Evaluative conditioning of established brands: Implicit measures reveal other effects than explicit measures.

Abstract

Evaluative conditioning (EC) effects on established liked and disliked brands were measured via self report, startle reflex modulation (SRM), heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Baseline measures were compared with measures taken after 1, 6, and 16 conditioning procedures. The aim was to determine how the different measures are differently sensitive to EC effects. Although self-report indicated conditioning effects already after 1 conditioning procedure and in both directions, the authors believe this to be an artifact due to a regression to the mean effect and thus reject this finding. Similarly, HR and SC did not show any sensitivity to conditioning effects. However, SRM and the IAT revealed significant conditioning effects, but more than 1 conditioning procedure were needed to cause changes. Most importantly, SRM, the only implicit measure of raw affective processing (subcortical), did show a significant EC effect after six conditioning procedures, but only in case of disliked brands turning into more liked brands. Because implicit measures are assumed to be more sensitive to deep subcortical affective processing it is concluded that this level of affective processing is more easily influenced by evaluative conditioning than higher order (cortical) processing levels. The findings are discussed in terms of different aspects of brand attitude (affective and cognitive) that seem to be differently affected by EC. Implications for marketers and advertisers are suggested.

Advancing a NeuroIS research agenda with four areas of societal contributions

“…For instance, evaluative conditioning has long been used to change products (e.g. IT devices) affectively in order to make them more appealing, but whether the effects of evaluative conditioning are better assessed with subjective or objective measures remains unanswered (Walla, Koller, Brenner, & Bosshard, 2017).…”

Do EEG and Startle Reflex Modulation Vary with Self-Reported Aggression in Response to Violent Images?

“…However, the SRM demonstrated clear between group differences. Another recent study by Walla, Koller, Brenner and Bosshard [26] used varying rounds of evaluative conditioning of liked and disliked brands and found that conditioning effects resulted in selective differences in self-report versus SRM measures. These findings further support the notion that objectively accessible processes play a pivotal role in our behaviour regardless of conscious awareness.…”

Editorial: Sub- and Unconscious Information Processing in the Human Brain

“…Preferences related to urban neighbourhoods were reported to be subject to discrepancies between conscious and non-conscious information processing [4]. Brand attitude can change non-consciously without affecting conscious processing [5][6][7] and emotion pictures are processed differently depending on conscious or non-conscious measures being taken [8,9]. SRM became a highly appreciated tool to quantify raw affective responses in the absence of any awareness and it got introduced to various different disciplines including clinical and industrial areas, even marketing [10][11][12][13][14][15].…”