Better Decisions with Emotional Intelligence

How about dessert? from PhysOrg.com

People with highly developed emotional sensibilities are better at making product choices, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

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Energy Drinks and Risk

Consumption of energy drinks may be linked to increased risky behavior according Kate Miller from the University of Buffalo in a recent published study. It could be due to increased caffeine or that these drinks are often consumed with alcohol. Article

Neural Response to PSAs 2006

Functional MRI of Brain Response to Anti-Smoking Advertisements
Daniel Langleben, MD

"This is a pilot study for the larger center project titled Evaluating Anti-Tobacco public service announcements (PSAs). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study brain response to anti-smoking PSAs. In preliminary studies, researchers used perfusion fMRI to detect increased activity in the components of the brain limbic system in opiate-dependent patients in response to a ten-minute heroin-related video. The results indicated that (1) Brain response to media can be measured with fMRI; (2) Brain response to media varies across target audiences and (3) Specific structures mediating strong interest could be activated in the target population but not the controls. Collaborators at Penn have also used fMRI to detect differential response to the emotional image content. This pilot study takes an important first step towards exploring the feasibility of using magnetic resonance signal as a marker of cognitive (e.g. attention) and emotional (e.g. arousal) responses to different PSAs. Results from this would allow interpretation of the brain response to a PSA in terms of known brain localization of cognitive functions."

Express Yourself

Why Are Some People Unable To Express Their Emotions?

ScienceDaily (2008-05-27) -- Italian investigators have published a new study on the neurobiologic correlates of the inability to express emotions (alexithymia). A deficit in interhemispheric transfer was hypothesized in alexithymia more than 30 years ago, following the observation that split-brain patients manifest certain alexithymic characteristics. ... > read full article

Research Needed on How Consumer Risk Behavior is Impacted by Pharma DTC!

An FDA panel of experts has concluded that more research needs to be done on ads for prescriptions drugs and their effect on consumer behavior.

According to Kristin Davis, deputy director for the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications 68,000 marketing campaigns including commercials and print ads, magnets and pens, were submitted to the FDA.

A study from the National Institutes of Health found thatin 2005, $29.9 billion was spent on advertising, free samples, and sales staff to promote brand name products. More than $4 billion were spent on DTC ads versus $429 million for ads for doctors.

Read more...

Companies Changing Behavior

Business / Small Business
The Goal Is to Do the Right Thing
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Published: May 21, 2008
Small businesses are trying to provide information to consumers about why their products are considered “green.” Nonetheless, there are few definite rules or standards.

Power Women

Estrogen Fuels Female Need For Power And Control

ScienceDaily (2008-05-23) -- New psychology research suggests that the sex hormone estrogen may be for women what testosterone is for men: The fuel of power. Until recently, some researchers doubted whether women had a biologically anchored need for dominance. ... > read full article

Unintended Effects of Smoking Policies

Increase In Drunk Driving Fatalities Followed Ban On Smoking In Bars

ScienceDaily (2008-05-21) -- A ban on cigarette smoking in bars is meant to save lives by reducing patrons' exposure to secondhand smoke. But it may actually be having an unintended consequence. By comparing data from a variety of locations around the United States where laws requiring smoke-free bars exist with locations without bans, researchers found a relative increase in fatalities caused by drunk driving following ban enactment. It seems that smokers are willing to drive longer distances to an establishment that allows smoking. ... > read full article

Drugs and the Brain

Tracking The Effects Of Addictive Drugs On Brain

ScienceDaily (2008-05-16) -- Researchers may have unlocked the key to better understanding the effect addictive drugs have on the human brain. Researchers discovered that a drug that works through the cannabinoid 1 receptor recognizing the active ingredient of marijuana activates many different transcription factors, triggering the differentiation of neurons, causing permanent changes in a person's brain. ... > read full article

Judgment on the Brain

Exploring The Mechanics Of Judgment, Beliefs

ScienceDaily (2008-05-15) -- How do we know what other people are thinking? How do we judge them, and what happens in our brains when we do? MIT neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe is tackling those tough questions and many others. Her goal is no less than understanding how the brain gives rise to the abilities that make us uniquely human--making moral judgments, developing belief systems and understanding language. ... > read full article

Culture and Extraverts: Sensitivity to Rewards

Sensitivity To Rewards May Distinguish Extraverts From Introverts

ScienceDaily (2000-09-14) -- A new study which looks at the cross-cultural fundamental features of the extraversion personality trait indicates that extraverts find social situations more rewarding than introverts, not because they are more sociable, but because they are more sensitive to the rewards inherent in most social situations. ... > read full article

Pain and Fatigue

Biological Link Between Pain And Fatigue Discovered

ScienceDaily (2008-04-09) -- A recent study reveals a biological link between pain and fatigue and may help explain why more women than men are diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. ... > read full article

Positive Feelings Broaden View

Positive Emotions Slash Bias, Help People See Big Picture Details

ScienceDaily (2005-02-09) -- Positive emotions like joy and humor help people "get the big picture," virtually eliminating the own-race bias that makes many people think members of other races "all look alike," according to new University of Michigan research. ... > read full article

Emotions and Focus

MRI Studies Provide New Insight Into How Emotions Interfere With Staying Focused

ScienceDaily (2002-08-20) -- Duke University researchers have shown how emotions such as fear or horror travel along separate paths through the brain and are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with a person's efforts to focus on a task such as driving. ... > read full article

Ads and Emotion

Advertisers, Neuroscientists Trace Source Of Emotions In Brain

ScienceDaily (2008-02-22) -- First came direct marketing, then focus groups. Now, advertisers, with the help of neuroscientists, are closing in on the holy grail: mind reading. According to a new article, the findings suggest "that human emotions are multidimensional, and that self-report techniques ... correspond to a specific task but different functional regions of the brain." ... > read full article

Perceptual Focus Theory

How To Manipulate Perceptual Focus In Advertisements

ScienceDaily (2007-07-28) -- In a new study, researchers demonstrate how advertisements can be manipulated to cause overemphasis of a particular feature, and increase the likelihood that a certain product is chosen. Their finding runs contrary to economic models, which assume that choices are based on stable preferences and should not be influenced by the inclusion of inferior options. ... > read full article

Driven to Distraction

Coke Or Pepsi? Being Distracted Can Make You More Susceptible To Ads

ScienceDaily (2008-04-22) -- When distracted, those who were initially neutral towards both brands strongly tended to choose the brand that had been paired with positive images or words in the earlier task. Importantly, this happened even when the participant couldn't remember which brand had been paired with positive information, reports a new study. ... > read full article

The Wealth Gap Persists

A significant issue is the gap between Whites and minorities in household wealth. The average wealth of black households is 23% of the average wealth of white households in the Survey of Consumer Finances despite the fact that the average black income is 50% of the average white income (Altonji, Doraszelski, and Segal 2000). A key contributor to wealth accumulation is investment in risky, high yield investments such as stocks and the savings rate of a household (Wang and Hanna 2007). However, it is not clear what factors contribute to the disparity in financial risk behavior among ethnic groups. African-Americans and Hispanic consumers are significantly different from their White counterparts in their financial product preference and investment asset portfolio (Plath and Stevenson 2000). They tend to prefer near-term savings, favoring liquidity and low investment risk and have a strong affinity for insurance and shy away from financial assets with higher risk and returns, such as common stock, mutual funds, brokerage accounts, and corporate bonds (Plath and Stevenson 2005). Interestingly, a review of studies shows that while African Americans and Hispanics are less likely to take on investment risk than Whites, they may be more likely to take on substantial investment risk than Whites (Yao, Gutter, and Hanna 2005). In addition, White households are more likely to have higher stock ownership than minority households even after controlling for variables such as income (Schooley and Worden 1996; Wang and Hanna 2007; Wang and Hanna 2006; Zhong and Xiao 1995). There are also differences in savings behavior for minority households and are less likely to invest in riskier, high yield assets (Choudhury 2002). Thus, there is a pressing need for consumer behavior researchers to develop a better understanding of the factors impacting financial decision making (Bazerman 2001) especially for vulnerable populations such as ethnic minorities.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class - Consumer Debt Crisis

Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren talks about the impact of consumer credit on middle class families. You'll be surprised...

Where are the important issues for consumers in consumer behavior research?

This excellent comment on consumer behavior research is from Max Bazerman's Journal of Consumer Research article, Consumer Research for Consumers (2001): "As a professor of decision making and negotiation, I often receive unsolicited phone calls from relatives. friends, and acquaintances seeking my advice on consumer matters such as negotiating for a house, bidding on eBay. and investing in the stock market. While the callers' questions cover wide territory, all of them are looking for guidance on how to make more rational consumption decisions. Those who know me will not be surprised to learn that I have strong opinions on these issues, many of them informed by research on decision making and negotiation. As I reviewed the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) to write this article, I expected to find that consumer decision-making research grappled with the types of tough purchasing and investment decisions that were on my callers' minds. To my surprise, I found that this literature has been largely silent regarding many of consumers' most important buying episodes."

Subprime Ravages the Minority Community

A serious example of how consumers have been prodded into financial products that are ill-suited and hazardous is the marketing of subprime mortgages to minority communities. As of mid 2007, the value of subprime mortgages in the U.S. was estimated at $1.3 trillion (Associated Press 2008b). This was a mere 6% of all types of mortgage loans outstanding but represented 43% of the foreclosures stated by third quarter of 2007 (Brooks and Simon 2007). Evidence indicates that African Americans and Hispanics were placed in subprime loans at more than double the rate of White Americans and Asian Americans (Associated Press 2008a) and 61% of borrowers with subprime loans had credit scores high enough to qualify for conventional loans. It is estimated that subprime loans taken over the last 8 years will result the total loss of wealth for people of color is between $164 billion and $213 billion and will result in the single largest drain of wealth from the African American and Hispanic community in history (Rivera et al. 2008).

Americans for Fairness in Lending

Americans for Fairness in Lending is a website I recently found focused on fixing the problems consumers face from the credit card, mortgage and lending industries. From what I understand they organized screenings of the documentary Maxed Out:Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) showing the abuses of the credit card industry which I haven't seen yet but am planning to track down and see! These types of problems are the ones that we in consumer behavior studies should be looking at helping to fix!

Brainstorming

I've been struggling with my writing as of late and since writing is pretty much all a doctoral student does I've been looking for ways to get technology to help me improve my trade. Blogging is one way of course. Another tool that I just started using is a free brainstorming program called FreeMind which allows you to create these nifty little idea maps or trees. I especially love the cloud feature which makes my puny little ideas seem light and airy...here's to innovation in my dissertation!

Emotions and the Stock Market

'Emotional Inflation' Leads To Stock Market Meltdown

ScienceDaily (2008-04-30) -- Investors get carried away with excitement and wishful 'fantasies' as the stock market soars, suppressing negative emotions warning them of high risks, according to a new study led by UCL. Economic models fail to factor in the emotions and unconscious mental life that drive human behavior says the study, which argues that banks and financial institutions should be as wary of 'emotional inflation' as they are fiscal inflation. ... > read full article

Small Chunks Save Bucks and Pounds

Control The Urge To Splurge -- Try Dividing Things Up

ScienceDaily (2008-04-21) -- Good things come in small packages -- like the Nabisco 100 Calorie Pack. But do these portion-controlled offerings help dieters lose weight? Yes, according to new research. Dividing food into smaller portions creates a "partitioning effect;" a phenomenon where segmenting a resource, such as food or money, can dramatically affect consumption. ... > read full article

Culture and Money: Solomon Islands

One of my research interests is how culture impacts financial decision making. Culture has a strong influence on how money is used and valued. A recent Wall Street Journal article (4/30/08, pg. A1) detailed how Solomon Islanders are returning to a traditional currency, the teeth of the spinner dolphin. The price for 1 dolphin tooth has gone up 300% and is now worth about $.26 U.S. It takes about 1000 teeth to be able to afford a bride which as a feminist I think is a nice turn on the dowery families in other cultures have to pay to have their daughters marry but I'm not quite sure if I'm 100% on it.

Savings with a Kick

Getting people to save is extremely important for their personal finances and the economic health of society as a whole. The savings rate in the U.S. is currently negative which means on average Americans spend more than they bring in and save. Harvard business school professor Peter Tufano used his research on creating innovative financial products to create a website (http://www.d2dfund.org/) that looks at ways to help low income folks save and invest more. One idea is "prize-linked savings." It would offer people the chance to win prizes for saving their money. No loss and a chance for a gain! This is Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory in action!

Keeping Track of Your Money...Easy!

People struggle with managing their money. Studies say one of the best ways to control spending and become a better money manager is to keep tabs on how you spend, save and invest your money. Then implementing small changes that yield big results become easy. Technology is helping to make personal money management super easy! I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal this week on Mint.com which is a fantastic website that links with banks to automatically give you the running tab on your spending. Sign up is super fast and you can even look at trends in your spending and compare what you spend to the averages in your city, state or in the U.S. This is a tool that can help make money one less thing to worry about!

Loss Aversion is Real

Why Losing Money May Be More Painful Than You Think

ScienceDaily (2007-05-02) -- Losing money may be intrinsically linked with fear and pain in the brain, scientists have discovered. In a recent study, researchers have shown that during a gambling task, losing money activated an area of the brain involved in responding to fear and pain. ... > read full article

Money and Friends in Neuroecon!

Reputation And Money: New Insights Into How The Brain Processes Social, Economic Reward

ScienceDaily (2008-04-24) -- Researchers have mapped the brain regions that process social standing and money rewards, yielding new insights that they said will aid understanding of the basis of social behaviors. ... > read full article

Ads Linked To Increased Tobacco Use in India

Advertising Linked To Increased Tobacco Use Among India's Youth

ScienceDaily (2008-05-02) -- Directly influenced by pro-tobacco advertising and marketing campaigns, urban sixth-graders in India are using tobacco products in disproportionate numbers, according to a new study. The new information reveals a country setting itself on a dangerous path to tobacco-related illnesses and death in the next two decades. ... > read full article

Misleading Milk Ads

Who says advertising misleads and misinforms? The National Dairy Council industry has spent $200 million since 2003 promoting that milk can help people lose weight with their “Milk your diet. Lose Weight!” campaign (Stein 2005). In turns out, according to a memo issued by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to the FTC, that there is no evidence that dairy consumption causes weight loss (Associated Press 2007). In fact, research shows that for example, children who drink more than 3 servings of milk a day run the risk of becoming overweight (Berkey et al. 2005). As a result, the FTC has forced USDA and National Dairy Council to pull the ads.