Exploring the role of Visual Salience within the Proximity Effect

Abstract

Research into why the proximity effect occurs and understanding of the underpinning mechanisms is relatively scarce. Attempts have been made to explore whether cognitive load and physical effort underpin the effect, but no previous study has experimentally manipulated visual salience to determine its role in the proximity effect. The present study aims to be the first to do so, starting with a pilot study to determine an effective operationalisation of visual salience in a laboratory setting. The selected manipulation will then be used in a laboratory study conducted with 68 individuals in a 2(Distance; 20cm vs 70cm) x 2(Visual Salience; Low vs High) between subjects design. Actual and Likelihood of consumption will be measured and statistically compared between conditions to determine the potential role of Visual Salience within the Proximity Effect.

Exploring incentive salience in relation to pre and post consumption measures within the proximity effect

“…Overall, the study aims to explain what construct is being measured through the visual salience measure first designed by Maas et al, (2012), as well as confirm whether the rating is influenced by consuming chocolate. Previous studies which have measured visual salience have not been able to determine its true association with consumption, with Maas et al, (2012) and simply measuring but not relating the outcome to consumption, and Knowles et al, (2018aKnowles et al, ( , 2018bKnowles et al, ( , 2019 finding correlations between consumption and visual salience response, but not being able to determine any causal relationship. The present study aims to be the first to experimentally answer this.…”

“…Olfactory Salience: One of the strongest senses to trigger consumption of food is olfactory or smell (Stroebele & De Castro, 2004), but has not previously been measured in relation to the proximity effect. Further, it is suggested that individuals in previous proximity effect studies may have had their consumption influenced by the smell of the snack being offered (Brownies and M&M's; Knowles, Brown, & Aldrovandi, 2018b;Knowles et al, 2018a). Hence, smell salience is being measured by a novel 7-item construct, with participants being asked to respond to questions on a 5-point Likert scale, to make the results comparable to the aforementioned visibility and visual salience measures (i.e.…”

“…Additional exploratory models may be carried out and Actual Consumption: Amount of chocolate consumed will be measured in grams (0.01g accuracy), with a 2x2 ANCOVA being conducted to determine whether consumption is significantly different across conditions. Perceived effort and visual salience will be included as covariates, as has been conducted in previous studies (Knowles et al, 2019a(Knowles et al, , 2018a(Knowles et al, , 2018b. Additional analyses will be conducted with the visibility, incentive salience, and smell salience also being included.…”