Exposure,

Perception,
Attention
CB Exposure, Perception, and
Attentional Processes /
Mechanisms

CB Phenomena

https://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=rtOvBO
TyX00
Consistent
phenomena: Feelings
of timelessness
(thousand years), loss
of self-awareness
Consistent tropes:
Outsiders, underdogs,
impossible love
(vampires and
humans, etc.)

V Day Questions

Did you receive an email?

Email me if you have any questions
The following slides are a few
examples

Humor

Is response to humor a
good tell?
Apparently it is, according
to researchers (Li et al.
2009)
The I*E, I*P as aspects that
are immune to neural
habituation
So it may have evolved as a
way for women (or men) to
indicate interest in deeper
dimensions
Proximate and ultimate
causation

Hypergamy and
Hypogamy

Why do women generally marry up (hypergamy) while

men generally marry down?
Cashdan (1996): Women value well-educated,
ambitious, and attractive men whereas men value
young and attractive women
Resources versus genes (relative variance attunement),
Smart Unconscious Brain
Eighty-five percent of the women indicated that "As my
status increases, my pool of acceptable partners
decreases" (Townsend 1989). In contrast, 90% of men
felt that "As my status increases, my pool of acceptable
partners increases" (p.246).
Well-educated, ambitious, attractive combos are rarer
(non-overlapping Venns) than youth and attractive
combos (overlapping Venns)
See next slide

Why do we observe
hypergamy & hypogamy?
Non-overlapping

Venns vs
overlapping Venns
Pick any cutoff (e.g., Attractive
means 7 and up/8 and up)
Well-educated and ambitious +
attractive becomes much rarer than
young + attractive because the
first pair is uncorrelated whereas
the second pair is correlated
(Attractive lawyers
/doctors/scientists vs Attractive 2039 year old of any education level
(Prim or Sec or ITE or Poly or Uni or
MD/MBA/MS or PhD)

Intellect and Marriage: Why The

Gender Difference?
For every 15-point increase in IQ score above
the average, women's likelihood of marrying
decreased by almost 60 percent (Taylor et al.
2005)
But every extra 15 points in IQ increased men's
chances of marrying (ibid, 2005)
Relative variance attunement / adaptive
mindsets resulting from evolutionary past
(humans are moderately dimorphic compared to
prairie voles) (also, for a modern account, see
Brown and Lewis 2003 on Long-term/High
Investment = Low Dominance)

CB Pheromones

Pheromones: Fact or fiction?

Mixed experimental results for
humans, but: Females prefer males
whose major histocompatibility
complex are opposite from their own
(Another version of Opposites
Attract albeit on physical level, MHC)
Wedekind (1995) normals versus
control (pill) group
Pleasant smelling Almond or
Vanilla scent

Forbidden Fruit Effect

Why do people want what they

cannot have (a guy with gf)
Signaling effect (parking lot
phenomenon)
Imagery (vicarious
consumption)
Why do people want what they
dont have (someone who is not
your bf, but single)
Chase reflex (most mammals)
Neural habituation
Dopamine production highest
at 50% (not 100%) chance of
obtaining rewards (fMRI study)

Wants Vs Needs

Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins 1997)

There are two different modes: Prevention
focus, and Promotion focus
Note that wants vs needs depends on
your reference point (which can correlate
with demographics like First World vs
Frontier Markets)
If you have this insight, what should you do
as a manager?
Lets say you are a marketing consultant to
two brands: Victorias Secret and
Nationwide
Any guesses?

Needs? Focus on Pain

Need for financial security

Nationwide Insurance Ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= Gv3k07BvhGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 4YAhLvpt8TE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= I3DVN7XMiQk
The consumer brain is wired to prevent pain as much
as possible
So your ads should focus on possible pain to drive
consumers to avoid these (notice, even physical pain
is used in ads)
Place your ads on Law and Order, CSI (shows that
make the consumer realize that things can go wrong)

Pain pathways

Pain pathways are overlapping for

both physical pain (getting hit by
granny in the Nationwide ad, getting
hit by lightning) and other types of
pain (pain of losing your car, pain of
social loss, e.g., Panksepp 2003)

Pain is a mental event

The physical body does not have to

experience injury for the mind to feel
pain
Thus, showing ads in which
models get hammered is enough
to activate the pain-avoidance
circuits of the brain, and induce
consumer behavior to buy the
product to prevent a loss

Goals? Focus on Pleasure, and

other associates of pleasure (e.g.,
football, Christmas)

E.g., Goal of attracting opposite sex

Christmas ad of Victorias Secret
Superbowl ad of Victorias Secret
The consumer brain is wired to pursue
pleasure (but only if needs are met!)
So you want to fill your ads with positive
images, as well as associates of other
positive things (football, Christmas, etc.)
Place your ads on football (e.g., Superbowl
placement, Christmas TV Specials)

Consumer Ability

Consumer Knowledge and Experience

Are you targeting novice consumers, or expert

consumers?
Experts want attributes (3.8 Liter V6 engine) whereas
novices want you to describe the benefits (great power
when accelerating, smooth shifting)
Experts want finer categories (Vitamin-enriched
shampoo for fine, frizzy hair) whereas novices want
broader categories (Regular shampoo and Dandruff
shampoo)
Notice that stores targeting experts have finer
categories (e.g., Sefora) than stores targeting novices
(e.g., Wal-Mart)
Note determining whether your segment is expert or
novice depends on category: Men can be experts in
cars and women can be novices, whereas the reverse is
true with shampoos (women are experts)

Effect of Consumer Ability

on Perception

Experts in chess see

the board in terms
of an overall
configuration or
pattern (e.g., Ruy
Lopez opening)
Novice in chess see
the board in terms
of individual pieces
Analogy: Wing-T
formation in football

Effect of Ability on
Consumption

My friend, Andrew, is
a band member
He does not hear
songs when the
radio is on
He hears individual
cymbals, individual
drumbeats, and the
mathematical
relations between
drumbeats in
sequence

Effects of Ability on
Consumption of Sports

Novice consumers see

a punch
Expert consumers see
a left hook, right
uppercut, right jab,
left 45, straight right
coming from
southpaw/orthodox
stance
Announcers/magazine
writers have to adjust
to target segment level

Effects of Ability on
Consumption of Sports

Novice consumers see a

player
Expert consumers see a
point guard, a 2-guard,
a small forward, power
forward, and center
Experts: FG%, FT%,
bpg, spg, assist-toturnover ratio,
defensive FG%,
screens, pick-and-roll
Novice: Just shoot the
friggin ball

Other Examples of Ability

Effects on Consumption

Wine (experts can

taste subtle
differences, and can
even identify which
vineyard the grapes
came from)
Colors (women see the
two colors on the right
side differently from
men). Lets test it!
Expertise comes from
fashion?

Influence of Ability on
Consumption and
Production
Not only do more
educated consumers purchase different

products (art, science, more complex movies and songs)

They also produce products that command higher value in
society

Cognitive Style

Visual Information, or Verbal?

There are experiments that suggest men
prefer visual information, and women prefer
verbal information
Cognitive Complexity if your consumer is
cognitively complex, present both sides (do not
present biased viewthe complex consumer
cannot be fooled!), if your consumer is
cognitively simple, present one side
(presenting both sides can confuse the simple
consumer). E.g., Porsche vs BMW

Consumer Opportunity

9 digits versus 2 digits classic

experiment (Shiv and Fedorikhin
1999)
Why is this a case of consumer
opportunity changing the quality of
consumer decision making?

Consumer Opportunity

Conventional wisdom is to use an

attractive endorser
When should you not use an attractive
endorser?
Any guesses?
Clue: Falls under Distraction in textbook
2nd Clue: What are you less able to
process, when you are processing
something attractive?

When to not use attractive

endorsers

When you want

consumers to increase
their perceived
probability of getting
something bad (e.g., HIV)
Seeing attractive models
increase risk-taking and
makes consumers shortsighted (Van den Bergh et
al. 2007)
The use of attractive
models would have
distracted consumers
from the risk of HIV
(rewards outweigh the
costs), and consumers
would not buy the product

Another Theory

Mood-congruence
Theory (Isen and
Daubman 1985)
When you are in a
positive mood (when
you see an attractive
endorser), it is hard to
remember negative
information
Attractive endorser,
positive images in ad,
all activate the brains
reward system, and
inhibits the brains fear
system (LeDoux 2003)

Experience the Theory!

In the next two classes, we will talk
about exposure, attention, and
perception
The next slide offers you several
different ways of experiencing the
theories that we will talk about next
week
Insight: Perception is a creation of the
mind. Sometimes its tied to reality,
sometimes its 50% tied to reality,
sometimes its 0% tied to reality. We
will find out why.

Try these cool effects at

home

Exposure,
Attention,
Perception

CB Stories

Week 1: CB is caused by the brain/mind

(not heart as Aristotle proposed)
Week 2: Ways of acquiring knowledge
Week 3: The role of experiments /
scientific method in testing CB stories
Week 4: The brain/mind is composed of
Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity
Week 5: Stage Model view of processing

Start with stages 1, 2, and 3 of processing:

Exposure, Attention, and Perception

Stage Model of Brain

Stage 1: Exposure
Stage 2: Attention
Stage 3: Perception
Stage 4: Short-term Memory Encoding
Stage 5: Judgment and Decision Making
Stage 6: Long-term Memory Encoding
Stage 7: Long-term Memory Retrieval
Emotional programs (Panksepp 1998) and
concepts (Goldstone 2001) can be activated at
any given stage to influence CB processing

Exposure via Product

Placement

Some consumers dislike advertising

So marketers regularly place their
products in movies, events, without saying
anything about how good a product is
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrPV9o8HXvs
Do they work?
Lets look at two theories that can tell us a
story

Exposure

Exposure occurs when consumers

come into physical contact with the
stimulus
Physical does not mean that
consumers have to touch it, any
contact with any of the five senses
(visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,
or tactile) is enough

Mere Exposure / Fluency

Theory

Zajonc (1968) showed that mere

exposure to a stimulus, any stimulus,
will increase liking for it

Mere Exposure / Fluency

Theory

Consumers will tend to like a product, a

brand name, or a brand logo the more
times they see it, even if nothing good is
said about the brand
Mandler (1987) showed that the ease of
processing a stimulus (stuff) leads to liking
The more complex the stimulus, the more
increased exposure helps in generating
liking for the brand

Fluency depends on
expectation

Ever wonder why strangers seem familiar?

Why strangers are friendlier toward each
other when they meet a second or third
time in a place they are not expecting to
meet?
The unexpected ease of processing a
strangers face may contribute to liking
(Whittlesea and Williams 2001)
Knowing this, how do you increase your
own attractiveness?

Exposure and Beauty

What is fluent is beautiful (Reber,

Schwarz, and Winkielman 2004)
http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~
pwinkiel/reber-schwarz-winkielmanbeauty-PSPR-2004.pdf
When our mind feels that something
is easy to process, it concludes that
it is good for us (and hence
beautiful)

Attention

Count the number of passes made by

the white team
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdo
K_ZfY
The effects of attention

Metaphor 1: Attention is
a spotlight

Attention is the
process of devoting
part of the consumers
mental activity on a
stimulus
We have just
demonstrated that we
can fail to devote
attention to a stimulus
that is right in front of
our eyes (e.g., the
gorilla)

Attention

Attention is most critical when your

product is excellent on some product
dimension, and you want your consumer
to learn specific information
For example, if you are a
computer maker that sells
PCs at the same price as
competitors, but with better
specs, or with better specific
specs (e.g., graphics)

Metaphor 2: Attention is
a glue

Treismans (1980) Feature Integration

Theory proposes that attention is a glue
that binds disparate parts of a stimulus
(color, shape, orientation, movement) into a
holistic unit
Without looking directly at a person, you
might see a man with a moustache
walking with a woman
What might you see if you look at the
person directly? (hence paying attention)

Attention is a glue

You would see that it is, in fact, a

woman with a moustache

How about non-attended

information in ads?

Is non-attended information useless?

No
Chris Janiszewski (see example on book),
my PhD mentor, published a paper called
The Influence of Nonattended Material
on the Processing of Advertising Claims
Left and right hemisphere are best at
processing different kinds of information
(pictures versus words)

Hemispheric
lateralization

Left eye projects to

right hemisphere
of the brain
Right eye projects
to left hemisphere
of the brain

How do consumers process

ads they are exposed to?

For peripheral vision,

the right hemisphere
(hence left visual field) is
best at processing
pictures
Left hemisphere (hence
right visual field) is best
at processing words
Pictures should be
placed to the left of the
visual field
Word arguments should
be placed to the right of
the visual field

Habituation

Neural habituation occurs when

consumers are exposed to too much
attention-getting stimuli from different
marketers, and consumers minds
habituate, or stop responding, to
packaging tactics (for example)
Paradoxically, this can help private
label brands, whose packaging is so
simple, it actually attracts attention

Perception

Perception is the process by

which our brain generates a
conclusion regarding the
incoming stimuli that
activates our sensory
receptors
Perception is not performed
by our sensory receptors
(eyes, ears, or skin); it is
performed by the brain
The sensory receptors are
merely tools used by the
brain to gather information
We will demonstrate this in
the following slides

Consumer Intuition About

Perception

I can notice changes

Changes in price
Changes in product performance
Changes in amount of product
Are consumers correct?
Lets see if everyone can see the
changes in the following videos

Changes below Just

Noticeable
http://www.gocognitive.net/demo/changeblindness

When do we perceive
changes?

Generally, it is easier to detect changes from 0

to 10 (of anything) than changes from 10 to 20
Webers Law
Textbook example: If consumers could notice
that a 10-ounce product is bigger only if the
increase is at least 1-ounce (i.e., to 11 ounces),
how much do you need to increase a 50-ounce
product?
s/50 = .10
s = 5 ounces

Consumer marketing
implications

If you need to save costs, you need to perform

an experiment to figure out the JND (Just
Noticeable Difference) of your product
Then, make your product size decrease just
below the JND
Long John Silvers, Airlines do this all the time
Same thing with price
Dickson and Sawyer (1990) showed that most
consumers do not know the price of things they
buy

How about large

changes?

So, consumers can notice changes as

long as they are large enough?
What factors (variables) make even
noticing large changes difficult?
Can you guess?

Consumer Intuition About

Perception

I can notice changes if they are large

enough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=FWSxSQsspiQ&hl=en-GB&gl=SG
(Door study)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ubNF9QNEQLA (Lord Smithe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=6JONMYxaZ_s (dinner)

Perception

Current Event:
Manti Teo and
Lennay Kekua
Perception is not
an objective
recording of
reality
Manti Teo in the
past few months

Perception

Manti Teos Perception

Perception

Manti Teos reality

Perception

A man speaking in a womans voice?

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/01/us
/manti-teo-hoax/?hpt=hp_t2

Perception and external

cues

Perceptual systems pick up cues (e.g.,

facial symmetry, feminine jawline, etc) to
fulfill goals (e.g., produce a kid with a
higher chance of flourishing)
If a stimulus has the correct set of external
cues, it can activate liking even if the
stimulus, internally (the insides), cannot
fulfill those goals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=6JONMYxaZ_s

Perception

Women fall in love by what they

hear. men fall in love by what they
see. Thats why most women wear
makeup and most men lie.
- Lennay Kekua (actually Ronaiah
Tuiasosopo)

But does it matter?

Manti Teos mistaken perception may have

motivated him to play well (led Notre Dame
to the championship game)
Male misperception of female interest leads
to the survival of the species (Perriloux,
Easton, Buss 2012)
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/g
roup/busslab/pdffiles/The%20Misperception
%20of%20Sexual%20Interest.pdf
So misperception has its benefits

Overoptimism may be
just right

The brain, in general, appears to

generate more optimism than is
warranted in order to increase the
organisms motivation (Sharot,
Riccardi, Raio, Phelps 2007)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/
v450/n7166/full/nature06280.html
Otherwise, we would not explore, take
risks, and advance human civilization