THE EFFECT OF NEGATIVE INFORMATION ON PURCHASE REJECTION: AN fNIRS STUDY

The goal of this study is to determine how negative information affects purchasing decisions and what neurological processes are included in these purchasing decisions. Specifically, this study aims to explore the effect of consumers receiving the same negative attribute twice versus two different negative attributes for a product. The introduction of this study will discuss background concepts like the Controlled Semantic Cognition Framework from Lambon Ralph et al., (2017) and the neural processes behind selection as discussed in Thompson-Schill et al., (1997). The results indicated that there were differences in hemodynamic response between conditions where the same negative attribute was presented with a product twice versus conditions where two different negative attributes were presented with a product. Both behaviorally and hemodynamically, the results provide evidence supporting an inner conflict when dealing with two negative alternative choices. Future research could include realistic advertisements to better mimic everyday scenarios.