and Affect Cognition III:
Biases
Chapter 3
Todays Objectives
Understand how consumers use
cognition to respond to marketing
stimuli
Examine how affect, cognition, and
conation are related
To introduce memory as an important
consumer construct
Discuss cognitive biases
Consumers Cognitive Processes
Chapter 5
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
Examining Cognition
Cognition includes many
mental processes
Understanding
Evaluating
Planning
Deciding
Thinking
How do the Components Relate?
Environment
Affective
System
Cognitive
System
Affective
Responses
Emotions
Feelings
Moods
Evaluations
Cognitive
Responses
Knowledge
Meanings
Beliefs
How do the Components Relate?
An response hierarchy refers to
the sequence in which affect
(feelings), cognition (thoughts),
and conation (actions) occur
Learning
Cognitive Response Hierarchy
Cognitions
Affect
Conation
Emotion
Emotional Response Hierarchy
Affect
Conation
Cognitions
Low involvement
Conative Response Hierarchy
Conation
Affect
Cognition
Memory
People have speculated about memory
for 2000 years. Only in the last 100 years,
however, has memory been studied
scientifically. In the last 30 years
knowledge about memory has increased
greatly.
Memory is essential to the very essence of
being a human being.
Can you imagine language, relationships,
Memory
Different types of memory...
Memory
Short-Term or
Working memory
Long-Term
memory
Long term memory is a long term storage with potentially unlimited
storage (think of all the things you know!).
Short term memory is a temporary storage with a finite capacity.
What is the capacity of short term memory?
(7 digits +/- 2: Miller 1956)
Memory
Different types of memory...
Memory
Different types of memory...
Cognitive Biases
Can memory and cognition be biased?
How are people biased?
In their memories
In their probability beliefs
In their decision making
Biases in Memory Beth Loftus
Students viewed short video clips of a traffic accident They
were asked how fast were the cars going when the
contacted each other.
Another group of students watched the same video and were
asked the same question, except the word contacted was
replaced with hit and smashed.
By changing the one word, people reported that the cars
were going much faster and reported shattered glass and
other details that did not exist in the video.
Their memory was reconstructed just because one word
made them fill in relevant details.
Other Biases in Memory
Hindsight bias sometimes called the "I-knew-it-all-along" effect,
the inclination to see past events as being predictable.
Rosy retrospection the tendency to rate past events more
positively than they had actually rated them when the event
occurred.
Illusory correlation beliefs that inaccurately suppose a
relationship between a certain type of action an and effect.
Biases in probability beliefs
Gambler's fallacy the tendency to assume that individual
random events are influenced by previous random events.
Overconfidence effect excessive confidence in one's own
answers to questions.
Positive outcome bias a tendency in prediction to overestimate
the probability of good things happening to them (see also wishful
thinking).
Patternicity effect the tendency to find meaningful patterns in
meaningless noise.
Stereotyping expecting a member of a group to have certain
characteristics without having actual information about that
Biases in decision making
Bandwagon effect the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or
believe) the same.
Base rate fallacy ignoring available statistical data in favor of opinion.
Choice-supportive bias the tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually
were.
Confirmation bias the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms
one's preconceptions.
Denial the tendency to disbelieve or discount an unpleasant fact.
Illusion of control the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least
influence outcomes that they clearly cannot.
Mere exposure effect the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely
because they are familiar with them.
Need for closure the need to have an answer and to escape the feeling of doubt and
uncertainty (trait typically found in Conservatives)
Outcome bias the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on
the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
Post-purchase rationalization the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that
Cognitive Biases
Are there things that can reduce biases?
-
Game Theory discovered to describe how
people try to solve cognitive problems!
Cognitive Solutions
Game Theory
Nash Equilibrium
E.g., Prisoners Dilemma
Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient
evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit
each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects) for the
prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer
goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If
both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in
jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a fiveyear sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to
remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about
the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the
prisoners act?
The classic prisoner's dilemma:
Stays Silent
Stays Silent
Each serves 6
months
goes free
Betrays
10 years
Betrays
10 years
goes free
Each serves 5
years
In class exercise