The neuropsychology of consumer behavior and marketing

Abstract

Insights and tools from neuroscience are of great value to marketers. Neuroscientific techniques allow consumer researchers to understand the fundamental neural underpinnings of psychological processes that drive consumer behavior, and elucidate the "black box" that is the consumer's mind. In the following review, we provide an overview of the fundamental tenets of consumer neuroscience, selectively outline key areas of marketing that consumer neuroscience has contributed to, compare and contrast neuroscientific tools and methods, and discuss future directions for neurophysiological work in marketing. In doing so, we illustrate the broad substantive landscape that neuroscience can add value to within marketing. K E Y W O R D Sconsumer behavior, consumer neuroscience, decision-making, decision neuroscience, genetic associations, marketing, neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neurophysiology, neuroscience, social neuroscience | INTRODUCTIONMarketers are plagued with the reality that despite widespread use of self-assessment measures, such as surveys and questionnaires, consumers are unskilled at retrospective introspection (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). In search of more objective and reliable insights into consumer thought processes, the use of psychophysiological measures to study consumer behavior began with electrodermal responses in the 1920s (Bagozzi, 1991) and pupillary dilation in the 1960s, followed shortly after by eye-tracking and heart rate measures (Wang & Minor, 2008).More recently, technological advances have led marketers to use electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; see Table 1 for an overview of neuroscientific methods; . Such applications of neuroscientific techniques to study consumers' emotions and cognitive responses have spawned the field of consumer neuroscience. Consumer neuroscience, defined as applying "tools and theories from neuroscience to better understand decision making and related processes" (Plassmann, Venkatraman, Huettel, & Yoon, 2015; p. 427), is an interdisciplinary academic subfield of marketing and neuroeconomics, at the intersection of neuroscience and consumer psychology, and overlaps with decision neuroscience. Consumer neuroscience is differentiated from neuromarketing in that the latter involves the practical implementation of to marketers. However, similar behaviors within an individual, and between individuals, may be elicited as a result of highly different underlying psychological processes, many of which are not readily observable using traditional research methods (Adolphs, 2010;Sanfey, Rilling, Aronson, Nystrom, & Cohen, 2003). Thus, neuroimaging techniques are attractive in marketing applications because they provide researchers and practitioners with seemingly objective physiological data, are potentially less susceptible to experimenter bias or demand effects, and can be more reliable than self-report data (Camerer, Loewenstein, & Prelec, 2005).The purpose of this article was to review the foundational tenets of consumer...

Technological advancements and opportunities in Neuromarketing: a systematic review

“…These brainwaves are further associated with the neural signature of brain states. The neural signature is divided into frequency bands known as rhythms, such as the delta (0.1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and gamma (30-90 Hz). These frequency bands are related to different brain states, regions, functions or pathologies.…”

“…Numerous literature reviews have been published focusing the theoretical aspect of consumer neuroscience, such as marketing, business ethics, management, psychology, consumer behavior, etc. [ 13 – 15 ]. However, systematic literature review from the engineering perspective with a focus on neural recording tools and interpretational methodologies used in this field is absent.…”

A Utilização Do Eye-Tracker Como Ferramenta Auxiliar Para Aumento Da Eficácia Na Visualização Das Mídias Externas Tradicionais (Ooh)

“…The process of human decision making is performed though a complex symphony of neural actions and functional circuits. The authors Shaw & Bagozzi (2018) consider four neural circuits as the most used for decision making process, which are: attention, memory, emotional processing and reward processing.…”

“…Scientific literature quotes two primary modes of attention: from bottom to up (BU) and from top to down (TD) (Kastner & Ungerleider, 2000). The attention from bottom to up (BU) is driven by environmental signs (for example, a loud noise or unexpected smell (Duncan & Humphreys, 1989), meanwhile the attention top down (TD) is directed by objectives and internal motivations of an individual, external states or expectations (Shaw & Bagozzi, 2018 automatic, or unconsciously driven, being essential for the first impression and judgment of stimulation. For example, when visualizing stimulation, initial eye movements are impulsed by perceived factors in BU, such as color, design and brightness (Huddleston, Bethe, Minahan,.& Fernandez, 2015).…”

“…theory of mind (ToM), and may provide basic information regarding decision making of consumers, such as the formation of preferences, capture of attention and the choice of behavior patterns(Singer & Tusche, 2014;Shaw & Bagozzi, 2018) for example in the OOHs.…”