Download The Effects of Pushing a Shopping Cart on Purchase Behavior 1

 The Effects of Pushing a Shopping Cart on Purchase Behavior 1 Student Supervisor: Dipl.-­‐Kfm. Mathias C. Streicher Literature suggests that arm postures can influence consumer behavior. For example, merely inducing arm flexion (e.g., having participants press their palm against the underside of a table) increases food consumption rather than arm extension and carrying a basket (i.e., flexed arms) induces preference for vice over virtue products rather than pushing a shopping cart (i.e., extended arms). Yet, there are only few reliable demonstrations of how arm flexion can be induced in shopping settings. In your theoretical part you will elaborate on various theories that explain such effects. In your empirical part you will test whether differing shopping apparatuses (e.g., a shopping cart that induces arm flexion) influences hypothetical product purchases. Literature: Cacioppo, J. T., Priester, J. R., & Berntson, G. G. (1993). Rudimentary determinants of attitudes: II. Arm flexion and extension have differential effects on attitudes. Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(1), 5. ISO 690 Förster, J. (2003). The influence of approach and avoidance motor actions on food intake. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33(3), 339-­‐350. Van den Bergh, B., Schmitt, J., & Warlop, L. (2011). Embodied myopia. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(6), 1033-­‐1044. Method Books: Field, A., Hole G. J. (2002), How to design and report experiments Field, A. (2009), Discovering Statistics using SPSS Visual Attention and Brand Extensions 1 Student Supervisor: Dipl.-­‐Kfm. Mathias C. Streicher Recent data from psychology indicates that diffused visual attention correlates with unplanned purchases. However, nothing is known if and how visual attention carries over to purely cognitive processing. For instance, attention to the visual periphery rather than to the center could broaden mental processing with positive effects for novelty categorization. Brand extensions, for instance, typically represent novel entities, which become mapped on existing brand knowledge (e.g., Cola beverage à Red Bull Cola). And typically, the acceptance of brand extensions depends on the degree a consumer can fit a novel product in his/her existing brand knowledge structures. The theoretical part of the thesis should elaborate on visual attention, Novelty Categorization Theory and perceptual processing styles. A lab experiment tests whether visual attention to the periphery of a print advertisement facilitates acceptance of an advertised brand extension. Literature: Büttner, O. B., Florack, A., Leder, H., Paul, M. A., Serfas, B. G., & Schulz, A. M. (2014). Hard to ignore impulsive buyers show an attentional bias in shopping situations. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(3), 343-­‐351. Förster, J., Marguc, J., & Gillebaart, M. (2010). Novelty categorization theory. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(9), 736-­‐755. Loken, B., Barsalou, L. W., & Joiner, C. (2008). Categorization theory and research in consumer psychology. Handbook of consumer psychology, 133-­‐163. Serfas, B. G., Büttner, O. B., & Florack, A. (2014). Eyes Wide Shopped: Shopping Situations Trigger Arousal in Impulsive Buyers. PloS one, 9(12), e114593. Method Books: Field, A., Hole G. J. (2002), How to design and report experiments Field, A. (2009), Discovering Statistics using SPSS Switching Costs between Advertisements 1 Student Supervisor: Dipl.-­‐Kfm. Mathias C. Streicher Advertising is a multi billion dollar business and order effects within commercial blocks or magazines are a long-­‐burning issue for both researchers and media planners. Common to most TV or print ads is that one ad evokes imaginations in a particular sensory modality (e.g., the taste of a McDonald’s hamburger) while a subsequent ad appeals to a totally different sense (e.g., the haptic properties of the latest Iphone). Cognitive psychology, in turn, suggests that perceptions in one modality incur switching costs if a subsequent perception appeals to a different sensory modality. The goal of this thesis is to understand whether there are switching costs from one advertisement to another and whether this systematically influences attitudes towards subsequent ads. In your theoretical part you will elaborate on embodied cognition, modality-­‐switching and processing fluency. In your empirical part you will test whether advertisements that evoke imaginations in one modality inhibit processing, and thus liking, of subsequent advertisements that evoke imaginations in another modality. Literature: Brunel, F. F., & Nelson, M. R. (2003). Message order effects and gender differences in advertising persuasion. Journal of Advertising Research, 43(03), 330-­‐341. Lee, A. Y., & Labroo, A. A. (2004). The effect of conceptual and perceptual fluency on brand evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(2), 151-­‐165. Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., & Barsalou, L. W. (2003). Verifying different-­‐modality properties for concepts produces switching costs. Psychological Science, 14(2), 119-­‐124. Vermeulen, N., Niedenthal, P. M., & Luminet, O. (2007). Switching between sensory and affective systems incurs processing costs. Cognitive Science, 31(1), 183-­‐192. Winkielman, P., Schwarz, N., Fazendeiro, T., & Reber, R. (2003). The hedonic marking of processing fluency: Implications for evaluative judgment. The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion, 189-­‐217. Method Books: Field, A., Hole G. J. (2002), How to design and report experiments Field, A. (2009), Discovering Statistics using SP