nep-neu New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2020‒12‒21
four papers chosen by



  1. Looking at Aesthetic Emotions in Advertising Research Through a Psychophysiological Perspective By Mathieu Lajante; Olivier Droulers; Christian Derbaix; Ingrid Poncin
  2. Perceptual Load Effect On Target Detection In Banner Blindness By Ksenia Gorbatova; Grigoriy Anufriev; Elena Gorbunova
  3. Dementia Harms Household Finances Years before Clinical Recognition By Joanne W. Hsu; Lauren Hersch Nicholas
  4. Gender Differences in Motivated Reasoning By Michael Thaler

  1. By: Mathieu Lajante (Ryerson University [Toronto]); Olivier Droulers (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR1 - Université de Rennes 1 - UNIV-RENNES - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Christian Derbaix (UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain); Ingrid Poncin (UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain)
    Abstract: Do usual commercials elicit the full spectrum of emotions? For this perspective paper, we posit that they do not. Concepts and measures related to the adaptive functions and well-being areas of emotion research cannot simply be transferred for use in advertising research. When a commercial elicits emotions, the emotions staged in the commercial must not be directly associated with the emotions felt by consumers when exposed to those commercials. This is why "aesthetic" emotions seem more appropriate than "utilitarian" emotions in advertising research, with the former generally felt more significantly than they are acted upon. Aesthetic emotions elicit limited physiological change, and they rely on the intrinsic pleasantness appraisal of commercials. Accordingly, pleasure and displeasure-as observed through expressive and subjective components of aesthetic emotion-often form the first and only step of commercial appraisal, and they are directed toward attitude formation rather than overt behaviors. Our preliminary psychophysiological study shows this by investigating the contributions of psychophysiological and self-reported measures of aesthetic emotions induced by commercials to explain attitudes toward advertisements. The results show that only two components of aesthetic emotion positively influenced attitudes toward the advertisements: expressive (measured by facial electromyography) and subjective (measured by the self-assessment manikin scale). Also, the subjective component of aesthetic emotion partially mediates the effects of the expressive components on attitudes toward the ads. Our exploratory study illustrates the relevance of focusing on aesthetic emotions in advertising research. It also shed new light on the contributions of the physiological, expressive, and subjective feelings components of aesthetic emotions in advertising effectiveness.
    Keywords: advertising,consumer neuroscience,emotion,psychophysiology,cognitive appraisal,skin conductance,facial EMG,aesthetics
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02998419&r=all
  2. By: Ksenia Gorbatova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Grigoriy Anufriev (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Elena Gorbunova (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: Perceptual load theory claims that the processing of task-irrelevant information can be predicted by the level of perceptual load. If a particular task places a high demand on attention, the task-irrelevant stimuli processing can be prevented. That means that in high load condition the subjects are more likely to ignore distractors, while in low load task-relevant and task-irrelevant information is processed simultaneously. Though several studies showed that perceptual load can play a crucial role in inattentional blindness phenomenon, there is a lack of applied researches conducted on real-life tasks. Current study aimed implement load theory to a real-life task and to describe the effect it has on banner blindness, that has common grounds with inattentional blindness. Banner blindness is a phenomenon in usability studies which shows that subjects do not notice banners on the webpage despite their saliency. The study represents an important application of load theory to real-world behavior of Internet users. Participants were divided into low-load and high-load groups (that differed in number of presented stimuli) and asked go online shopping. At the critical trail, a banner appeared. The subjects under high load condition were expected to notice the banner less often, then under low load. The hypothesis was not supported. However, a tendency towards more reports about the banner’s presence can be seen in the low load group. We assume that if there are enough people who noticed the banner, we will be able to detect the effect of cognitive load on banner blindness.
    Keywords: perceptual load, banner blindness, usability, visual search.
    JEL: Z
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:122psy2020&r=all
  3. By: Joanne W. Hsu; Lauren Hersch Nicholas
    Abstract: Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) are medical conditions characterized by deteriorating cognitive functions that are estimated to impact nearly 12 million older Americans by 2050. ADRD impedes independence in daily activities through symptoms including difficulties with memory and attention span, impaired judgement, and changing risk preferences. There are currently no effective medical treatments to delay or reverse symptoms of ADRD.
    Date: 2020–12–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2020-12-03-2&r=all
  4. By: Michael Thaler
    Abstract: Men and women systematically differ in their beliefs about their performance relative to others; in particular, men tend to be more overconfident. This paper provides support for one explanation for gender differences in overconfidence, performance-motivated reasoning, in which people distort how they process new information in ways that make them believe they outperformed others. Using a large online experiment, I find that male subjects distort information processing to favor their performance, while female subjects do not systematically distort information processing in either direction. These statistically-significant gender differences in performance-motivated reasoning mimic gender differences in overconfidence; beliefs of male subjects are systematically overconfident, while beliefs of female subjects are well-calibrated on average. The experiment also includes political questions, and finds that politically-motivated reasoning is similar for both men and women. These results suggest that, while men and women are both susceptible to motivated reasoning in general, men find it particularly attractive to believe that they outperformed others.
    Date: 2020–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2012.01538&r=all

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