Examining consumers’ sensory experiences with color: A consumer neuroscience approach
Publication Date
7-1-2020
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Psychology and Marketing
Volume
37
Issue
7
DOI
10.1002/mar.21360
First Page
995
Last Page
1007
Abstract
This research advances neuroscience as a tool with which to study consumers’ visual mental imagery. Applying these methods, we suggest that the presence or absence of color is a critical dimension along which consumers’ visualizations can vary, and explore when and why color of visual mental imagery becomes more prominent. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we find neural evidence for distinguishing black-and-white (BW) versus color visualization, and that visual mental imagery becomes increasingly monochrome (vs. colorful) when consumers imagine distant (vs. near) future events. Our neural evidence further suggests construal level as the underlying mechanism of this effect, showing common regions of activation for imagining distant future events, engaging in high-level construal, and forming BW mental imagery. We discuss the implication of these findings and the benefits of fMRI techniques for marketing in general.
Keywords
color, construal-level theory, mental imagery, neuroscience, sensory experience
Department
Marketing and Business Analytics
Recommended Citation
Paul Stillman, Hyojin Lee, Xiaoyan Deng, Hanumantha Rao Unnava, and Kentaro Fujita. "Examining consumers’ sensory experiences with color: A consumer neuroscience approach" Psychology and Marketing (2020): 995-1007. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21360
