that while impulsive people exhibit both forms of goaldriven biases towards tempting stimuli, it is their inability to avert attention from such temptations that drives the extent to which they show approach reactions toward such consumption stimuli and subsequently indulge themselves. Amar Cheema will then present his work with Nidhi Agrawal that builds on the first paper by examining the role of goalcompatibility in energizing momentum toward goal relevant con

Interference of the End: Why Recency Bias in Memory Determines When a Food Is Consumed Again

The results of three experiments reveal that memory for enjoyment of the end rather than the beginning of a gustatory experience determines how soon people desire to repeat that experience because memory for end moments, when one is most satiated, interferes with memory for initial moments

Let Us Eat and Drink, for Tomorrow We Shall Die: Effects of Morality Salience and Self-Esteem on Self-Regulation in Consumer Choice,”

We examine how making mortality salient affects consumer choices. We develop a new theoretical framework predicting when consumer behaviors will be more (less) indulgent when mortality is salient, arguing that individuals focus more of their limited self-regulatory resources on domains that are important sources of self-esteem and less on domains that are not important sources. In two domains, food choice and charitable donations/socially conscious consumer behaviors, high mortality salience led to less indulgent choices among participants for whom that domain was an important source of esteem and more indulgent choices for participants for whom the domain was not an important esteem source

Brain activity forecasts video engagement in an internet attention market

The growth of the internet has spawned new “attention markets,” in which people devote increasing amounts of time to consuming online content, but the neurobehavioral mechanisms that drive engagement in these markets have yet to be elucidated. We used functional MRI (FMRI) to examine whether individuals’ neural responses to videos could predict their choices to start and stop watching videos as well as whether group brain activity could forecast aggregate video view frequency and duration out of sample on the internet (i.e., on youtube.com). Brain activity during video onset predicted individual choice in several regions (i.e., increased activity in the nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] as well as decreased activity in the anterior insula [AIns]). Group activity during video onset in only a subset of these regions, however, forecasted both aggregate view frequency and duration (i.e., increased NAcc and decreased AIns)—and did so above and beyond conventional measures. These findings extend neuroforecasting theory and tools by revealing that activity in brain regions implicated in anticipatory affect at the onset of video

Functional Regret: the Positive Effects of Regret on Learning From Negative Experiences

Consumers often experience regret, mainly after making decisions. Existing research on regret mainly examined its dysfunctional negative consequences. We propose that regret can be functional and guide decision making in a predictable manner. Examining reallife data (Study 1) and manipulating only the emotional component of experienced regret (Studies 2-4), we find that regret leads to differential performance depending on the similarity of the domain. Unlike the previous literature, we find that in domains they have failed before, regret helps consumers make better decisions. We also show that (aside from cognitive feedback) higher emotional intensity of regret is important for learning

Dissociating valuation and saliency signals during decision-making.

There is a growing consensus that the brain computes value and saliency-like signals at the time of decision-making. Value signals are essential for making choices. Saliency signals are related to motivation, attention, and arousal. Unfortunately, an unequivocal characterization of the areas involved in these 2 distinct sets of processes is made difficult by the fact that, in most experiments, both types of signals are highly correlated. We dissociated value and saliency signals using a novel human functional magnetic resonance imaging decision-making task. Activity in the medial orbitofrontal, rostral anterior cingulate, and posterior cingulate cortices was modulated by value but not saliency. The opposite was true for dorsal anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, insula, and the precentral and fusiform gyri. Only the ventral striatum and the cuneus were modulated by both value and saliency

Conservative When Crowded: Social Crowding and Consumer Choice

This is the published version. Copyright 2013 by American Marketing Association.Does the mere crowdedness of the environment affect people's choices and preferences? In six studies, the authors show that social crowdedness not only leads to greater accessibility of safety-related constructs but also results in greater preference for safety-oriented options (e.g., preferring to visit a pharmacy to a convenience store), being more receptive to prevention- (rather than promotion-) framed messages, and being more risk averse with real money gambles. In support of the authors' underlying avoidance motivation perspective, these effects are mediated by participants' net prevention focus and are attenuated when the crowd in question consists of in-group members. The authors close by discussing the practical and theoretical implications of the results

Non-Conscious Influences on Consumer Choice

While consumer choice research has dedicated considerable research attention to aspects of choice that are deliberative and conscious, only limited attention has been paid to aspects of choice that occur outside of conscious awareness. We review relevant research that suggests that consumer choice is a mix of conscious and nonconscious influences, and argue that the degree to which nonconscious influences affect choice is much greater than many choice researchers believe. Across a series of research domains, these influences are found to include stimulus that are not consciously perceived by the consumer, nonconscious downstream effects of a consciously perceived stimuli or thought process, and decision processes that occur entirely outside of awareness