Psychology - Chapter 6: The physical environment

Mower et al (2012)

Store exterior design: Investigated the effect of landscaping and window displays on 180 American university students’ liking and satisfaction. Require to imagine about buying jeans, log onto website with different store displays description. Results show: Both factors have positive influence on liking and mood patronage.

Vrechopoulos et al (2004)

Types of interior store design: Manipulated layout of VR grocery store on 3 different store designs (racetrack, freeform, grid), 120 ppts from Greece and UK recruited. Given real money to explore and shopping. Results suggests freeform is the easiest to locate things on list and most entertaining, grid is the easiest to use and racetrack and freeform with longer timing spent.

Woods et al., (2011)

Background noise on food tasting: Blindfolding participants on different volumes of white noise (headphones) to test if they can identify correctly the texture and flavor of the food, as well as their liking. Suggests loud white noise = perceived tasting less intense but more crunchy. Less prefer of food with loud noise.

North et al (2003)

Musical genre on spending: Field study of a restaurant using 2 CDs of 2 different genres (classical and pop) on overall spending, starters, main and desserts, drinks and coffee, bar. Classical music increase spending significantly on starters and drinks.

Chebat and Michon (2003)

Odour on PAD: Investigate the effect of odour on customer’s shopping experience satisfaction and emotional response, to see if PAD or cognitive-arousal model can account for such experience more accurately. Results suggests citrus scent does have positive influence on arousal but not pleasure, thus does not support PAD.

Machleit et al., (2000)

Crowding on PAD: Investigate how perceived crowding can have effects on one emotional response and satisfaction. Laboratory experiment, which involves students imagine they are going to a book store. A video is then played, showing the store in either spatial crowding and human crowding, adjusting with density of crowds. Results suggests satisfaction decrease with crowding, with spatial crowding reducing satisfaction more.