No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Computational Neuroaesthetics - Marketing applications
Abstract
Computational neuroaesthetics is the new discipline that integrates neuromarketing, psychology and computer science to develop digital contents aligned to users' psychological characteristics, such as personality traits. The chapter illustrates the importance of content aesthetics in marketing (advertising and product).
This review explains how color combinations influence our perception and our aesthetic appreciation. In addition, the studies under review, which are purely qualitative, describe the semantic processing of color associations (according to the three pillars of the color-emotion space) and explain, through a mathematical formula and theoretical evidence, why the emotional intensity we experience in front of a pair of colors depends on the individual colors’ hues that constitute it.
This review identifies a common thread in the description of color-emotion associations: when colors are represented with light hues and high levels of brightness, they tend to be associated with positive emotions. Furthermore, warm colors are considered more stimulating than cold colors, which are relaxing and less exciting. The studies considered in this papers use mainly qualitative methodologies.
Aesthetics has become a central construct in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and it has clear beneficial effects on users' perceptions and attitudes. Yet, do attractive interfaces actually enhance user performance? In the light of the importance of the construct and the mixed findings in various studies on the matter a systematic approach is urgently needed. Thus, the present meta-analysis examines in detail the effects of visual interface aesthetics of websites, software and other interactive systems on objective user performance. A systematic literature search yielded 25 eligible studies with 101 observed effects and a total of 3,025 participants. The conducted meta-analysis revealed a small significant overall effect of interface aesthetics on user performance (g = 0.12), while a high heterogeneity of effects was observed. As potential moderators, we tested the type of used interaction medium, task, goal orientation, measure of performance, measure of aesthetics, and aesthetics manipulation. None showed a significant moderating influence. Thus, aesthetics can be considered to have a small but heterogeneous influence on user performance that so far cannot be further resolved by moderating variables reported in eligible studies. Therefore, the discussion sketches avenues for future research and encloses a call to action for the HCI community.
The visual system is exquisitely adapted to the task of extracting conceptual information from visual input with every new eye fixation, three or four times a second. Here we assess the minimum viewing time needed for visual comprehension, using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of a series of six or 12 pictures presented at between 13 and 80 ms per picture, with no interstimulus interval. Participants were to detect a picture specified by a name (e.g., smiling couple) that was given just before or immediately after the sequence. Detection improved with increasing duration and was better when the name was presented before the sequence, but performance was significantly above chance at all durations, whether the target was named before or only after the sequence. The results are consistent with feedforward models, in which an initial wave of neural activity through the ventral stream is sufficient to allow identification of a complex visual stimulus in a single forward pass. Although we discuss other explanations, the results suggest that neither reentrant processing from higher to lower levels nor advance information about the stimulus is necessary for the conscious detection of rapidly presented, complex visual information.
In this study three colour preference models for single colours were developed. The first model was developed on the basis of the colour emotions, clean–dirty, tense–relaxed, and heavy–light. In this model colour preference was found affected most by the emotional feeling “clean.” The second model was developed on the basis of the three colour-emotion factors identified in Part I, colour activity, colour weight, and colour heat. By combining this model with the colour-science-based formulae of these three factors, which have been developed in Part I, one can predict colour preference of a test colour from its colour-appearance attributes. The third colour preference model was directly developed from colour-appearance attributes. In this model colour preference is determined by the colour difference between a test colour and the reference colour (L*, a*, b*) = (50, −8, 30). The above approaches to modeling single-colour preference were also adopted in modeling colour preference for colour combinations. The results show that it was difficult to predict colour-combination preference by colour emotions only. This study also clarifies the relationship between colour preference and colour harmony. The results show that although colour preference is strongly correlated with colour harmony, there are still colours of which the two scales disagree with each other. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 29, 381–389, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20047
The objective of this investigation was to find out if there existed any differences in personality traits of subjects grouped according to the colour preference criterion. The study sample included a total of 104 subjects recruited from the third-year students of two grammar schools in Novi Sad, Serbia. The research instruments applied were the short version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire and the Colour Preference Questionnaire designed particularly for the purpose of this investigation. The obtained results showed that there were personality differences between subjects preferring dark colours (brown, grey and black) and subjects preferring bright colours (red, yellow). Social introversion and neuroticism/anxiety were more prominent personality traits in subjects who preferred dark colours, while aggression and activity were more prominent in subjects who preferred bright colours.
This research demonstrates a visual phenomenon with broad implications for consumers: the perceived size of products depends on the saturation of their color. Results from six experiments, employing objects and products with various shapes and hues, show that increasing color saturation increases size perceptions. This influence is explained by the tendency for saturated color to capture attention, which, in turn, is explained by the arousal that saturated color stimulates. This research also demonstrates several downstream outcomes of the effect of saturation on size perceptions: Evaluations are more favorable—and willingness to pay is higher—for products with high (low) saturation when usage goals call for large (small) size. Additionally, participants choose more of a product to fill a container with higher saturation. Further, the saturation of an object’s color affects the perceived size of its surroundings, such that when a product with high (vs. low) saturation is used as a benchmark, the environment is perceived to be comparatively smaller (vs. larger). Implications for aesthetics, design, sensory marketing, and related topics are discussed. Lastly, to aid future color research, an appendix outlines general challenges and recommendations in connection with the conceptualization, manipulation, and measurement of color.
Purpose
Our aim was investigate the role of attention, processing motivation, and processing depth in the relationship between self-reported subjective processing fluency and relevant advertisement variables such as ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Two empirical studies were conducted using self-report questionnaires.
Findings
In study 1 (N=176), we pretested our measure of self-reported subjective processing fluency. As expected, it was found to be sensitive to visual and semantic features of advertisements and to predict attitudes toward an advertisement. In study 2 (N=204), mediation analyses showed that self-reported subjective processing fluency was a predictor of attitude toward the advertisement (through attention and processing depth), attitude toward the brand (through processing depth), and purchase intentions (through processing depth).
Research limitations/implications
Our results emphasize the role of cognitive processing in explaining the effect of processing fluency on attitudes in marketing research.
Practical implications
Practitioners could use our theoretical framework and take into account the fluency with which consumers process information to improve the way they advertise their products.
Originality/value
Our results suggest that self-reported subjective processing fluency can be relevant to predicting consumers' attitudes because it increases attention and processing depth of the advertisement.
A field study compared the click-through rates of box and banner web ads with red and blue color schemes using data from more than 1.5 million ad impressions from 12 months of traffic on a popular news website. For box ads, a red (versus blue) color scheme generated substantially higher click-through rates, but for banner ads the effect of color was less pronounced. Consistent with research on color and attention, ads with a red color scheme elicited a greater number of responses. This finding also suggests, though, that habituation to certain types of ads, such as banner ads, can attenuate the effect of ad attributes.
Color data from the Osgood et al. 23-culture semantic differential study of affective meanings reveal cross-cultural similarities in feelings about colors. The concept RED is affectively quite salient. BLACK and GREY are bad, and WHITE, BLUE, and GREEN are good. YELLOW, WHITE, and GREY are weak; RED and BLACK are strong. BLACK and GREY are passive; RED is active. The color component Brightness, as determined by comparing data on WHITE, GREY, and BLACK, is strongly associated with positive Evaluation, but also with negative Potency. Eighty-nine previous studies of color and affect were analyzed. They generally support these findings, and, together with the fact that there are very few exceptions in our data or the literature, lead one to believe that there are strong universal trends in the attribution of affect in the color domain.
The three key ad elements (brand, pictorial, and text) each have unique superiority effects on attention to adver-tisements, which are on par with many commonly held ideas in marketing practice. This is the main conclusion of an analysis of 1363 print advertisements tested with infrared eye-tracking methodology on more than 3600 con-sumers. The pictorial is superior in capturing attention, independent of its size. The text element best captures attention in direct proportion to its surface size. The brand element most effectively transfers attention to the other elements. Only increments in the text element's surface size produce a net gain in attention to the advertisement as a whole. The authors discuss how their findings can be used to render more effective decisions in advertising. Rik Pieters is Professor of Marketing, Marketing Department, Tilburg Uni-versity (e-mail: pieters@uvt.nl). Michel Wedel is Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan Business School (e-mail: wedel@bus.umich.edu). The authors thank Dominique Claessens and Chris Huijnen of Verify Inter-national for the eye-tracking data.
Advertising is a ubiquitous and powerful force, seducing us into buying wanted and sometimes unwanted products and services, donating to charity (even to causes we have not heard of before), voting for political candidates (even of questionable reputation), and changing our health-related lifestyles for better or worse. The impact of advertising is often subtle and implicit, but sometimes blatant and impossible to overlook. This book discusses key topics from the fields of social and consumer psychology. Important questions are addressed in the volume such as: What impact does advertising have on consumer behaviour? What causes this impact?. What are the psychological processes responsible for the effectiveness of advertising?. How do consumers make sense of advertising messages?. What messages "get across" and when and why?. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive and state-of-the-art overview of the psychological findings on the impact of advertising, and to discuss this research in the context of recent developments in the fields of social and consumer psychology. It presents and discusses results of both classic and contemporary studies in an engaging style that avoids highly technical language. The authors have included a glossary of frequently used concepts which assists student comprehension, making it a unique and invaluable volume for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and lecturers in social psychology, marketing, and communications. It is also a useful resource for professionals working in advertising, public health, public services and political communication.
To measure and compare the main color-preference tendencies in Japan, China, and Indonesia, 490 subjects (175 Japanese, 158 Chinese, and 157 Indonesian) were asked to choose from a color chart the three colors they liked most and the three they liked least and to state the reasons for their choices. Analysis of the choices by correspondence analysis showed that each area (country) shows tendencies for unique color preference and that there are statistically significant differences in the frequency of selection of colors of certain hues and tones. However, a high preference for white was common to all areas, along with preferences for some other colors. The successive studies done by the author have shown a common strong preference for white in other Asian areas as well. The reasons given for the choices suggested that associative images based on environmental and cultural aspects may be important influences on color preference.
The long history of color preference studies has been described as "bewildering, confused and contradictory" [1]. Although recent studies [1-3] tend to agree on a universal preference for 'blue', the variety and lack of control in measurement methods have made it difficult to extract a systematic, quantitative description of preference. Furthermore, despite abundant evidence for sex differences in other visual domains, and specifically in other tasks of color perception [4,5], there is no conclusive evidence for the existence of sex differences in color preference. This fact is perhaps surprising, given the prevalence and longevity of the notion that little girls differ from boys in preferring 'pink' [6]. Here we report a robust, cross-cultural sex difference in color preference, revealed by a rapid paired-comparison task. Individual color preference patterns are summarized by weights on the two fundamental neural dimensions that underlie color coding in the human visual system. We find a consistent sex difference in these weights, which, we suggest, may be linked to the evolution of sex-specific behavioral uses of trichromacy.