Noise, Distraction Makes You Naughty...You Eat More!

One of my favorite theories to study is cognitive resource depletion, which says that your ability to resist temptations and focus your attention is limited and once you run out you aren't able to stop yourself from doing all sorts of naughty things.

A recent article on NPR reports on a study by Andy Woods at U. of Manchester which found that people who were distracted were less likely to distinguish sweetness and saltiness. Suzanne Higgs at U. of Birmingham found that when people were distracted during lunch they were more likely to eat more cookies later in the afternoon!

So why does distraction during eating make us eat more? It may be that distraction distorts the brain's ability to process perceptions of foods we are eating but that remains to be uncovered by more research. And yes that is indeed on my long to do list!

Instinct in the Brain

Part of brain that suppresses instinct identified

ScienceDaily (2010-12-26) -- New research is revealing which regions in the brain fire up when we suppress an automatic behavior such as the urge to look at other people in an elevator. Researchers showed -- for the first time -- an increase in signal from the left inferior frontal cortex when study participants were confronted by a conflict between an image and a word superimposed on the image. ... > read full article

Ads Work Better If All Senses Are Involved

Taste Sensation: Ads Work Better If All Senses Are Involved

ScienceDaily (2009-07-22) -- Corporations spend billions of dollars each year on food advertising. For example, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and McDonald's each spent more than $1 billion in advertising in 2007. A new study suggests those advertisers are missing out if their ads only mention taste and ignore our other senses. ... > read full article

Torturing Shoppers with Chicken Wire: How Retailers Uses Data to Increase Impulsive Buying

Did you know that the first supermarket was the King Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, TN used chicken wire to herd shoppers through all the aisles in order to be sure that they saw every item in the store. This little tidbit fact I discovered this morning reading my Globe and Mail newspaper. The article written by Michael Kesterton went on to report that stores like Walmart use data collected on consumers via scanner registers, radio frequency tagging, etc. to manipulate the retail environment in order to maximize consumer sales especially impulse purchases. My mother who worked in sales for Estee Lauder for 35 years talked about how they would use flashing lights, blaring music, distracting displays (full of flowers, banners, people, colors, etc.)to bewilder and overstimulate consumers. All of this works in my opinion because of what cognitive resource depletion theory states is our limited ability to resist distraction and temptation and the rampant impulsivity and risky behavior that follows depletion. Ever wonder why you feel sooo exhausted and traumatized when shopping in the monster box stores (especially exacerbated when small kids are in tow)? The previously mentioned large retailer allegedly has a database of behavioral information that is 2nd only to the Pentagon...amazing! People don't need to fear government...large corporations are scarier! The retail experience needs innovation and renovation...the consumer should be helped not harangued!

Trial and Error Works! Past Experience Changes Neural Circuitry

Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making, Brain Research Shows

ScienceDaily (2009-05-15) -- Researchers have shown that past experience really does help when we have to make complex decisions based on uncertain or confusing information. They show that learning from experience actually changes the circuitry in our brains so that we can quickly categorize what we are seeing and make a decision or carry out appropriate actions. ... > read full article

Color and Behavior!!!

Red Enhances Men's Attraction To Women, Psychological Study Reveals

ScienceDaily (2008-10-28) -- Psychologists have added color -- literally and figuratively -- to the age-old question of what attracts men to women. Psychologists have demonstrated that the color red makes men feel more amorous toward women. And men are unaware of the role the color plays in their attraction. ... > read full article

Risk taking gene isolated!

ScienceDaily (2009-02-11) -- A new study provides provocative insights that relate to the question of the day: "How in the world did so many financial titans take such huge risks with out nation's well being?" The new research pinpoints the roles specific variants of the serotonin transporter gene and the dopamine receptor gene play in predicting whether people are more or less likely to take financial risks. LINK

Cessation Ads Work?

Exposure To Smoking-cessation Product Ads Helps Smokers Quit

ScienceDaily (2007-07-25) -- The more magazine ads smokers see for the nicotine patch and other quit-smoking aids, the more likely they are to try to quit smoking and be successful --- even without buying the products, finds a new Cornell study. Researchers calculated that if the smoking-cessation product industry increased its average annual spending on magazine advertising by about $2.6 million or 10 percent, the average smoker would see 2.1 more ads each year; according to their calculations, this would translate to about 80,000 additional quits each year. ... > read full article

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

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.

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!

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!

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.