Author: Asle Fagerstrøm

Academia and business have shown an increased interest in using neurophysiological methods, such as eye-tracking and electroencephalography (EEG), to assess consumer motivation. The current research contributes to this literature by verifying whether these methods can predict the effects of antecedent events as motivating functions of attention, neural responses, choice, and consumption. Antecedent motivational factors are discussed, with a specific focus on deprivation as such a situational factor. Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to the experimental and control conditions. Water deprivation of 11-12 h was used as an establishing operation to increase the reinforcing effectiveness of water. We designed three experimental sessions to capture the complexity of the relationship between antecedents and consumer behavior. Experimental manipulations in session 1 established the effectiveness of water for the experimental group and abolished it for the control group. Results from session 2 show that participants in the experimental group had significantly higher average fixation duration for the image of water. Their frontal asymmetry did not provide significant evidence of greater left frontal activation toward the water image. Session 3 demonstrated that choice and consumption behavior of the relevant reinforcer was significantly higher for participants in the experimental group. These early findings highlight the potential application of a multi-method approach using neurophysiological tools in consumer research, which provides a comprehensive picture of the functional relationship between motivating events, behavior (attention, neural responses, choice, and consumption), and consequences.

Many travelers plan their trip using online
booking platforms. These often have recommendations for
things to do and explore in the target destination. The
suggestions could have either positive or negative
connotations. This study aimed to investigate if such
recommendations can trigger certain mood states that
impact consumers’ evaluation of hotels online. Web-based
mood induction procedures were used to see whether moods
as antecedent states had any impact on consumers’
evaluations of hotel bookings. The results of the conjoint
analysis demonstrate that the impact of location and hotel
reviews can change based on consumers’ mood. The impact
of mood can help online managers in developing more
effective hotel marketing and advertising strategies. This paper is published at the IEEE International Engineering and Enginering Management (IEEM) conference 2021.

An increasing number of global consumers use their smartphones to shop for goods. This short paper published in Procedia Computer Science aims to explore if a price-conscious decision-making style has a relationship with young adult consumers’ tendency to perform mobile shopping in retail stores. The study is conducted as a survey with a sample that includes two different nationalities. The results suggest interesting positive relationships between price consciousness and mobile shopping activities in retail stores. Furthermore, the results indicate that there are differences between the two markets studied. Price consciousness seems to have a stronger association with mobile shopping for the investigated Thai respondents than for the Finnish respondents.

The point of online purchase includes the location and conditions in which an online transaction takes place. The term usually comprises the presentation of the products available for purchase by consumers as well as the means of completing the transaction. Knowledge about how the online setting and the specific situation influence consumers at the point of online purchase setting may increase the success of online marketing activities. An online experiment was arranged for the analysis of motivating events at the point of the online purchase situation. The results show that the treatment group had a conversion rate of approximately 39% for up-sell offers. Also, results show an increased revenue of 87.94% for the treatment group compared to the control group. Results of the experiment are discussed in relation to the concepts of rule and rule-governed behavior at the point of online purchase. This study is published in Procedia Computer Science.

Valdimar Sigurdsson (Reykjavik University) and Asle Fagerstrøm (Kristiania University College) are guest editors for a special section on “Health, Technology, & Behavior Science” in Perspectives on Behavior Science. The aim of this section is to provide reviews and empirical research that integrates the latest technological innovations and behavior science. The contributors in this special section demonstrate that behavior science can aid an understanding of why people do or do not engage in a healthy lifestyle and help identify what is needed to design a successful health behavior intervention through the use of technology

Sanchit Pawar gives a presentation at The Behavior Bar the 12th of October 2017. His talk is on Persuasive technology, a topic which is part of research in the Behavioral Lab at Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology. Persuasive technology is broadly defined as technology designed to facilitate behavioral change. It is based on the principles of human-computer interaction and experimental methodologies. It shares several core features with behavioral science. In order to effectively utilize technology for behavioral change, we propose that the influence of technology can be better understood from a behavior-analytic perspective. Show up and listen to this groundbreaking topic within human-computer interaction.

The consumer credit use project has gained a lot of attention. From the lens of behavioral economics, we investigates consumers´ choice between saving and credit use. Understanding of consumers’ credit use is of vital importance as well as for the responsible policy-makes, credit card companies, researchers, as for the individual credit users. This research is done by Asle Fagerstrøm (Westerdals Oslo ACT, Norway), Donald Hantula (Temple University, US) and Lars Sydnes (Westerdals Oslo ACT). Our research is published in The Psychological Records and has been mentioned in Forskning.no, Aftenposten, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).

This study aims to investigate the impact of a seller’s facial image and their expression upon buyers’ behavior in on Airbnb. The impact of facial expressions was investigated together with other relevant variables (price and customer ratings). Findings show that the impact of a seller’s facial expression on buying behavior in an online peer-to-peer context is significant. A negative facial expression and absence of facial image (head silhouette) abates approach and evokes avoidance tendencies to explore a specific web page on Airbnb, and, simultaneously decrease the likelihood to rent. The reverse effect was true for neutral and positive facial expressions. We found that a negative and positive facial expression had more impact on likelihood to rent, for women than for men. Further analysis shows that the absence of facial image and an angry facial expression cannot be compensated for by a low price and top customer ratings related to likelihood to rent. The study published in Computers in Human Behavior and is presented at ScienceNordic, Forskning.no, and Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

Our research on the impact of Wi-Fi service on consumers´ hotel booking online is presented in ScienceNordic. The study aim to expand understanding of the relative importance of Wi-Fi when consumers book hotel rooms online.When looking only at Wi- Fi, results show that previous guests’ Wi-Fi reviews have a higher impact on booking than Wi-Fi price. Further analysis shows that Wi-Fi can be a “deal breaker” in a competitive and/or undifferentiated market. We propose that the impact of Wi-Fi can be understood as rule-governed behavior. Consequently, behavioral understanding of the impact of Wi-Fi could aid hotel managers in developing more effective marketing strategies. The study is done by Niklas Eriksson (Arcada University of Applied Sciences) and Asle Fagerstrøm (Westerdals Oslo ACT), and is published in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research