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How Social Ties Influence Consumer: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 1, p e0169508 (2017)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2017.
-
Abstract
- A considerable amount of marketing research has reported that consumers are more saliently influenced by friends (strong social ties) than by acquaintances and strangers (weak social ties). To shed light on the neural and psychological processes underlying such phenomenon, in this study we designed an amended S1-S2 paradigm (product-[reviewer-review]) that is based on realistic consumer purchase experiences. After incoming all given information (product, reviewer, review), participants were required to state their purchase intentions. The neurocognitive and emotional processes related to friend and stranger stimuli were delineated to suggest how social ties influence consumers during their shopping processes. Larger P2 (fronto-central scalp areas) and P3 (central and posterior-parietal scalp areas) components under stranger condition were elicited successfully. These findings demonstrate that the cognitive and emotional processing of friend and stranger stimuli occurs at stages of neural activity, and can be indicated by the P2 and P3 components. Electrophysiological data also support the hypothesis that different neural and emotional processing magnitude and strength underlie friend and stranger effect in the context of consumer purchase. During this process, the perception of stimuli evoked P2, subsequently emotional processing and attention modulation were activated and indicated by P2 and P3. The friend dominated phenomenon can be interpreted as the result of distinctive neurocognitive and emotional processing magnitude, which suggests that psychological and emotional factors can guide consumer decision making. This study consolidates that event related potential (ERP) methodology is likely to be a more sensitive method for investigating consumer behaviors. From the perspectives of management and marketing, our findings show that the P2 and P3 components can be employed as an indicator to probe the influential factors of consumer purchase intentions.
- Subjects :
- Male
Economics
Physiology
Emotions
lcsh:Medicine
Social Sciences
Event-Related Potentials
Cognition
0302 clinical medicine
Medicine and Health Sciences
Psychology
Attention
lcsh:Science
Marketing research
Evoked Potentials
media_common
Clinical Neurophysiology
Brain Mapping
Multidisciplinary
05 social sciences
Commerce
Electroencephalography
Electrophysiology
Bioassays and Physiological Analysis
Brain Electrophysiology
Female
Social psychology
Research Article
Adult
Imaging Techniques
media_common.quotation_subject
Decision Making
Neurophysiology
Neuroimaging
Context (language use)
Research and Analysis Methods
03 medical and health sciences
Diagnostic Medicine
Event-related potential
Perception
0502 economics and business
Humans
Consumer behaviour
Behavior
lcsh:R
Electrophysiological Techniques
Cognitive Psychology
Biology and Life Sciences
Consumer Behavior
Interpersonal ties
Cognitive Science
lcsh:Q
050211 marketing
Neurocognitive
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 12
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLOS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d13e7209bac95a91c31e2e90847d35a3