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| Average WTP (Japanese yen) for six lipsticks. Graph showing the group average WTP scores of the three qualities for the two color conditions (less like and like). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. WTP, willingness-to-pay.
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Understanding consumer preferences and behavior is a major goal of consumer-oriented companies. The application of neuroscience to this goal is a promising avenue for companies. Previously, we observed a positive correlation during actual cosmetic use between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activity, measured by functional near-inf...
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Citations
... Kawabata Duncan et al. (2019) showed that activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the application of a foundation was positively correlated with the willingness-to-pay score for the given foundation in participants who frequently used the foundation (six or more days in a week). An intra-subject correlation between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), which is regarded as possessing the function of making value judgments by referring to experiences, and the willingness to pay high prices was found during a single real-life use of lipstick that changed the quality level and color of preference (Hirabayashi et al., 2021). In facial skincare, there is a decrease in the ratio of low-frequency and highfrequency powers (LF/HF ratio) of heart rate variability (HRV), indicating cardiac relaxation, and an increase in the alpha/beta ratio, indicating brain relaxation (Bouhout et al., 2023). ...
... These results strongly suggest that participants might be sensitive to differences in texture between affordable and luxury brand products. Differences in EEG and cerebral blood flow responses have been reported for skincare, foundation, and lipstick use as described above (Tanida et al., 2017;Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Gabriel et al., 2021;Hirabayashi et al., 2021). The effect of price was not present in the base makeup step, explanation of the The marginal effects of cosmetic steps and price conditions for each factor score of subjective measurement. ...
Introduction
Cosmetic behavior is an important daily activity, especially for women, because it increases visual attractiveness, self-confidence, and positive emotions. However, it is unknown whether a relationship exists between physiological measures and subjective experiences during the series of cosmetic behaviors.
Methods
Electroencephalograms (EEG) and electrocardiograms (ECG) from thirty female participants who were asked to look in a mirror after applying skincare, as well as base, eye, cheek, and lip makeup were recorded. The price range of cosmetic products was also considered. Subjective evaluations of the skin surface, emotions, and self-confidence were equally measured after looking in the mirror at each step of the cosmetic behavior. Linear mixed models were fitted to examine whether the subjective experience could be explained by the variety of cosmetic products and/or physiological responses.
Results
The subjective evaluation was summarized into the following three factors using a factor analysis: self-confidence, hedonic perception, and negative emotion. Each theta-band (4–6 Hz) power, alpha-band (8–13 Hz) power of the EEG, and heart rate variability measures were subjected to a principal component analysis separately. The linear mixed models indicated that the variation in the self-confidence score and the negative emotion score was explained only by the steps of cosmetic behaviors, that is, self-confidence increased while negative emotions decreased as the steps of cosmetic behaviors proceeded. On the other hand, the hedonic perception score was explained by the interaction of the steps of cosmetic behaviors and price, indicating that positive tactile perception and positive emotion were higher when luxury cosmetic products were applied than when affordable products were applied. Furthermore, the model indicated that the hedonic perception score was positively associated with the alpha-band power over occipital sites whereas sympathetic nervous system activity was negatively associated with the alpha-band power over lateral central sites.
Discussion
These results suggest that positive perceptual and emotional experiences are associated with greater attention to somatosensory information than to visual information and sympathetic autonomic nervous system activities. The current results also emphasize the possibility of using physiological measurements as objective measures of cosmetic behavior.
... A promising alternative approach may be to use neuroimaging techniques, which offer a unique opportunity to gain deeper insights into consumers' sensory experiences without interfering with real-life product usage. For instance, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has the potential to evaluate consumers' experiences of cosmetic products during their real-time use (Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021). fNIRS is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light to measure hemodynamic signals reflecting changes in hemoglobin concentrations in the brain. ...
... Our team has reported that information regarding consumers' monetary evaluations of different cosmetics can be obtained using fNIRS (Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., Abbreviations: BA, Brodmann area; Deoxy-Hb, deoxygenated hemoglobin; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; fNIRS, functional near-infrared spectroscopy; GLM, Generalized Linear Model; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; MNI, Montreal Neurological Institute; ...
... This study was performed in accordance with the principles in the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethical committee at the Shiseido Global Center and Chuo University. As our previous studies only found a relationship between brain activity and subjective ratings in high-frequency cosmetic users (Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021), all participants habitually used lipstick at least five times per week and they all preferred to use the common lipstick color called MAQuillAGE Dramatic Rouge (Shiseido Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Their familiarity with lipstick also helped ensure compliance with the experiment instructions. ...
Introduction
There is a continuous consumer demand for ever superior cosmetic products. In marketing, various forms of sensory evaluation are used to measure the consumer experience and provide data with which to improve cosmetics. Nonetheless, potential downsides of existing approaches have led to the exploration of the use of neuroimaging methods, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to provide addition information about consumers' experiences with cosmetics. The aim of the present study was to investigate the feasibility of a real-time brain-based product evaluation method which detects the incongruency between a product, in this case lipstick, and a consumer's expectations.
Method
Thirty healthy, female, habitual lipstick users were asked to apply six different lipsticks varying in softness and to rate the softness of and their willingness to pay (WTP) for each lipstick. Cerebral hemodynamic responses in frontal areas were measured with fNIRS during lipstick application and analyzed using the general linear model (GLM). Incongruency scores between softness and expectation were calculated in order to understand how far removed each lipstick was from a participant's optimal softness preference. The correlation between brain activation (beta scores) during the application of each lipstick and the respective incongruency scores from each participant were acquired using semi-partial correlation analysis, controlling for the effects of WTP.
Results
We revealed a significant intra-subject correlation between incongruency scores and activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). This confirms that as the texture incongruency scores increased for the lipstick samples, activation in each individual's right IFG also increased.
Conclusion
The correlation observed between incongruency perceived by participants and activation of the right IFG not only suggests that the right IFG may play an important role in detecting incongruity when there is a discrepancy between the perceived texture and the consumer's expectations but also that measuring activity in the IFG may provide a new objective measurement of the consumer experience, thus contributing to the development of superior cosmetics.
... It is also highly portable, and its importance has been noted and described as a major innovation in neuroeconomic research (Kopton and Kenning, 2014;Wilcox and Biondi, 2015;Meyerding and Mehlhose, 2020). In recent years, several studies have used fNIRS to concurrently examine brain activation during product evaluation using a WTP activity and reported that there was a positive intra-individual correlation between DLPFC activation and WTP scores (Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021). Another study reported that frontopolar cortex (FPC) activity was identified when making subjective value judgments during purchase decisions (Çakir Murat et al., 2018). ...
... For the primary putative cognitive target, we focused on the yellow light period during which participants were expected to evaluate a presented product and decide how actively they will perform upon the onset of the green light. Since previous research has shown that prefrontal regions are activated when making evaluation and other decisions (Plassmann et al., 2007;Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021), we set fNIRS probes to cover the PFC. We first aimed to confirm that the cortical activation derived from the task would be observed. ...
... Another study investigated risk-related decision making using tDCS, which increases DLPFC activity, and found that bilateral DLPFC was associated with an aversion to risk-taking response (Fecteau et al., 2007). Moreover, studies have reported that the right-DLPFC was activated when making an WTP evaluation (Plassmann et al., 2007;Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021). Therefore, the activation of the right-DLPFC observed in the current study is considered relevant for the PRTLT as it is a cognitive task involving the valuation of presented products to control risk-taking behavior. ...
Introduction
In neuromarketing, a recently developing, inter-disciplinary field combining neuroscience and marketing, neurophysiological responses have been applied to understand consumers' behaviors. While many studies have focused on explicit attitudes, few have targeted implicit aspects. To explore the possibility of measuring implicit desire for a product, we focused on functional impulsivity related to obtaining a product as a reward and devised a product-rewarded traffic light task (PRTLT). The PRTLT requires participants to take risks under time pressure in order for them to maximize rewards in the form of commercial products, with the brand of products being an independent variable. Thus, we explored the feasibility of applying a PRTLT in a neuromarketing context to implicitly differentiate between the perceived value of products and supported our data with neurophysiological evidence obtained using fNIRS to concurrently monitor cortical activation.
Methods
Thirty healthy students were asked to perform the PRTLT. We compared participants' functional impulsivity toward two different chocolate products that had obviously different values. Along with their behavioral responses, participants' cerebral hemodynamic responses during the PRTLT were measured using fNIRS covering the lateral prefrontal cortices and the neighboring regions. We conducted adaptive general linear model (GLM) analysis for hemodynamic responses. First, we identified the regions involved in the PRTLT. Second, we compared activation patterns between expensive and inexpensive conditions.
Results
Behavioral analysis confirmed that the expensive condition trended toward producing a higher PRTLT score than did the inexpensive condition. fNIRS neuroimaging analysis showed task-derived activation in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and frontopolar cortex (FPC). Moreover, we found significant differences between expensive and inexpensive conditions in the cortical activations in the FPC and the left-DLPFC.
Conclusion
These results imply that the two products evoked different functional impulsivity, and the hemodynamic responses reflect that. Thus, we concluded that it is possible to observe differences in demand for products using a PRTLT that evokes functional impulsivity. The current study presents a new possibility in neuromarketing research of observing differences between consumers' covert attitudes toward commercially available products, possibly providing a neural basis related to hidden needs for some products.
... The monetary amount and the cortical activation exhibited a positive correlation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (R-IFG). Moreover, studies by Kawabata Duncan et al. (2019) and Hirabayashi et al. (2021) used fNIRS to examine brain activation during WTP evaluation for cosmetic products and found a positive correlation between the R-DLPFC activation during foundation and lipstick application and WTP score for each participant. Among these regions, the R-IFG plays a role in attentional control and economic decision-making (Dehaene et al., 1998;Duncan, 2001), and when evaluating WTP, attentional control and decision-making are said to occur. ...
... In addition, a variety of studies have been conducted using fNIRS to measure brain activity related to consumer behavior. For example, fNIRS has been used for WTP evaluation of cosmetics (Kawabata Duncan et al., 2019;Hirabayashi et al., 2021) and for consumers' decision-making behavior when envisioning shopping (Krampe et al., 2018). For these reasons, we determined that the use of fNIRS was appropriate for studying the neural substrate of the IKEA effect in an everyday situation. ...
Introduction
In recent years, experiential consumption, which refers to purchases involving hedonic experiences, has been gathering attention in marketing research. Experiential consumption is closely related to cognitive biases, and among them, we focus on the IKEA effect, which is a cognitive bias in which the maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for a product is high because the experience of assembling the product is highly valued. Since no studies have examined the neural mechanism behind the IKEA effect, here we present the first study exploring the neural substrates of the IKEA effect using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). During the WTP evaluation, we expect the attachment to and memory retrieval of DIY products to be the cognitive mechanism for the IKEA effect.
Methods
Thirty healthy students, of which 24 were confirmed to have undergone the IKEA effect, were asked to perform a WTP evaluation task after assembling three types of do-it-yourself (DIY) products and handling three types of Non-DIY products. Their cerebral hemodynamic responses during the evaluation were measured using fNIRS. In order to adjust for temporal variability of cortical responses among participants, a personalized adaptive general linear model (GLM) analysis was adopted. Then, one-sample t -tests were performed for each DIY and Non-DIY condition for the obtained β values, and a paired t -test was performed between DIY and Non-DIY conditions.
Results
We identified brain regions, including the left-inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG) and left-middle frontal gyrus (L-MFG), which were probably related to cognitive processing related to the IKEA effect. Among them, the L-MFG exhibited more activation during the DIY condition than during the Non-DIY condition.
Conclusion
To our knowledge, the current study is the first to reveal the neural basis of the IKEA effect. The cortical activation during evaluation of WTP for DIY and Non-DIY products exhibited marked differences. In addition to the R-IFG activation often reported for WTP evaluations, we revealed that other regions, in particular the L-IFG and L-MFG, were activated during the DIY condition. These areas are considered to be related to memory and attachment, which would serve as reasonable cognitive constituents for the IKEA effect. In conclusion, this study suggests that the value of experiential consumption can be assessed using fNIRS-based neuroimaging and provides a novel approach to consumer neuroergonomics. It is predicted that visualization the value of experiential consumption will create marketing opportunities for more and more companies and the visualization will become an indispensable method in the future.
