Be Careful When Using Peer-Influence on Nudging Solicitation: Evidence of Potential Negative Effect from a Sample of Chinese University Students.

Purpose: Peer information is now commonly used in solicitation. However, scholars have long focused on testing its effectiveness on increasing the donation amount without paying attention to its potential negative effects on donors. Thus, the current study employs high vs low peer donation amount (HPDA vs LPDA) information to explore its effect on "how-much-to-donate" decisions and the corresponding neural and psychological reactions at the same time. Participants and Methods: Student samples from a Chinese university and behavioral experiments with the event-related potential (ERP) method were used in this study. Results: The behavioral results are consistent with previous research in which HPDA was positively associated with higher donation levels. ERP results show the mechanisms behind decision-making can be summarized into a cognitive approach represented by cost-benefit analysis and an affective approach represented by reward perception. More surprisingly, in contrast to the behavioral results, LPDA elicits higher level of reward perception than HPDA. Conclusion: The results indicate that although HPDA leads to higher levels of donation, donors do not show higher levels of reward anticipation at the neurological level, indicating the increment of donation may come at the cost of donors. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Ratings or Sales? The Neural and Psychological Processes of Online Experience Product Purchase: Evidence from a Sample of Chinese University Students.

Extrinsic cues are ubiquitous in daily commodity consumption scenarios, not to mention online consumption scenarios. Among the many online cues, monthly sales and product ratings are two of the most representative. Some scholars have researched the impact of these cues on consumer decision making, but only search products have been investigated. Based on previous research, this article expanded the types of products to experience products and further explored consumer purchase behaviours and the underlying purchase processes influenced by these two extrinsic cues with the assistance of a neuroscience tool, event-related potentials (ERPs). The behavioural results indicated that the subjects decided mainly based on ratings, while the effect of sales was continuously inhibited. The ERP results further suggested that consumers recognised low ratings and low sales as more negative stimuli than high ratings and high sales, as larger P2 amplitudes were observed. Following the early processing of these cues, low ratings were considered unacceptable and evoked more significant emotional conflicts than high ratings, which was reflected by larger N400 amplitudes. Moreover, in the late stage, high ratings, which activated evaluation categorisation and produced more significant emotional arousal than low-rating conditions, guided the formation of purchase intention and reflected greater LPP amplitudes. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.

The Neural and Psychological Processes of Peer-Influenced Online Donation Decision: An Event-Related Potential Study.

With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), social media-based donation platforms emerged. These platforms innovatively demonstrate peer information (e.g., number of donated peers) on the donation page, which inevitably brings the peer influence into donors' donation decision process. However, how the peer influence will affect the psychological process of donation decisions are remained unknown. This study used the number of donated peers to examine the effects of peer influence on donors' donation decisions and extracted event-related potential (ERP) from electroencephalographic data to explore the underlying psychological process. The behavioral results indicated that the number of donated peers positively influenced donors' willingness to donate. The ERP results suggested that a larger number of donated peers might indicate a higher level of conformity and greater perceived emotional rewards, as a larger P2 amplitude was observed. Following the early processing of emotional stimuli, cognitive detection of decisional risk took place, and the donors reckoned a smaller number of donated peers as a high potential risk, which was reflected by a larger N2 amplitude. In the later stage, the larger number of donated peers, which represented a higher magnitude of prospective emotional rewards, led to a higher incentive to donate, and reflected in a larger amplitude of P3. Additionally, implications and future directions were discussed.

The Influence of Industry Leaders' Behavior on the Decisions of Common Enterprise Leaders in Enterprise Clustering: An Event-Related Potential Study.

PURPOSE: This study aims to explore the influence of industry leaders' behavior on common enterprise leaders' decisions in enterprise clustering by recognizing top executives' cognitive processes of brains. METHODS: Twenty-one real top executives from twelve textile enterprises were recruited in the lab experiment, and decisions about whether entering an industrial zone under two conditions of following an industry leader or a common enterprise were designed as the experiment task. Throughout the formal experimental task, participants' electroencephalograms were recorded. RESULTS: The behavioral results preliminarily proved the effect of industry leaders' behaviors on the real top executives' decisions in common enterprises: participants had a higher acceptance rate with a shorter reaction time in the condition of following an industry leader rather than that in the condition of following a common enterprise. Event-related potential results indicated that choices of following an industry leader led to a more positive perception of emotional valence (reflected by a smaller P2 amplitude) and better evaluation categorization and greater decision confidence (reflected by a larger late positive potential amplitude) than choices of following a common enterprise. CONCLUSION: Top executives from common enterprises tend to evaluate industry leaders' behaviors better than other common enterprises' behaviors, and they tend to make a similar business decision to keep their enterprises consistent with these industry leaders.

The Impact of Social Crowding on Consumers' Online Mobile Shopping: Evidence from Behavior and ERPs.

PURPOSE: Social crowding refers to the extent of social presence and proximity to others. A large number of studies have explored the effect of social crowding on consumers' feelings and behaviours in real shopping scenes, whereas few studies have examined the potential marketing effect of social crowding on online mobile consumption behaviour despite mobile commerce's increasing popularity in recent years. The current intends to explore the effect of social crowding on online mobile purchase and its underlying neural basis. METHODS: The current study employed a questionnaire survey and an implicit panic buying experiment, in which the participants were asked to press the button as soon as possible to buy the showed product. A 2-level social crowding (low vs high) × 2-level feedback of panic buying (success vs fail) design was employed to test the negative impact of social crowding on consumers' online mobile purchase intention by using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. RESULTS: Behaviorally, participants showed higher purchase intention in low social crowding environment compared with the high crowding condition. The event-related potentials (ERPs) results indicated that consumers had a higher affective/motivational evaluation (reflected in a smaller feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude) regarding the successful rather than the failing feedback in the low social crowding condition. However, this difference was not detected in the high social crowding condition. Meanwhile, more attentional resources (reflected in a greater P300 amplitude) were directed toward processing the feedback outcomes in the low rather than the high social crowding condition. CONCLUSION: The current study provided neurophysiological response that social crowding negatively influences consumers' online purchase intention. Some implications for theory and practice were also discussed.

Electroencephalographic Theta-Band Oscillatory Dynamics Represent Attentional Bias to Subjective Preferences in Value-Based Decisions.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that people always pay more attention to highly preferred items of choice, which is well defined by behavioral measurements and eye-tracking. However, less is known about the neural dynamics underlying the role that visual attention plays in value-based decisions, especially in those characterized by the "relative value" (ie, value difference) between two items displayed simultaneously in a binary choice. PURPOSE: This study examined the neural temporal and neural oscillatory features underlying selective attention to subjective preferences in value-based decision making. METHODS: In this study, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) measurements while participants performed a binary choice task in which they were instructed to respond to their preferred snack in high value difference (HVD) or low value difference (LVD) conditions. RESULTS: Behaviorally, participants showed faster responses and lower error rates in the HVD condition than in the LVD condition. In parallel, participants exerted a reduced prefrontal N2 component and attenuated frontal theta-band synchronization in the HVD condition as opposed to the LVD condition. Crucially, participants showed greater N2pc component and theta-band synchronization over the human posterior cortex in the HVD condition than in the LVD condition. Moreover, there was a direct correlation between frontal and posterior theta-band synchronization. CONCLUSION: The results show that theta-band oscillatory dynamics may represent attentional bias to subjective preferences, and this effect can be modulated by the level attentional bias to subjective preferences, and this effect can be modulated by the level of value difference. Our research provides insights into a new avenue via which the processing of selective attention and value representation in the value-based decisions can be implicated in an integrative neural oscillatory mechanism.

Serum Copper and Zinc Levels and Urinary Incontinence in Adult Women.

Recent findings show that oxidative damage may contribute to lower urinary tract symptoms. Copper can induce oxidative stress while zinc is involved in the defense against oxidative stress. We examined the associations between serum copper and zinc levels and urinary incontinence (UI) in adult women. Data were retrieved from the 2011-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Outcomes for multivariate logistic regression were any UI (AUI), urge UI (UUI), stress UI (SUI), mixed UI (MUI), and moderate/severe UI. Questions on urinary incontinence were asked by trained interviewers. The weighted UI prevalences were 44.89% for AUI, 28.12% for UUI, 41.64% for SUI, 17.27% for MUI, and 20.79% for moderate/severe UI in adult women. After adjusting for multiple factors, serum copper levels in the highest quartile were associated with UUI [odds ratios (95% confidence intervals): 1.74 (1.11-2.74)]. In women older than 50 years, serum copper levels in the highest quartile were associated with UUI [2.94 (1.57-5.49)], AUI [1.97 (1.19-3.27)], MUI [2.43 (1.19-4.97)], and moderate/severe UI [2.37 (1.06-5.31)]. Serum copper levels in the second quartile were also associated with MUI overall [1.75 (1.03-2.97)] and in young women (20-49 years) [2.29 (1.02-5.17)]. Positive associations were also found between serum copper levels and UUI in non-obese women. There were no associations between serum zinc levels and UI outcomes. Serum copper levels were associated with UUI, MUI, AUI, and moderate/severe UI in adult women, especially women older than 50 years. Causality deserves to be confirmed further.

The Neural Basis of Herding Decisions in Enterprise Clustering: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Herding behavior refers to the social phenomenon in which people are intensely influenced by the decisions and behaviors of others in the same group. Although several recent studies have explored the neural basis of herding decisions in people's daily lives (e.g., consumption decisions), the neural processing of herding decisions underlying enterprise behavior is still unclear. To address this issue, this study extracted event-related potentials (ERPs) from electroencephalographic data when participants (i.e., top executives in real enterprises) performed a choice task in which they judged whether to let their enterprises settle in an industrial zone when the occupancy rate of the industrial zone was either low or high. The behavioral results showed that participants had a higher acceptance rate in the high occupancy rate condition than in the low one, suggesting the existence of herding tendency in top executives' business decisions. The ERP results indicated that anticonformity choices induced a larger N2 amplitude than herding choices, demonstrating that participants might experience larger perceived risk and more decision conflict when they processed anticonformity choices. In contrast, we observed that herding choices induced a larger LPP amplitude than anticonformity choices, hinting that participants might experience better evaluation categorization and higher decision confidence when they processed herding choices. Based on these results, this study provides new insights into the neural basis of herding decisions made by top executives in business.

Consumers' Implicit Motivation Of Purchasing Luxury Brands: An EEG Study.

PURPOSE: This study aims to explore consumers' implicit motivations for purchasing luxury brands based on the functional theories of attitudes by using event-related potentials (ERPs). METHODS: Brand authenticity and logo prominence were used to modulate the social-adjustive function and value-expressive function, respectively. Twenty right-handed healthy female undergraduates and graduates participated in an experiment that has a 2 brand authenticity (genuine/counterfeit) × 2 brand prominence (prominent logo/no logo) design. In the experiment, participators browsed different luxury handbags with different brand authenticity and logo prominence, and then reported their purchase intentions on a five-point scale. Meanwhile, EEGs were recorded from the subjects throughout the experiment. In the analysis process, three ERP components, which can, respectively, reflect the cognitive conflict (N200), emotional conflict (N400) and motivational emotional arousal (LPP) during the evaluation of marketing-related stimuli, were mainly focused. RESULTS: For counterfeit brands, the no logo condition elicited significant larger N200 amplitude, marginally significant larger N400 amplitude and significant smaller LPP amplitude than the prominent logo condition. However, for genuine brands, this modulation effect of logo prominence cannot be found. These results imply that consumers' implicit social motivations for purchasing luxury brands come from the satisfaction of at least one social goal. When one goal cannot be satisfied, consumers will more expect the satisfaction of another one. If this expectation is violated, it seems to be unexpected and unacceptable. Thus, greater anticipation conflict (N200) and emotion conflict (N400) will be induced, and the purchase motivation (LPP) cannot be aroused. CONCLUSION: Consumers' preferences for luxury brands are based on the satisfaction of their social goals. These social goals always coexist and perform as compensation with each other. The dissatisfaction of one social goal would promote their expectation of the satisfaction of another social goal.

How Is the Neural Response to the Design of Experience Goods Related to Personalized Preference? An Implicit View.

Understanding the process by which consumers evaluate the designs of experience goods is critical for firms designing and delivering experience products. As the implicit process involved in this evaluation, and given the possible social desirability bias inherent to traditional methods of product design evaluation in certain conditions, neuroscientific methods are preferred to gain insight into the neural basis of consumers' evaluation of experience good designs. We here used event-related potentials (ERPs) and a revised go/no-go paradigm to investigate consumers' neural responses to experience good designs. Personalized product designs and neutral landscape pictures were randomly presented to 20 student participants; they were asked to view these product designs without making any decisions. The paired t-test and repeated-measures analysis of correlation showed that the P200 and late positive potential (LPP) elicited by the most-preferred experience good designs were significantly higher than that elicited by least-preferred designs, and the two ERP components were positively correlated with the personalized rating scores. Thus, P200 and LPP might be the early and late indices of consumers' evaluation of experience good designs, respectively, and may facilitate an understanding of the temporal course of this evaluation. Furthermore, these two ERP components can be used to identify consumers' preferences toward experience good designs. In addition, given the use of personalized experimental stimuli, these findings may help to explain why customized products are preferred by consumers.

Neural correlates of country-of-origin image (COI) stereotype.

The aim of this study is to investigate the neural mechanism of country-of-origin image (COI) stereotype in product evaluation. A watch purchasing experiment was conducted and electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while participants making purchasing decisions. Switzerland was chosen as COI stereotype-congruent country; Belgium, France and Denmark were chosen as COI stereotype-incongruent countries of watches. Event-related potential (ERP) data showed remarkable augmented P200 amplitudes and attenuated N270 in stereotype-congruent group than that in stereotype-incongruent group. P200 is associated with unconscious implicit emotional priming of stereotype. N270 not only reflects cognitive monitoring but also connects with behavioral control in stereotype-based decision making. In contrast to previous neuropsychological findings on racial stereotype and gender stereotype, our data suggest stereotype in product judgement may share the same automatic stereotype activation process on P200 with person judgement. But the cognitive monitoring mechanism of stereotype may be more sensitive in product evaluation (reflecting on N270) than in person evaluation (reflecting on N400 in previous research).

ERP evidence for consumer evaluation of copycat brands.

Copycat brands mimic brand leaders to free ride on the latter's equity. However, little is known regarding if and how consumers confuse copycat as leading brand in purchasing. In this study, we applied a word-pair evaluation paradigm in which the first word was a brand name (copycat vs. normal brand both similar with a leading brand in category), followed by a product name (near vs. far from the leading brand's category). Behavioral results showed that, when the product is near the leader's category, the copycat strategy (CN) was more preferred compared to the normal brand (NN) but not different in the far product condition (CF and NF). Event-related potential (ERP) data provided further insight into the mechanism. The N400 amplitude elicited by the CN condition was significantly smaller than NN. However, when products are far from the leader's category, there was no significant difference in N400 amplitudes. For the late positive component (LPC), the CN gave rise to a larger amplitude than the CF. The N400 amplitude was suggested to reflect the categorization process, and the LPC demonstrated the recollection process in long-term memory. These findings imply that the copycat brand strategy is generally only effective when products are within the category of the leading brand, which offers important implications for marketing practices.

How consumers are affected by product descriptions in online shopping: Event-related potentials evidence of the attribute framing effect.

Due to the limitations of the human ability to process information, e-consumers' decisions are likely to be influenced by various cognitive biases, such as the attribute framing effect. This effect has been well studied by numerous scholars; however, the associated underlying neural mechanisms with a critical temporal resolution have not been revealed. Thus, this study applies the measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) to directly examine the role of attribute framing in information processing and decision-making in online shopping. The behavioral results showed that participants demonstrated a higher purchase intention with a shorter reaction time under a positive framing condition compared to participants under a negative framing condition. Compared with positive framing messages, the results of ERPs indicated that negative framing messages attracted more attention resources at the early stage of rapid automatic processing (larger P2 amplitude) and resulted in greater cognitive conflict and decision difficulty (larger P2-N2 complex). Moreover, compared with negative messages, positive framing messages allowed consumers to perceive a better future performance of products and classify these products as a categorization of higher evaluation (larger LPP amplitude) at the late cognitive processing stage of evaluation. Based on these results, we provide evidence for a better understanding of how different attribute framing messages are processed and ultimately lead to the framing effect.

Neural Basis of Two Kinds of Social Influence: Obedience and Conformity.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used in this study to explore the neural mechanism of obedience and conformity on the model of online book purchasing. Participants were asked to decide as quickly as possible whether to buy a book based on limited information including its title, keywords and number of positive and negative reviews. Obedience was induced by forcing participants to buy books which received mostly negative reviews. In contrast, conformity was aroused by majority influence (caused by positive and negative comments). P3 and N2, two kinds of ERP components related to social cognitive process, were measured and recorded with electroencephalogram (EEG) test. The results show that compared with conformity decisions, obedience decisions induced greater cognitive conflicts. In ERP measurements, greater amplitudes of N2 component were observed in the context of obedience. However, consistency level did not make a difference on P3 peak latency for both conformity and obedience. This shows that classification process is implicit in both conformity and obedience decision-making. In addition, for both conformity and obedience decisions, augmented P3 was observed when the reviews consistency (either negative or positive) was higher.

Who Are the True Fans? Evidence from an Event-Related Potential Study.

Fans of celebrities commonly exist in modern society. Researchers from social science have been concerned with this problem for years. Furthermore, such researchers have attempted to measure people's involvement with celebrities in various ways. However, no study measured the degree of addiction to a specific celebrity at the neurological level. Therefore, the current study employed visually evoked event related potentials (ERPs) to examine people's attitude toward celebrities by comparing different brain activities of fans and non-fans when they were shown a set of photos. These photos include a specific celebrity, a familiar person, a stranger and a butterfly. Furthermore, to examine the validity of the detected neural index, we also investigated the correlation between brain activity and the score of the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS), which was a questionnaire used to explore people's attitude toward celebrities at behavioral level. Two groups of subjects were asked to complete an implicit task, i.e., to press a button when a picture of a butterfly appeared. Results revealed that fans showed significant positive N2 and P300 deflection when viewing the photos of their favorite celebrity, whereas in the non-fan group, the subjects only showed larger P300 amplitude as a response to the celebrity's photos. Furthermore, a positive correlation between P300 amplitude elicited by the stimuli of a celebrity face and CAS scores was also observed. These findings indicated fan attitude to a specific celebrity can also be observed at the neurological level and suggested the potential utility of using ERP component as an index of fandom involvement.

Public mood and consumption choices: evidence from sales of Sony cameras on Taobao.

Previous researchers have tried to predict social and economic phenomena with indicators of public mood, which were extracted from online data. This method has been proved to be feasible in many areas such as financial markets, economic operations and even national suicide numbers. However, few previous researches have examined the relationship between public mood and consumption choices at society level. The present study paid attention to the "Diaoyu Island" event, and extracted Chinese public mood data toward Japan from Sina MicroBlog (the biggest social media in China), which demonstrated a significant cross-correlation between the public mood variable and sales of Sony cameras on Taobao (the biggest Chinese e-business company). Afterwards, several candidate predictors of sales were examined and finally three significant stepwise regression models were obtained. Results of models estimation showed that significance (F-statistics), R-square and predictive accuracy (MAPE) all improved due to inclusion of public mood variable. These results indicate that public mood is significantly associated with consumption choices and may be of value in sales forecasting for particular products.