Title: How Emotions Influence What We Buy | Psychology Today
Headings: How Emotions Influence What We Buy
Peter Noel Murray Ph.D.
How Emotions Influence What We Buy
The emotional core of consumer decision-making

Content: These emotions create preferences, which lead to our decision. Damasio’s view is based on his studies of people whose connections between the “thinking” and “emotional” areas of the brain had been damaged. They were capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices, but were unable to make decisions, because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options. The influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences), rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts). Advertising research reveals that the consumer's emotional response to an ad has a far greater influence on their reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content—by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads. Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales. Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have a far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments, which are based on a brand’s attributes. Emotions are the primary reason why consumers prefer brand-name products. After all, many of the products we buy are available as generic and store brands with the same ingredients and at cheaper prices.