Ch. 6 Automatic Information Processing

subliminal communication

• 1957 James Vicary, flashing “eat popcorn” “drink coke” messages on movie screen for 1/3000th of a second, popcorn and coke sales both increased but turned out to be a complete hoax

but created a scare about how people could be influenced by unconscious mind control

automatic information processing

the mental processes that occur without awarenss or intention, but influence judgements, feelings, goals, and behaviours

• impulse beliefs - confirmation bias

• impulse attitudes - automatic feelings

• impulse behaviours - impulse purchases

system 1 thinking

• fast and automatic, occurs without awareness or intention

• intuitive, so reaches judgements and decisions quickly, and people may be unable to explain how they arrived at these judgements and decisions

• good at categorizing objects quickly, and averaging large amounts of information

• effortless, low involvement, peripheral, heuristic, category based, experimental, holistic, reflexive

system 2 thinking

• slow and deliberative, occurs with awareness and intention

• uses up cognitive resources, causes us to experience mental fatigue

• good at logical reasoning and performing mathematical operations

• computational (rule based), effortful, high involvement, central, systematic, attribute based, rational, analytical, reflective

the adaptive unconscious

the unconscious mind can be trained to perform routine mental activities (mental process becoming automatic) through learning and practice

• walking, writing, driving, athletics, etc.

• even purchase decisions

  • minimal though - consumers base decisions on attitudes that come to mind automatically

  • impulse purchases - made with little or no conscious thought

thin slice inferences

• brief observations provide a surprisingly large amount of information

• help us form inferences about personality, feelings, and goals of others

• first impression are more relevant when:

  • they are based on brief observations

  • focused on non-verbal information (facial expressions, voce tone, body movements)

  • nonverbal cues are more accurate then verbal cues because people have less control over non verbal cues

thin slice inferences vs deliberation

• thin slice judgements are more accurate for questions with subjective answers (eg. which colour do you prefer)

  • thin slice is also more accurate with learning and experience - when you have a lot of practice and get a lot of feedback on accuracy

• deliberation works best for questions with objective answers (how long is the drive to Toronto)

explict memory

• aware of memory search

• intentional and deliberate

• memory is consciously activated

implicit memory

• memory is used without awareness

• unintentional

• memory is unconsciously activated

priming effect

common cause of implicit memory activation

• priming: exposure to a stimulus influences responses to a subsequent stimulus

  • simply being exposed to a concept can activate other related concepts from memory (spreading activation)

• marketers can use priming to subtly lead consumers to think about a concept, such as a brand name, attribute, or benefit

• primes can be subliminal or supraliminal

assimilation

a target object is perceived as similar to the primed object or concept

contrast

target object is perceived as different from the primed object or concept

assimilation or contrast and ambiguous or unambiguous

• assimilation or contrast depends on whether the prime provides information about

  • what the target is (assimilation) or

  • what the target is not (contrast)

• and this depends on whether the target is

  • ambiguous (eg. unknown brand) or

  • unambiguous (eg. known brand)

priming effect BMW example

primed concept: BMW (expensive) or volkswagen (inexpensive

• asked how expensive is this moderately priced car?

• ambiguous target: shown car without logo

• unambiguous target: shown car with Ford logo

for BMW prime:

• assimilation - the ambiguous (no brand) car is seen as similar to the primed concept

• contrast - the unambiguous (Ford branded) target is seen as different from prime

  

priming influencing perceptions and behaviour

perceptions:

• people who watch a lot of tv overestimate the amount of crime, violence, affluence, doctors, lawyers, police officers, etc.

behaviour:

• people unintentionally imitate others speech and mannerisms in social encounters

• people primed with “rude” or “polite” act accordingly

• people primed with items related to business behave more competitively ie. briefcase in the corner

mindset priming effect

priming an activity rather than a concept. the cognitive activity performed during the first session tends to be performed again in the second

• buying mindset: buying something at time 1 makes you more likely to buy something at time 2

• indicating preference at time 1, makes people overlook the option of buying nothing at time 2

naiive theories

theories or assumptions about how the world works can be primed

some may compete:

• eg. great art: takes time vs talent

• high price: high quality vs overprice

primining one vs the other lead people to reach opposite conclusions from the same information

eg. importance of quality is primed in a magazine article about an unrelated product, consumers inferred that an expensive target product was better. compared to the importance of value being primed in the magazine, consumers than inferred the less expensive target product was better

explicit vs implicit attitudes

what people say they believe and what they actually believe

• people don’t always reveal thei true beliefs and attitudes

• consumers can’t always explain their preferences or choices

• as a result, self reported beliefs, attitudes, and explanations are not always accurate

• eg. teens predicting hit pop songs, their brain scans predicted the songs that become popular, not the likability ratings

implicit association test (IAT)

• procedure for measuring underlying beliefs and attitudes

• many of which are held without awareness

• uses response times to measure the strength of associations as an estimate os attitude strength

• originally designed to study beliefs and attitudes about controversial subjects (eg. sexuality, race, politics, religion, etc.)

• now also used for testing products and brands

familiarity effects

• feelings of familiarity can influence judgement subconsciously

• advertising and promotions increase brand familiarity

• familiarity often signals fame, confidence, truth, and liking

  • mere exposure and truth effect

distraction effect

distractions while processing new information can lead to false beliefs

• consumers initially believe everything in order to understand

• unbelieving is a separate process, requiring time and effort

• when reading a false claim, distraction can inhibit unbelieving

• be careful of speed reading or multitasking

• internet is ripe for forming false beliefs, also happens with false advertising

habit theory

• habits are repetitive behaviours that are relatively uninfluenced by current intentions or goals

• habits are resistant to change

• habits lead people to repeat behaviours performed in stable contexts even when the behaviours are unrewarding

• best time to break an old habit is when context changes

  • eg. quitting smoking when moving to a new city

subliminal advertising

subliminal priming is presenting a priming stimuli below the level of conscious awareness, which can influence judgement and choice

• people can’t be subconsciously made to do things against their will

• subliminal priming can however activate certain concepts that can influence behaviour

  • hunger, thirst, competitiveness, creativity, honesty

• but subliminal priming alone cannot increase persuasion (attitude change)

• we must already have the inherent traits or active goals for the prime to have any influence