Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A study showed that people in a gambling card game long before conscious thought. The subconscious,
showed physiological arousal when picking up from the emotional system could qualify decision-making.
card decks that where “bad” and rigged to create loss.
This information changed their behavior to pick more Advertisements and images influence us even when we
cards from the rigged “good” card decks. If asked if they are not aware of them, and have no recall of them. Brand
could see no system in the game, but their subconscious awareness recognition is more relevant than recall.
had a knowledge about which card decks where “bad”. Recognition is to a high degree based on subconscious
The subconscious information (in this case a negative material such as emotions (Penn, 2007).
emotion) resulted in changed behavior (decision-making)
that was positive for their outcome. Consciously the Cognitive
respondents were not aware of this and could not report Visual Processing
Cognitive Consciously
Language, Emotional Visual
Level felt experience
Thoughts etc. Processing
'feelings'
Subconscious
Bodily Reactions,
Behavioral aspect, Attitudes
Buying Experienced
expressions, body Decisions
postures and gestures Habits decision Feelings,
Involvement,
Motivation, Desire.
Involuntary
Emotional Level Unconsciously
bodily reactions Fig 2. Shows the cognitive and emotional factors involved in visual
processing preceding a buying decision.
Fig 1. Shows the cognitive and emotional involvement in the
processing of visual information preceding a buying decision. It is found that emotions guide and qualify decision-
making (Damasio, 1994). These are subconscious
3. Why measure emotions? processes that cannot be accessed by respondents. Self
Marketing and advertisement research have mostly report or recall measures are therefore not helpful
used self-report or recall as measurement methods. Recall measurement methods. We cannot ask people about
is the conscious memory of an ad reported by the emotions and the subconscious material simply because
respondent. The problem with these methods is that they they have no conscious access to it. All that we can ask
only tap into the conscious part of cognition. These about is the feeling and the associations the ad produces.
methods do not measure subconscious material, such as Feelings are the part of emotions that have become
emotions. These measurement methods have their origin conscious. The problem with this level is that it is indirect
in older cognitive psychology. It was believed that an and influenced by thought (cognition). At this level
image would trigger thoughts in the respondent that associations, experience, group dynamics, psychological
would evoke some emotions that again trigger action. content, experienced demands and defense mechanisms,
such as rationalizing and intellectualization, influence
Brain research during the last decade has shown that and disturb the reporting, thus making it very difficult to
emotions precede conscious thinking and decision- analyze the results.
making. Neuroscience has shown that when a respondent
sees an image, emotions are triggered. Emotions Within the relative new field of neuromarketing, the
influence and guide visual attention and behavior methods currently given most attention for measuring
(Damasio, 1994). Thoughts then rationalize and emotions are: fMRI, EEG and GSR. Neuromarketing is
systematize the experience and the behavior. growing rapidly because of the possible consequences of
the above mentioned research has on marketing and
In the above mentioned study, it was shown that the advertisement research.
emotional system could collect and use vital information
Much of the research within marketing and (Hugdahl, 2001). This measurement is used in lie-
advertisement research, executed by focus groups and detectors (polygraph), and is shown to be one of the best
surveys, might be of little value as it is not conscious, physiological measurement methods for measuring
cognitive processing underlying brand awareness, emotional responses. GSR is widely used in emotion
preferences and buying-decisions, but in fact emotions research. GSR has shown to be efficient for measuring
and subconscious processes. These levels are only strong emotions like fear. The problem with GSR is that
accessible by measuring the changes in the brain and it is not sensitive enough to measure weaker or more
body that are happening when emotions occur. subtle emotions. Those are what we mostly encounter
when exposed to advertisements. Another problem with
This "new" paradigm from modern brain research is in GSR is that the measurement is very sensitive to other
line with analytical psychology that argues that most of processes in the body. Thus the measurement situation
our thinking, emotions and behavior are based on the needs to be strictly controlled. That is fine for
subconscious processes, and that our conscious thought experiments in a laboratory, but for testing in more
can only account for about 10%. natural environment it becomes difficult to separate other
disturbing factors and to control the data collecting.
New measurement methods are needed to access the Furthermore the interpretation of the results requires
subconscious level of information. trained staff.
Emotional Involvement
ways. Pupil size is known to be related to emotional 6.75
7.5
When the Danish high-end electronics manufacturer
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) had to design their new
5.0 awareness campaign in the US, they used Emotion
Tool®. The tool, uncovered the visual attention
2.5
processing and the emotional attention processing on
different approaches of their new campaign, to direct the
campaign to affect the conscious and subconscious level.
0
8. Conclusion
Earlier views within cognitive psychology and
marketing research argued that an image or an ad would
create thoughts that influenced our emotions and
5. Emotion Tool® output with quantified attention and emotion behavior. This view has since been turned around by
measures modern brain science that has found that emotions and
subconscious processes precede, guide and qualify
behavior and decision-making. Even just a short glimpse
of a Coca-Cola logo or an Apple logo triggers emotions
in us that directly influence behavior, even if we are not
consciously aware of having seen the logo at all.
emotional level of processing as this level precedes and Damasio, A.R. (1994): Descartes Error - Emotion,
qualifies buying-decisions. Emotion Tool® offers a Reason, and the Human Brain, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New
nonintrusive way to measure visual attention and York
emotional responses to ads. Granholm, E. & Steinhauer, S.R. (2004): Pupillometric
Measures of Cognitive and Emotional Processes,
In the example above with the B&O case, a traditional International Journal of Psychophysiology, 52, 1–6
approach to this would be to ask people what they
Hugdahl, K. (2001): Psychophysiology: The Mind-
thought of the commercial and invite people to a focus
body Perspective, Harvard University Press
group. The results would only be reflecting the after
effect of the processing, and only reflect a small fraction Penn, D. (2007). Brain Science: In Search of the
of what really goes on when the ads are processed. By Emotional Unconscious. In Marketing Research
using Emotion Tool® the B&O executives could get clear Handbook. ESOMAR. 2007.
measurements of visual attention and emotional Ruiz-Padial, L., Sollers, J.J., Vila, J. & Thayer, J.F.
responses to the different ads. This information could be (2003): The rhythm of the heart in the blink of an eye:
successfully used in the analysis and in the further Emotion-modulated startle magnitude covaries with heart
development of the ad. rate variability, Psychophysiology, 40, 306–313
Staners, R.F., Coulter, M., Sweet, A.W. & Murphy, P.
Emotion Tool® gives an advantage to other (1979): The papillary response as an indicator of arousal
measurements methods as it taps directly into the and cognition, Motivation and Emotion, 3 (4), 319-340
subconscious level and emotions, presenting valuable
Steinhauer, S. R., Boller, F., Zubin, J. & Pearlman, S.
information for advertisement analysis and advertisement
(1983): Pupillary dilation to emotional visual stimuli
design. As emotions are critical for attention and
revisited, Psychophysiology, 20
behavior, in this case buying decision, this information is
vital. Tanya Chartrand, Gavan Fitzsimons. (2008): Automatic
Effects of Brand Exposure on Motivated Behavior: How
Apple Makes You “Think Different”. In Press
9. References
Beatty, J. & Lucero-Wagoner, B. (2000): The pupillary
system, in Caccioppo, J., Tassinary, L.G. & Berntson, G.
(Eds.): The Handbook of Psychophysiology, Cambridge
University Press, Hillsdale, New York.
Bechara A, Damasio AR, Damasio H, Anderson SW
(1994). "Insensitivity to future consequences following
damage to human prefrontal cortex", Cognition 50: 7-15.
Bradley, M. M., Cuthbert, B. N. & Lang, P. J. (1999):
Affect and the startle reflex, in Dawson, M.E., Schell, A.
& Boehmelt, A. (Eds.): Startle modification: Implications
for neuroscience, cognitive science and clinical science,
Stanford University Press, Stanford, 242–276.
Calvo, M. G., & Lang, P. J. (2004). Gaze patterns when
looking at emotional pictures: Motivationally biased
attention. Motivation and Emotion, 28, 221–243.
Dichter, G.S., Tomarken, A.J. & Baucom, B.R. (2002):
Startle modulation before, during and after exposure to
emotional stimuli, International Journal of
Psychophysiology, 43, 191-196