Consumer Neuroscience

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Consumer Neuroscience ( CNS for short ; English : Consumer - Neuroscience , sometimes also Decision Neuroscience ) is an interdisciplinary subject from neurosciences, psychology and economics that combines aspects, methods, theories of market research and neuroscience. It is viewed as a branch of neuroeconomics .

History & Development

The development and form of consumer neuroscience is young, as it is to be understood as a facet of the aforementioned specialist areas. The endeavor of consumer research to use subconscious processes , or to understand them for them, is older.

“It could [...] be that in the future buyer behavior will be explained using neurobiological terms. It could then mean: The reward value of our brand in the striatum is too low. Today it is said: Customer satisfaction is too low. "

- Peter Kenning

As early as 1957, Vance Packard published his work, The Secret Seducers , which was critical of consumption , in which he criticized the advertising industry and the so-called “motivational research” and made the phenomenon of subliminal advertising known to a broad public.

"There has always been a holy grail in advertising to try to reach people in a hypodermic way."

"There's always been a holy grail in advertising, trying to reach people under their skin."

- Joseph Turow , professor for communication at the Annenberg School for Communication

Methods

The methods of consumer neuroscience correspond to the methods of neuroscience in general - these are imaging and psychophysiological procedures ; there is no CNS specific method.

Specifically, the following are used:

Imaging procedures

For the measurement of electrophysiological activities:

For the measurement of metabolic activities:

Psychophysiological methods

Findings from consumer neuroscience

Consumer neuroscience can be subdivided into three areas, which are based on “the distinctions known from economics in decision and game theory and the purpose of using the research results for business or sales purposes”. Overall, all of the brain structures involved are parts of the areas that become active in the event of reward , punishment or a general decision .

Individual consumer neuroscience

The area of Individual Consumer Neuroscience considers individual decisions of people that are not influenced by the behavior of other actors. Well-known aspects are, for example, framing , intertemporal discounting , anchor heuristics , risk behavior and the endowment effect . Peter Kenning comes to the conclusion that “today the essential neural mechanisms relevant for individual decision-making and buying behavior” can be identified, and that “reward, punishment and (situational) control ” are central ; associated neural structures are said to be localized using fMRI . Relevant processes, for example in genetics , are largely unexplored.

Social Consumer Neuroscience

The behavior of (at least) two actors is referred to as “Social Consumer Neuroscience” ( SNC ); Such situations are characterized by interdependence . Peter Kenning considers trust , fairness , empathy and cooperation in the SNC . In principle, several decision-making systems of the brain are involved in “processing cognitive tasks in social contexts, and they work together as a network.

trust

With regard to (business) economic issues, according to Kenning, trust in people - for example a customer in a bank advisor - and system trust - in a person for example in institutions such as authorities or consumer advice centers or abstract terms such as democracy or capital market - are of particular relevance. Brooks King-Casas et al. In 2005, neural reactions in an experimental game to investigate mutual trust (“trust game”, see also: game theory ) in the ( dorsal ) striatum were determined.

In 2007, a different activation of conditional and unconditional trust was found: Conditional trust was observed in an activation of the ventral tegmental area , which was associated with the assessment of expected and received reward. The unconditional trust, in turn, can be seen in an activation of the septal area, which is related to social ties .

Differences between the sexes

Men and women sometimes use different structures in their trust-based decisions. In the study “Are There Neural Gender Differences in Online Trust?” By René Riedl et al. a group of men and a group of women are asked to assess various eBay advertisements for their trustworthiness, while the brain activity is displayed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The experiment looks at the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy advertisements and vice versa.

For the trustworthy / untrustworthy situation, differences in activation were seen in women in the thalamus , striatum , putamen and gyrus fusiformis ( Brodmann area (BA) 37), in men only in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex . Both sexes showed differences in the cingulate gyrus (BA 32), the lingual gyrus and the cuneus .

In the opposite scenario - untrustworthy / trustworthy - higher activations in the cingular cingular anterior ventral cortex (VA 24), in the hippocampus , in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9) and in the caudate nucleus were observed in women, whereas in men there was more activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (BA 10) and in the cingular cingularis posterior ventralis (BA 23). Both groups showed increased activation in the islet cortex .

empathy

Empathy was developed in 2003 by Laurie Carr et al. linked with activations in the prefrontal part of the brain: “We understand what others feel through a mechanism of action representation that allows empathy and adjusts our emotional content. The insular bark plays a fundamental role in this mechanism. ”In addition, the ability to imitate is associated with the same activations.

However, the island region is not always activated when aspects of empathy arise. In 2001, Simone Shamay-Tsoory et al. the results: “Human empathy is based on the ability to share emotions and also the ability to understand the thoughts, needs and feelings of the other. [...] Even if the emotional and cognitive systems seem to work independently of each other, every empathic reaction can evoke both components, depending on the social context. "

Fairness & cooperation

For example, fairness can be relevant for consumer behavior when it comes to the distribution of scarce goods. Through the ultimatum game , Alan Sanfey was able to prove in 2003 that the island region acts to deal with unfair situations. The same study - "The Neural Basics of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game" - provided empirical evidence for the dual-process model , as test subjects used different processes in decision-making situations. The reaction to unfair offers differs when a computer makes the offer instead of a human counterpart.

The conceptual cooperation associated with fairness cannot be clearly located neurally. In the 2004 by Jean Decety et al. published study “The neural bases of cooperation and competition: an fMRI investigation”, the authors claim that in accordance with the results of evolutionary psychology as well as developmental psychology, cooperation is a socially worthwhile process . This is connected to the specifically left medial orbitofrontal cortex . In 2007, Timothy Hodgson et al. a difference in activation was found in 49 brain areas, especially in the anterior islet cortex ( e.g. Brodmann area (BA) 47), in the frontal lobe (BA 8) and in the anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus (BA 24 & BA 31).

Commercial Consumer Neuroscience

Product policy

There are complex findings for product policy from a neuroscientific perspective: For example, the attractiveness of packaging triggers a reaction in the reward center of the brain, whereas unattractive packaging involves a difference in activation in regions of the brain that are also active in the event of pain and uncertainty . ( See also : Neuroesthetics )

Pricing policy

In pricing policy , so-called behavioral pricing has established itself as a research area in which psychological findings about consumer behavior with regard to pricing are examined.

According to Peter Kenning, there are wide-ranging subject areas whose questions cannot be answered adequately. It is unclear, for example, how information about prices is processed, stored or even perceived neuronally. Why objectively the same prices can be individually perceived positively or negatively is also unanswered. A high price seems to increase the probability of purchase if the consumer is unsure about the purchase or has no previous experience with the product - on the other hand, a high price can also be perceived as a loss.

Current research shows that when prices are high, the pain areas of the brain are activated. Consumers generally seem to want to avoid this negative feeling. Brian Knutson, Scott Rick et al. based on this, use an fMRI study to predict the purchasing decisions of test persons.

Price placebo

The effect that different prices for an otherwise identical product serve as an indicator of the quality of the product is called “price-dependent quality presumption” or “price placebo ”. This phenomenon was discovered in 2008 by Hilke Plassmann , Baba Shiv et al. examined on the subject of wines : If a person is given two glasses of wine with the claim that these are products of different quality (with a price of 5 versus 45 US dollars per bottle), then the more expensive wine is perceived as tastier . The orbitofrontal part of the prefrontal cortex then shows a higher level of activity than occurs in cheaper wine. This contextualization of information is associated with framing .

Willingness to pay

The willingness to pay as an individual characteristic of consumers, which they would like to hide from a provider, is also coded in the orbitofrontal frontal cortex. From 2010 it was shown that administration of glucose resulted in a willingness to pay higher prices.

Communication policy

In communication policy , a distinction can be made between two fields of research: the short-term and long-term effects of stimuli , for example directly before a purchase decision, or for example when expressing lasting brand preferences. Overall, reward values or activations in the nucleus accumbens are essential.

Short-term effects

Advertisements that are classified as attractive correspond to a rewarding stimulus with a correspondingly higher reward value for the advertised product and can bring an emotional, affective facet to a purchase decision. Positive facial expressions are essential for such an assessment .

Long-term effects

In 2010 it was shown that advertising with emotionally charged images is better remembered than advertising with rational information .

Distribution policy

In 2007, Hilke Plassmann concluded from the results of a study in which a distinction was made between disloyal and loyal buyers, the latter being characterized by stronger emotional activity during purchases, that emotional reinforcers in marketing can have a long-term positive effect on customer loyalty (in the sense of reinforcing learning and the somatic marker hypothesis ).

Brands

A winner-takes-it-all effect can be demonstrated for decision-making processes with regard to brands , such as preferences; only in the case of a favorite brand is a process leading to a purchase decision emotionalized - contrary to the assumption of the Consideration Set theory, according to which a consumer has alternatives to the same Level exist.

Limits & Problems

Due to the high expenditure of time and money for individual studies, the samples are often relatively small.

Although brain areas can be assigned to individual consumer behavior using imaging processes, according to Peter Kenning, there is a lack of knowledge about neurobiological “deeper” functions.

literature

Books
Newspaper articles

Trust in Neuroscience

  • B. King-Casas, D. Tomlin, C. Anen, CF Camerer, SR Quartz, PR Montague: Getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange. In: Science. Volume 308, Number 5718, April 2005, pp. 78-83, doi: 10.1126 / science.1108062 , PMID 15802598 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Regina Bruckner: Neuro-economist Kenning: "Of course advertising works, permanently" , Der Standard - Website, May 22, 2014. Accessed April 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ Natasha Singer, Making Ads That Whisper to the Brain , The New York Times website, November 13, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  3. ^ A b Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 12.
  4. ↑ Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 180.
  5. ↑ a b c Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , pages 189–190.
  6. ↑ a b Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , pages 182-185.
  7. ↑ L. Carr, M. Iacoboni, MC Dubeau, JC Mazziotta, GL Lenzi: Neural mechanisms of empathy in humans: a relay from neural systems for imitation to limbic areas. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 100, Number 9, April 2003, pp. 5497-5502, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0935845100
  8. ^ Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 21.
  9. ↑ J. Decety, PL Jackson, JA Sommerville, T. Chaminade, AN Meltzoff: The neural bases of cooperation and competition: an fMRI investigation. In: NeuroImage. Volume 23, Number 2, October 2004, pp. 744-751, doi: 10.1016 / j.neuroimage.2004.05.025
  10. ↑ Knutson B, Rick S, Wimmer GE, Prelec D, Loewenstein G. Neural predictors of purchases. Neuron . 2007; 53 (1): 147-156. doi: 10.1016 / j.neuron.2006.11.010
  11. ↑ Lisa Trei: Baba Shiv: How a Wine's Price Tag Affect Its Taste , Stanford Graduate School of Business website, Jan. 1, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  12. ^ Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 196.
  13. ^ Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 196.
    Original study: Tim Eberhardt, Thomas Fojcik et al .: “The Sweet Side of Sugar - The Influence of Raised Insulin Levels on Price Fairness and Willingness to Pay” , University of St. Gallen - website ( research platform Alexandria ). Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  14. ↑ Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 200.
  15. ↑ a b Peter Kenning : Consumer Neuroscience - a transdisciplinary textbook , Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-020727-1 , page 202.