GEC1006/GEH1016
Understanding Consumption
Lecture 6
Psychology of Consumption
Associate Professor
Hendrik Meyer‐Ohle
Psychology as Discipline
• Psychology, scientific discipline that studies mental states and
processes and behaviour in humans and other animals.
• The discipline of psychology is broadly divisible into two parts: a large
profession of practitioners and a smaller but growing science of
mind, brain, and social behaviour. The two have distinctive goals,
training, and practices, but some psychologists integrate the two.
https://www.britannica.com/science/psychology
What questions to ask concerning the
psychology of consumption?
• At what age do we become conscious consumers, conscious of the
activities of companies to influence us?
• How do we decide what to buy?
• What happens before and after buying decisions?
• How and why do we get attached to things?
• How and why do we get attached to brands?
• How is our thinking influenced by the consumer economy?
• How is our well‐being influenced by the consumer economy?
• Can we be unconsciously influenced into certain behaviors?
Today:
• Not repeat readings, instead summarize some studies on
consumption dealing with:
•
•
•
•
Children and consumption
Subconscious influences on consumer behavior
Relationship with brands
Possible negative consequences
of consumption
Children and Advertising
Piaget’s stages of intellectual development
While watching: What consequences has this for the perception of children of the world of consumption?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhcgYgx7aAA
Food Commercials for Children
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=Rvt42zWzj
Qc
• Advertisements frequently focus
on creating an animated, hyper‐
reality that draws children into a
fantasy world and ties the fun and
adventure within this world to the
use and purchase of the product.
The most frequently used form of
narrative structure was a nonstory
(or loosely associated set of
actions and associations),
followed by a partial story (or
related series of events). Fantasies
around ingredients, animal stories,
adventures, animated characters,
and computer graphics support a
magical, fantasy world associated
with the product.
Interviews with Children’s (15 8‐9 year olds)
The majority of the children interviewed displayed some understanding
of the selling intent (73%) of advertising. They understood that
advertisements are created to sell products. Inferences about
persuasive (47%) and manipulative (13%) intent, however, were less
frequent. Less than half the children indicated that the advertisements
were created to change attitudes or persuade them. Children could
describe the tactics used in great detail. They exhibited a literal focus
on plot and action but were less adept at discussing the specific
purpose behind these tactics. Thus, varying levels of persuasion
knowledge and perceptions of manipulative intent were evident.
Ability to recollect and grasp meaning of
commercials:
Oates, Caroline,
Mark Blades, and
Barrie Gunter.
"Children and
television
advertising: When
do they
understand
persuasive
intent?." Journal of
Consumer
Behaviour: An
International
Research Review 1,
no. 3 (2002): 238‐
245.
Role of Socialization? Cultural differences?
954 mothers of
children between
the ages of 5–12
from the United
States and 437 from
the Netherlands
Scale 1 – 4
(Never ‐ often/always)
9 items, aggregated on
Scale 1
‐
4
(never ‐ always)
Lapierre, M.A. and Rozendaal, E., 2018. Cross‐national differences in consumer socialization, development, and behavior: a
comparison of children in the United States and the Netherlands. Journal of Children and Media, 12(4), pp.388‐405.
Why the differences? Possibilities:
• Stronger culture of consumerism in the US
• Children less protected from efforts of marketing
• Stronger advertising culture
• Consumerism main ideology
• Different parenting and communication style
• US parents’ giving more consideration to the voices of children –
more democratic
• More media exposure of US children
• Shopping a more important topic of conversation in the US,
but less warning against advertising.
Stages of television literacy
Age
Characteristics
6
Prior to the age of 6, children are still to develop the cognitive skills required to shift from
perceptional to conceptual processing. Children above the age of 6 have the capacity to
consider conceptual and abstract information in a plot, while the younger ones focus mainly on
concrete behaviour.
7
Children below the age of 7 do not fully understand that television is not real life.
8
May know that television programmes are fiction but still view programmes as accurate
portrayals of real life.
8‐9
Children process programme content in a piecemeal fashion. They are captivated by fast‐paced
action, loud music and fast‐paced cuts. During slower scenes they direct attention elsewhere.
10
Able to draw inferences about scenes that are separated in time.
Jannsson‐Boyd p. 161.
Are Children Vulnerable Consumers?
• People’s cognitive abilities develop throughout
their childhood
• Differ from adults in their ability to deal with
information
• Perceive marketing messages differently than
adults
• Tend to focus on different types of stimuli
• Why does this matter?
• How to communicate effectively with children as
consumers?
• Is it ethical to target children as consumers?
Does increased advertising literacy mean that
adults are less influenced?
• Some doubts whether influence of advertising is reduced with age
Rather
• Different ways of trying to influence different age groups:
• Younger children:
• jingles, colourful and entertaining images ‐ perceptual stimuli rather than semantic
information in a message – reacting to single prominent attribute of product: color or
sound
• Older children or adults:
• Might be more sceptical, but still can be influenced through creativity or informative
nature of the commercial, quality of the arguments (might even be more persuaded than
children)
Livingstone, Sonia, and Ellen J. Helsper. "Does advertising literacy mediate the effects of advertising on children? A critical examination of
two linked research literatures in relation to obesity and food choice." Journal of communication 56, no. 3 (2006): 560‐584.
Subconscious Influences?
Odd Groups
All
Female
Male
All
Female
Male
EVEN GROUPS
4.23
4.14
4.33
3.12
2.23
4.08
All
Female
Male
3.38
3.07
3.61
All
Female
Male
2.09
2.54
1.83
All
Female
Male
4.58
5.07
4.00
All
Female
Male
4.25
3.46
5.00
Direct Gaze vs Averted Gaze
• A model’s eyes are a powerful and ubiquitous visual feature in virtually any
advertisement depicting a person.
• But does where the ad model’s eyes look matter?
• Integrating insights from social psychology and performance and visual art
theory,
• we demonstrate that when the ad model’s gaze is averted (looking away from
the viewer),
• the viewer is more readily transported into the ad narrative and
• responds more favorably to the ad than when the ad model’s gaze is direct (looking
directly at the viewer).
• Yet, differences between emotional and informative adds
• To, Rita Ngoc, and Vanessa M. Patrick. "How the Eyes Connect to the Heart:
The Influence of Eye Gaze Direction on Advertising Effectiveness." Journal of
Consumer Research 48, no. 1 (2021): 123‐146.
Odd
All
Female
Male
Even
4.58
5.07
4.00
All
Female
Male
4.25
3.46
5.00
Aha over Haha: Brands benefit more from being clever than from being
funny
Holly S. Howe, Lingrui Zhou, Rodrigo S. Dias, Gavan J. Fitzsimons
• We examine whether the cleverness of a brand's humor attempt affects
consumers' brand attitudes and engagement. A clever humor attempt is any
humor attempt wherein the consumer feels she must make mental
connections to solve the joke (e.g., understand a cultural reference,
understand the dual meaning of a pun). Across five studies, we demonstrate
that as the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher
brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand. This effect is mediated
by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by
consumers' need for cognition.
Howe, Holly S., Lingrui Zhou, Rodrigo S. Dias, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons. "Aha over Haha:
Brands benefit more from being clever than from being funny." Journal of Consumer
Psychology 33, no. 1 (2023): 107-114.
• King, Dan, and Sumitra Auschaitrakul. "Symbolic Sequence Effects on
Consumers’ Judgments of Truth for Brand Claims." Journal of
Consumer Psychology 30, no. 2 (2020): 304‐313.
Research: What influences consumers in
judging claims as truthful?
• Influences found during previous research
• The more repeated the more truthful
• Visual clarity
• Readability of the font style
• Stimulus for this research:
• People’s minds are organized along certain learned sequences
•
•
•
•
•
ABCDEFG
1234567
あいうえお
Right to left
Left to right
• Does this affect people‘s judgement when they view causal claims!
Conclusions:
• Experiments:
• Judging statements
• Speed of Response
• Subliminal priming
• Results:
The key to eliciting higher ratings of perceptions of truthfulness is in
understanding the natural sequences of symbols that are already cognitively
intrinsic to each particular consumer segment (e.g., English versus Chinese
speakers versus Iranian speakers, with some consumer segments having left‐
to‐right sequences and others having right‐to‐left sequences) and
structurally engineer the brand claims that conform better to the intrinsic
sequences in the consumer segment’s mental representations (by country).
Findings and Consequences?
• Across three experiments, we showed that when a brand claim is structured
in a way that is consistent with the natural sequence of symbols (“A causes
B” rather than “B causes A”), people experience feelings of sequential
fluency, which in turn influences judgments of truth. This occurs despite the
inability of participants to attribute the true source of the feelings.
Ethical Consequences?
• Our results suggest that carefully designed brand claims are likely to benefit
from this natural sequencing. These findings provide important contributions
to the literatures on processing fluency, branding, and advertising. These
findings also have sobering societal implications and warn that fake news
might be more persuasive if the perpetrators understand symbolic
sequencing techniques.
• Rixom, Jessica M., Erick M. Mas, and Brett A. Rixom. "Presentation
Matters: The Effect of Wrapping Neatness on Gift Attitudes." Journal
of Consumer Psychology 30, no. 2 (2020): 329‐338.
Christmas gifts are better received when they’re
badly wrapped: study
Slapping a nice bow on that last‐minute gift of socks this Christmas won’t make it better — in fact, it
will make it worse, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Nevada found wrapping presents too neatly inflates the expectations
of what’s inside — while doing a sloppy job actually helps the gift go over better.
“Our research found when gifts are wrapped neatly, and given to a friend, it raises the expectations of
the gift inside, resulting in our friends liking the gift less,” marketing professor and study researcher
Jessica Rixom said.
“However, with sloppy wrapping, our friends set their expectations lower and will actually like the gift
more,” Rixom added.
The researchers made the surprising finding by studying a group of Miami Heat fans. Some were
given mugs emblazoned with the team’s logo, while others received mugs featuring the Orlando
Magic logo.
When a Magic mug was shoddily wrapped, the Heat fans still reported a positive response.
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, also found that bitter feelings over nicely
wrapped gifts were likely to be worse when they came from a loved one rather than an acquaintance.
“This response happens because when you give a gift to a friend, they know where the relationship
stands, so the wrapping serves as a cue about the gift inside,” Rixom said.
“With an acquaintance … if a gift is wrapped neatly, it cues positive feelings about the relationship
with the recipient and this spills over to the gift inside,” she added.
https://nypost.com/2019/12/03/christmas‐gifts‐are‐better‐received‐when‐theyre‐badly‐wrapped‐study/
In Store Music
Findings so far:
• Fast music makes shoppers move around shop
more quickly
• Music can change people’s time perception
• Music can change mood of people
• For example whether to communicate with bank employees
• Make people want to return
• Classical music led to sale of more expansive wine
Now:
• Can music from a certain country make people buy products from that country?
“Music that is stereotypically French should activate knowledge structures concerning
France, and this in turn should prime the selection of French products because these fit the
music in question.” 273
Experiment
• Play music in store
• See what people buy
• Ask them what they usually prefer
• Ask them whether the music influenced their choice
Results
• People were not aware that they were influenced by the music
• Some limitations:
• Maybe music may have drawn shoppers who were intending to buy that
wine all along
• Maybe people did not want to admit to being influenced
The influence of in‐store music on wine
selections.
By North, Adrian C.,Hargreaves, David J.,McKendrick, Jennifer Journal of
Applied Psychology, Vol 84(2), Apr 1999, 271‐276
This field study investigated the extent to which stereotypically French
and German music could influence supermarket customers' selections of
French and German wines. Music with strong national associations
should activate related knowledge and be linked with customers buying
wine from the respective country. Over a 2‐week period, French and
German music was played on alternate days from an in‐store display of
French and German wines. French music led to French wines outselling
German ones, whereas German music led to the opposite effect on sales
of French wine. Responses to a questionnaire suggested that customers
were unaware of these effects of music on their product choices. The
results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for
research on music and consumer behavior and their ethical implications
for the use of in‐store music. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all
rights reserved)
A time to buy – Katie Melua (2016)
It's a time to buy, a time for shopping
Going to the store and make a choice
But everything she sees, it's like they're talking
Talking at her with a different voice
Laura's head is buzzing
Can't remember what she came here for
Couldn't keep her promise
Not to gaze at things she can't afford
Cuz there's shoes, bags and silk scarves
And dreams of summer days
And now she's wording a letter to her bosses
For a raise
But then she passes the baby section
With the tinest shoes on shiny trays
Margaret's by the mannequins
Gazing at their suits and shoulders still no man
And it's another year of winter holidays
But soon she'll have him, and buy him
They'll sit like this and they'll go skiing every
year
He's around the corner, the man who'll love her
And understand her and her career
[Chorus]
It's a time to buy, a time for shopping
Going to the store and make a choice
But everything she sees, it's like they're talking
Talking at her with their different voices
A singer's voice, and her mother's pleas
And the voice of countless charities
But the one she heeds with certainty says
Have it all, have it all, have it all
[Chorus]
It's a time to buy, a time for shopping
Going to the store and make a choice
But everything she sees, it's like they're talking
Talking at her with their different voices
A singer's voice, and her mother's pleas
And the voice of countless charities
But the one she heeds with certainty says
Have it all, have it all, have it all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐nIuuoxs2Kc
How do we relate to Brands?
How we relate to brands: Psychological and
neurophysiological insights into consumer–brand
relationships
• Human Relationships:
• Self‐expansion theory suggests that, in early stages,
close relationships are motivated by rapid self‐
expansion—i.e., the acquisition of resources,
perspectives, and identities that enhance one's ability
to accomplish goals
• whereas in later stages, close relationships are
associated with the inclusion of others into the self, i.e.,
people tend to consider the close other as part of
themselves. Taken together, while one central feature of
close personal relationships pertains to the motivation
to expand oneself, the other central feature is the
overlap between two people. This overlap of “selves” is
a consequence of falling in love (Aron & Aron, 1986).
• Does this apply to our relationship with brands?
Reimann, Martin, Raquel Castaño,
Judith Zaichkowsky, and Antoine
Bechara. "How we relate to brands:
Psychological and neurophysiological
insights into consumer–brand
relationships." Journal of Consumer
Psychology 22, no. 1 (2012): 128142.
Hypothesis
People also form a similar type of
relationship with objects (Belk, 1988).
More often than not, these objects are
specific brands, which consumers
relate to and use to identify their “selves” (Ahuvia, 2005). Similar to loved
others, brands can create a “warm feeling” among consumers, generate a
pleasurable experience of being cared for, and ultimately bond
consumers in a close connection (Fournier, 1998). Brands can give
consumers “ideal selves” to aspire to, as the presentation of self through
possessions allows consumers to differ from what may be their “real
selves” (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer, & Nyffenegger, 2011).
How to test?
• Self‐reporting
• Skin conductance
• Brain activation
Testing twice within span of 6 months
Questions:
• Is self‐expansion for brand more rapid when relationship with brand is more recent?
• Is degree to which brand is included into the self greater when the close consumer‐
brand relationship is more persistent?
Findings:
• Participants in relationship condition were more in love, more committed and more
trusting of brand than those in neutral condition.
• Arousal (intensity of emotions) relationships were higher for recently formed
relationships
• Level of arousal decreases the longer relationship exists
• Valence (extent of positive feelings) remains high
• First, we might ask if close brand
relationships are addictive to a
certain extent? Our finding of
insula activation for close brands
gives rise to this speculation.
Earlier studies have implicated the
insula in addiction to alcohol
(e.g., Myrick et al., 2004) and
nicotine (e.g., McClernon et al.,
2005), raising the question of
whether close brands share a
similar mechanism.
How ethical is the use of these neuro‐scientific
methods in consumer behavior research?
Arguments for:
• Not that different from previous traditional methods
• People are already influenced, no difference
• May even be positive…
• since it helps consumers to find out what they really want and design products that are suited for them
• Can help find the sources of addiction and combat negative consequences
• Can help to come up with more efficient safety campaigns
Arguments against:
• If research is conducted in unregulated setting by industry
• If technology shifts power further to industry
• Create new desires and addiction
• Use information to set higher prices
• Advantaging sales people by revealing people’s preferences
To what extent can people be manipulated before intervention is necessary? And do we
have to differentiate between certain groups?
Stanton, S.J., Sinnott-Armstrong, W. and Huettel, S.A., 2017. Neuromarketing: Ethical implications of its use and potential misuse. Journal
of Business Ethics, 144(4), pp.799-811.
Consequences of Consumption on Well‐Being
What brings more happiness: Products or
Experiences?
(1) Experiential purchases enhance social relations more readily and
effectively than material goods;
(2) Experiential purchases form a bigger part of a person’s identity;
(3) Experiential purchases are evaluated more on their own terms and
evoke fewer social comparisons than material purchases.
Gilovich, Thomas, Amit Kumar, and Lily Jampol. "A wonderful life: Experiential consumption and the pursuit of
happiness." Journal of Consumer Psychology 25, no. 1 (2015): 152-165.
Negative Consequences: Compulsive Buying
“chronic, excessive, and repetitive purchasing behavior that may be a
major response to negative events or feelings or uncontrolled urges.”
• May relieve temporarily from depressive mood, anxiety or low self‐
esteem
• In the long run:
• Accumulation of debts to criminal legal consequences
• Interpersonal conflict
• Additional stress
Zhang, Chenshu, Judith S. Brook, Carl G. Leukefeld, Mario De La Rosa, and David W. Brook.
"Compulsive buying and quality of life: An estimate of the monetary cost of compulsive buying among
adults in early midlife." Psychiatry research 252 (2017): 208-214.
How to measure compulsive buying behavior?
(1) “I feel others would be horrified if they knew of my spending habits”
(2) “When I have money, I cannot help but spend part or the whole of it”
(3) “I am often impulsive in my buying behavior”
(4) “As soon as I enter a shopping center, I have an irresistible urge to go into a shop to
buy something”
(5) “I have often bought a product that I did not need, while knowing I had very little
money left.”
There are 3 items that relate to the reactive aspect/compulsion/drive or urge to spend:
(1) “For me, shopping is a way of facing the stress of my daily life and of relaxing”
(2) “I sometimes feel that something inside of me pushes me to go shopping” (3) “There
are times when I have a strong urge to buy (clothing, electronics, etc.).”
There are also two items that reflect post‐purchase guilt:
(1) “At times, I have felt somewhat guilty after buying a product, because it seemed
unreasonable”
(2) “There are some things I buy that I do not show to anybody for fear of being
perceived as irrational in my buying behavior.”
When Do Consumers Eat More? The Role of
Appearance Self‐Esteem and Food Packaging Cues
• People know that too much food is unhealthy and look for
ways to self‐regulate.
• Consumers infer that small packages can act as an
external source of control. In doing so, they transfer
control of regulating food intake from the self to the small
package.
• The package itself can substitute for self‐control, and
further self‐imposed control is no longer necessary.
• The consequence of this relinquished control is that
people may subsequently fail to self‐regulate and will
consume more food if multiple small packages are
present.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5373173&page=1
Findings:
• Bad for all but especially bad for people with low appearance self‐
esteem (ASE) – people prone to concerns about food intake.
• The more cues provided on the packaging the more prone people
with low ASE become
• 29% of consumers believe that the extra costs associated with small
packages are worth the portion control they offer. Ironically, our
findings demonstrate that the extra money consumers are spending
to purchase these “solutions” may not be worth it in contexts in
which multiple small packages are available.
Argo, J.J. and White, K., 2012. When do consumers eat more? The role of appearance self-esteem
and food packaging cues. Journal of Marketing, 76(2), pp.67-80.
After recess: Society and Consumption
Joel Stillerman, The sociology of consumption: A global approach. John
Wiley & Sons, 2015. ebook NUS Library
• Chapter 4: Consumption, Status and Class
Discussion Groups: Debate