RETRACTED: Cognitive systems research for neuromarketing assessment on evaluating consumer learning theory with fMRI: Comparing how two Word-Of-Mouth strategies affect the human brain differently after a product harm crisis

Abstract

Consumer behavior researchers often used two competing versions of Consumer Learning Theory to study how consumers response to Word-Of-Mouth (WOM) after a product harm crisis. The Original version predicts that real quality perception in consumer cognition is constant. By contrast, the revised version of this theory posits that it is never constant. Both versions of this theory have received support in studies that used traditional experimental methods. This study applied functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), the advanced brain imaging technique to examine (1) the neural substrates of theories of consumer behavior (i.e., the original compared with the revised versions of the Consumer Learning Theory) and (2) whether gender influences brain activation associated with WOM communication after a product harm crisis. The fMRI results showed clear biological evidence of the differentiation and localization of brain response to consumer in different WOM communication after a product harm crisis. In addition, we concluded that male tend to support the Original Consumer Learning Theory; female participants, however, showed differentiable brain activation across three factors, suggesting appear to be more sensitive to the Revised Consumer Learning Theory. Therefore, gender determines whether the original or revised version of the Consumer Learning Theory works in consumers’ decision-making.