Cognitive Experiential Self Theory

Developed by Seymour Epstein in 1994, the Cognitive Experiential Self Theory (CEST) theoryizes that people process information in two ways.

1. Experiential
2. Rational

(Curtis 123)

These two systems are each used in advertising and can be valid depending on what is being advertised.





Products that are low-involvement purchases usually are advertised in a way that appeals to the experiential system.This commercials usually involve humor, catchy music, or animal characters.

Products that are high-involvement are usually portrayed in ways that appeal to the rational system. These commercials usually have hard facts, statistics, and credible sources of information. They may direct the consumer to a website that has more information to help them in their decision.


Curtis, Rebecca. The Relational Self Theoretical Convergences of Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology. 1st ed. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 1991. 123. Print.

Prospect Theory

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman developed the prospect theory that explains the way people deal with losses and gains.

They found that people feel a loss of x value has more negative feeling that a gain of x value has positive feeling. In other words, people seem to risk more when they sense themselves losing than when they feel like they're winning. This theory is evident in the casino business. When people are at a casino, they spend more when they are losing, because they are trying to make up for what they've lost. 

Tversky and Kahneman also found that they way options are framed affects how persuasive they can be. By labeling treatment options as the possible gains that could result, people will go with the option that guarantees people will survive, even though both options will result in the same number of survivors. When the options are framed as possible losses, people tend to choose the option that seems riskier.

• GAINS
• A: Will save 200 of 600 lives.
• B: 33.33% chance of saving all 600 lives, 66.67% of saving none.

•  LOSSES
• C: 400 of 600 people will die.
• D: 33.33% chance none will die, 66.67% chance all 600 will die.

Byrnes, Ralph. "Prospect Theory." Economics Interactive. Web. 31 Oct 2010. <http://www.unc.edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/Economicae/Figures/Prospect.htm>.

 Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman. "The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice." Science. 211.4481 (1981): 453-458. Print.

Memory Failures

Daniel Schacter has published "The Seven Sins of Memory" which cause people to forget things.

1. Transience
• Forgetting over time
• Forgetting what to get at the store
• To avoid it:
• Use visual images
• Logos play into this
2. Absent mindedness
• Forgetting something usually because of divided attention, which prohibits us from encoding the information correctly
• Where did I put my keys?
• To avoid it:
• Sufficient information
• Timers
• got milk? reminds consumers to pick up milk on their way home
3. Blocking
• "It's on the tip of my tongue!"
• While logos help with transience, sometimes we can't remember what company something stands for in the same moment we see a logo.
4. Misattribution
• Remembering something that never happened
• Most consumers thought that Nike was the partner of the Beijing Olympics, when it was actually Adidas.
5. Suggestibility
• Incorporating information from other sources into personal recollections
• Eyewitness reports in investigations
6. Bias
• Misremember something as being different than what it really was
• Can also be seen as hindsight
7. Persistence
• Highly emotional events are difficult to forget
• Associate an airline with a crash

Murray, Bridget. "The seven sins of memory." Monitor 34.9 (2003): 28. Web. 31 Oct 2010. <http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct03/sins.aspx>.

Six Influence Tools

Robert Cialdini has published six tools of influence.

1. Reciprocity
• People feel an obligation to repay others, whether it is a gift, a favor, or an invitation. This can result in the person repaying the other person with something worth more than what they received. 
• Salesmen use this technique by starting high on their prices. When the consumer makes a lower offer, the salesmen will "give" the customer a break and come down on their price, which makes the customer feel like they have been given something. They will then "repay" the favor by spending more than they might have wanted to.
2. Commitment and Consistency
• People want to be seen as consistent in their beliefs and their actions. 
• Salesmen will get customers to commit to buy. The customer than feels guilty if they don't do what they promised.
3. Social Proof
• People like to do what others around them are doing.
• One study found that people in a neighborhood are likely to buy the same cars as their neighbors. 
4. Liking
• People will be more likely to respond favorably to people they like.
• Spokespeople are a good example of this. Having someone representing a brand that appeals to consumers can be very effective. 
5. Authority
• People can be persuaded through the words and actions of those with authority or perceived authority.
• Commercials that make use of doctors and even actors playing doctors use this technique. Consumers tend to believe these commercials.
6. Scarcity
• If you constrain a person's freedom, they will try to regain that freedom.
• Companies such as Apple and other electronics manufacturers play up the amount of product that will be available, creating the feeling in consumers that they must be the first to have their product.

"Influence." Rick A. Ross Institute, n.d. Web. <http://www.rickross.com/reference/brainwashing/brainwashing20.html>

Elaboration Likelihood Model of Attitude Change

Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo developed the elaboration likelihood model in 1980. This model indicates the likelihood a consumer will elaborate (think deeper about) a certain message. 

There are two processing routes that occur. 

1. The central route consists of messages that are straight-forward and are higher-involvement products.
2. The peripheral route consists of message with flashy graphics, catchy music, etc. and are usually for lower-involvement products.

The consumer generally needs more motivation in order for a central route message to be effective. They will have to process facts and information. If they do not want to process this information, the ad will not work.

Um, Nam-Hyun. "Revisit Elaboration Likelihood Model: How Advertising Appeals Work on Attitudinal and Behavioral Brand Loyalty Centering Around Low vs. High-Involvement Product." European Journal of Social Sciences 7.1 (2008): 126-139. Web. 31 Oct 2010.

Street Crossing and Depression

How does the way people cross the street reflect the way they view their health?

For a class project, we were given the objective of creating a campaign that convinced women to talk to their doctor about depression if they have the symptoms. To gain some insight on consumers, we watched the way people crossed the street. Not everyone will tell you the truth about how they approach their health but the way they cross the street when they think no one is watching is one way to hypothesize what their health behavior is like.

We noticed several groups that emerged from our observations. There are people who dart across the street when the light is red (riskier health behaviors). There are those people who wait for someone else to go before they start (need a little push to seek help).

We also saw that people like to cross in groups more than alone. Couples in particular cross differently than other groups. They are concerned about one another and are oblivious to the others around them. One particular observation we had that illustrated their concern for each other was a couple about to cross the street. The guy started to cross, but a car was coming. His girlfriend pulled him back to safety on the sidewalk.

This was the main insight that we build our campaign around. A woman is more likely to talk to her doctor if she has the support of her significant other. We focused our messaging to the men encouraging them to be supportive and help their wives or girlfriends in any way they can.

Context

Would you rather have $6 or a pen worth $6?
Would you rather have $6, a pen worth $6, or a pen worth 25 cents?


Most people wouldn't chose the cheaper pen, but research has shown that simply having it as an option increases the number of people who would choose the nicer pen. One study told participants that some of them would be rewarded for participating. They were asked to choose which option they would rather have. The first set were asked to choose between the money and the $6 pen. The other half were asked to choose between the money, the $6 pen, and the cheap pen. 


In the first group, 64% chose the money and 36% chose the pen. In the second set, 52% chose the money, 46% chose the expensive pen, and 2% chose the cheap pen.


Simply having an inferior option to compare the pen to caused more people to choose that option. 


This also happens with cars. Manufacturers often have a base model with few features, a model with more features, and the "loaded" model. Customers are more likely to choose the middle option. 


Simonson, Itamar, and Amos Tversky. "Choice in Context: Tradeoff Contrast and Extremeness Aversion." Journal of Marketing Research. 29.3 (1992): 281-295. Print.

Framing

How much does the way a product is presented affect consumers' perceptions of that product?


One study sought to answer that question. The researchers told the participants that they are tasting ground beef. Half the participants were told they are tasting 25% fat ground beef, while the other half was told they are tasting 75% lean ground beef. Also, half of these were told before they tasted the meat and half were told after they had tasted the meat. (Note that this is the same meat, just represented in two different ways.)


The participants were then asked to rate the meat on several factors (taste, greasiness, quality, and lean vs. fat). 


The researchers found that it didn't matter whether the participants received the label before or after tasting the meat. What did make a difference was whether the meat was framed in a positive light (75% lean) or a negative light (25% fat). Those that were told the meat was 75% lean were more likely to rate the meat favorably, while the ones who were given the negative framing of the meat tended to rate the meat less favorably. 

Levin, I. P., & Gaeth, G. J.  (1988).  Framing of attribute information before and after consuming the product.  Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 374-378.

LiveStrong Bands and Geeks

One of the levels in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is social. People need to feel like they belong to a group with other people who have similar values and beliefs as them. Along with that, people feel the need to distance themselves from those who they do not want to be like (divergence).

One study sought to examine the ways people diverge themselves from undesired groups. Researchers went to a college campus and sold yellow LiveStrong bands to one dorm (target dorm) and a week later sold them to the dorm next to it, which was where more academic students lived (geeks). The students in the target group did not dislike the students next door, but they did not want to be associated with them. As a control group, the researchers also sold the same number of bands to people off campus, to ensure that people wouldn't stop wearing them simply because of boredom with the fad.

The researchers followed up 6 and 13 days later. The sought to find out who was still wearing their wristband. They found that "in the week after the wristbands were adopted by the geeks, there was a 32% drop in the number of Target Dorm members who reported wearing the wristband." (Berger and Heath, 598) The control group only had a 6% drop in wearing them. According to the researchers the results "illustrate that people may abandon cultural tastes that are adopted by other social groups." (Berger and Heath, 598)


The implications for advertising?

Advertisers should be aware of who they associate their products with and how other people perceive these groups. They should also develop strategies that will enable these groups to be more receptive to being associated with each other.


Berger, Jonah, and Chip Heath. "Who Drives Divergence? Identity Signaling, Outgroup Dissimilarity, and the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 95.3 (2008): 593-607. Print.

The McGurk Effect

An interesting research study found a connection between what someone sees and what they hear.

First, watch this video.



Now, watch it again with your eyes closed. Did you hear something different? Harry McGurk discovered this and reported it in a 1976 paper.

The video is of a man saying “bah” with a voice dubbed over it that says “dah.” Our eyes and our ears work together and our brain hears “dah” until we only use our ears when we hear “bah.”

“When confronted with conflicting pieces of information, the brain decides which sense to trust.” (Angier)

This effect contradicts what was previously thought by classical scholars, that the sensory elements in the brain work independently of each other. New research has found that these elements actually interact with each other, affecting each other in small ways.

What does this mean to advertising?

It could have implications in using sound and text at the same time. If the two are not synchronized, this could cause the viewer to become confused, which will then turn them away from the ad.


Angier, Natalie. "When an Ear Witness Decides the Case." New York Times 22 June 2009. Web. 9 Oct 2010.

Chung, Karen. "Hearing with your eyes: The McGurk Effect." Intermediate Phonetics Page by Page. National Taiwan University. Web. 9 Oct 2010.