Consumer choice behaviour - an emotional theory

Flemming Hansen

This article discusses emotions and feelings in relation to information processing and advertising. It covers academic theories of emotion, the evidence from neuroscience and how emotion (positive or negative) relates to consumer behaviour and choice.
  

Consumer choice behaviour – an emotional theory

Flemming HansenCopenhagen Business School

BACKGROUND

In the following, we shall discuss the neglected role of emotions in the study of consumer behaviour. Students of consumer behaviour have predominantly been concerned with cognitive theories of choice and information processing. Recent neurological and physiological research has pointed at the importance of emotions in understanding human behaviour.

They have particularly emphasized that emotional processes are unconscious brain processes resulting in observable bodily changes such as freezing behaviour, rising blood pressure, increasing stress hormones and startling reflexes. It is discussed how emotions may play...

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