Emotion and Reason in Consumer Behavior |
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| 01 Dec 2006 | Written by: Arjun Chaudhuri |
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Excerpted with permission from Butterworth-Heinemann, a division of Elsevier. Emotion and Reason in Consumer Behavior by Arjun Chaudhuri. Copyright 2006. For more information about this book and other similar titles, please visit www.books.elsevier.com.
The Nature of Affect
Although feelings are intrinsic to human beings, the study of affect
(Emotion III) in specifically market persuasion situations has only
recently begun. There was some interest during the 1950s and 1960s
regarding emotional exploitation in advertising, but, in general, the role of
affect in marketing applications did not begin to be studied until the early
1980s. This was probably because affects or feelings are difficult to assess
because they are not amenable to control and evaluation as are the more
often mentioned thoughtful, rational processes.
Since then, the marketing literature has established that affective executions
of ads lead to more favorable attitudes for the product, because
the liking for an advertisement gets conditioned onto the brand itself and
becomes part of the attitude to the brand (Gorn, 1982). This may take
place in the total absence of rational beliefs and product attributes. Some
social psychologists disagree with this and consider affects to occur after
rational processing has taken place (i.e., affects are dependent on reason
because they occur after and as a result of rational processing). On the
other hand, work done in the field by Zajonc (1980) bears out the independent
nature of affective judgments. Zajonc has shown that affects may
indeed precede rational processing. Moreland and Zajonc (1977) exposed
subjects to Japanese ideographs and recorded a variety of recognition and
liking judgments. Experimental evidence was obtained to show that reliable
affective discrimination (like-dislike ratings) can be made in the total
absence of a rational process such as recognition memory.
Characteristics of the affective component as described by Zajonc
(1980) are:
- Affects are primary. They govern our first response to the
environment and determine out subsequent relations with it. Very
often we delude ourselves that we have arrived at a decision in a
rational manner, whereas in reality, the decision has been made on
an "I like it" basis. We may justify our choices by various reasons
but it is the affective that has proved decisive.
- Affects are basic. Affective responses are universal among the animal
species, irrespective of language or reason. Affects existed before
language was evolved and before rational abilities were developed.
- Affects are inescapable. These experiences of affect occur with little
control over them on our part. We may control the expression of
emotion but we cannot escape the experience itself.
- Affects are irrevocable. Once an evaluation is formed on the basis of
an affective response, it is not readily revoked. There is permanence
to affect as, for example, in the abiding nature of our first
impressions of people. Affective judgments are irrevocable because
they "feel" valid and we believe them to be "true." Feelings may
then well represent basic reality.
- Affects implicate the self. Affects identify the state of the person
with relation to the object.
- Affects are difficult to verbalize. The communication of affect relies
largely on nonverbal channels. Expressions of surprise, anger,
delight, and serenity are very similar across cultures.
- Affects may become separated from content and still remain. The
feelings caused by a book or movie are often readily accessible,
though the contents may have been forgotten.
The last point indicates Zajonc's main tenet that affective reactions
need not depend on cognition. In the 1977 experiment mentioned before,
Moreland and Zajonc showed 20 slides to pairs of subjects for 2 seconds
each and at varying frequencies (0, 1, 3, 9, 27). Affect and recognition
ratings were then taken. A strong path (.96) from stimulus exposure directly
to subjective affect, independent of recognition, was found. Affective reactions
to a stimulus may then be acquired by virtue of experience with that
stimulus, even if not accompanied by a rational process such as recognition
of the stimulus. In contrast to reason, affects are the first reaction to stimuli,
are made without perceptual "encoding," and are made with greater confidence
and more quickly. Thus it is not necessary to "know" something
before liking it. However, all rational cognitions are accompanied by affects
despite parallel yet separate and independent systems.
To quote Zajonc (1980, p. 153) on the pervasive nature of emotions,
he says, "There are practically no social phenomena that do not implicate
affect in some important way. Affect dominates social interaction and it is
the major currency in which all social intercourse is transacted." For
instance, one cannot meet a person without feeling some inner attraction
or revulsion. Affective reactions are thus important because we do not
simply see things as they are, but instead, we provide affective interpretations
of them (e.g., not just a sunset, but a "beautiful" sunset).
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