Lecture 10 (motivated) information processing

Question 1

attention

Answer 1

the extent to which people focus on and process information
people do not attent to everything

Question 2

perceptual selection

Answer 2

consumers attent to and process only a small portion of the information they are exposed to
like a spotlight

Question 3

3 things that shape our attention

Answer 3

1. salience: more clear to background
2. vividness: when it evokes emotion
3. novelty: when something is new and surprising

three levels with salience needing the least psychological processing and novelty the most

Question 4

figure-ground principle

Answer 4

we compare stimuli to the background in which they are in
the stronger a contrast between stimuli and the background the more attention.
focus on
- focus
- color
- pattern

Question 5

Vividness

Answer 5

ads that convey emotion to us. information that is related to something
- emotionally interesting
- concrete (specific) and image provoking
- proximate in temporal or spatial way

Question 6

research on vividness with cigarettes

Answer 6

researchers composed different cigarette packets low versus high vividness and measured
- emotional engagement
- attentional engagement
- intentions to quit smoking

found that the more vivid you make the packet the more you increase engagement resulting in a decreased intention to smoke.

Question 7

study on identifiable victim effect

Answer 7

participants were asked to donate to
- either 1 or 8 children that were either identified or not

over 70% donated something
- single child condition the identified condition led to more donation
- 8 children the unidentified condition led to more donation

when a tragedy is depicted concrete

Question 8

how to measure attention (allocation)

Answer 8

• asking people
• eye tracking
• mouse tracking

Question 9

novelty

Answer 9

the extent to which a stimulus is unfamiliar and disconforms expectations
confusion or surprise will make us stop, think and try to understand

Question 10

first study with eye tracking

Answer 10

had people track eye movement with pen on yellow pages. Gave participants a goal and told them to pick a business.
they found
- larger ads > smaller ads
- color > non-color
- bold > non-bold
- participants spend 54% more time looking at ads for businesses that they end up choosing
- indicates that attention is important for subsequent choice behavior

Question 11

eye tracking with danish logo

Answer 11

• people payed the most attention to large and high salience compared to small low salience
• small is looked at less
• large high salience was also chosen more often

Question 12

BOGO and discount study

Answer 12

eye tracking on mars bars with different deals.
- BOGO is more popular than percentage especially in high discounts.
- In low (20-25%) discounts people look more at the % than BOGO (possibly because it is harder to calculate).
- In high (30-40%) discounts people look similarly at both, but choose BOGO more
- Compared to low discounts, the higher relative time people spend looking at BOGO is associated with increase of choosing it.
- Nuanced effect of attentional location.

Question 13

mouse tracking

Answer 13

look at where the mouse sits (fixation) or its path (trajectories)
is technologically easier

Question 14

Leach et al., (2022)

paper on motivated attention & information processing

Answer 14

looked at correlation between commitment to consuming meat and avoiding certain information
- positive correlation
- Commitment to eating meat is linked to avoiding learning pigs are intelligent, but not dogs.
- Commitment to eating meat is not linked to wanting to learn pigs or dogs are unintelligent.

strategic information avoidance, but not acquisition

Question 15

willful ignorance

Answer 15

deliberatly avoiding information about the potential negative consequences of self-serving decisions.

Question 16

Dana, Weber & Kuang (2007) study on willful ignorance

Answer 16

Reluctant altruistic: when you have no choice to reveal (full info) you choose the altruistic option, because otherwise you feel guilty. But when you can avoid information you can get rid of the guilt and choose the selfish option.

conclusion of the study

actual study is hard to explain in flashcards

Question 17

Vu et al., meta-analysis on reluctant altruism and wilful ignorance

Answer 17

• Altruism gap: there is a 16pp difference in altruistic choices (55% in full vs 39% in hidden)
• Ignorance: 40% of participants ignore information
• Sorting effect: 7pp difference in altruistic choices between participants who choose to inform themselves compared to those who received information by default.
• Publication bias: no evidence when unpublished was compared to published.

when possible people avoid information about the negative consequences of their actions. avoidance, in turn, frees them to behave in a selfish manner.