REPEATEDLY PROCESSING ATTRIBUTES OF PRODUCTS IMPACTS PURCHASING PERFORMANCE: AN FNIRS STUDY

Few experiments have examined the effects of attribute processing on purchase intentions. This experiment predicts a function of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) is to process brand-name products for their attributes. Hemodynamic response was measured in bilateral PFC from 48 participants during a study task, where participants processed brand-name products using various attribute processing types (once using one attribute, twice using the same attribute, and twice using two different attributes), and during a purchase intention test, where participants chose to purchase novel or previously processed brand-name products. Analysis of variance compared differences in hemodynamic response as a function of cortical structure, Type of Processing, and task.
Results demonstrated repetition suppression in the left PFC for brand-name products that were previously processed for multiple attributes. Findings suggest processing different attributes of the same brand-name product bias purchase intentions, where participants were more likely to purchase brand-name products processed for multiple attributes.