Abstract
Against the background of an increasingly competitive market environment, the current study aimed to investigate whether and how victory and defeat, as two critical factors in competition outcomes, would affect consumers’ preference of unfamiliar brands. In the experiment, participants’ status of victory or defeat was induced by a pseudo-online game, followed by a main task of brand preference rating. Using the precise and intuitive attributes of neuroscientific techniques, we adopted event-related potentials to analyze brain activity precisely during brand information processing when individuals experienced victory or defeat. Behavioral data showed that individuals had a stronger preference for unfamiliar brands in victory trials than in defeat trials, even if the brand was completely unrelated to the competition; this indicated a transfer of valence. Three emotion-related event-related potential components, N1, P2 and later positive potentials, were elicited more negatively in victory trials than in defeat trials, indicating the existence of incidental emotions induced by victory or defeat. No significant correlation was found between any pair of ERP components and preference scores. These results suggest that the experience of victory and defeat can evoke corresponding incidental emotions without awareness, and further affect the individual’s preference for unfamiliar brands. Therefore, playing a game before presenting brand information might help promote the brand by inducing a good impression of the brand in consumers.
Highlights
In modern society, competition between two or more organisms is ubiquitously present, ranging from economic competition and an arms race between countries, to rivalries among colleagues and schoolmates
We investigated whether the experience of victory and defeat had an impact on brand preference, and assessed the evidence at brain activity level
Behavioral results showed that participants would have a relatively higher preference score for unfamiliar brands after victory trials than after defeat trials
Summary
Competition between two or more organisms is ubiquitously present, ranging from economic competition and an arms race between countries, to rivalries among colleagues and schoolmates. Victory and defeat always accompany competition, which may have an impact on an individual’s attention (Sun et al, 2015), perception (Yu et al, 2017), emotion (Aviezer et al, 2012, 2015), confidence (Hsu and Wolf, 2001), and even sense of control (Burger, 1989). This would further result in numerous subsequent behavior changes, such as affecting the individuals’ enthusiasm to participate in a contest (Rutte et al, 2006). Consumers’ experience of failure strengthened compensatory consumption, based on their need for improving self-esteem
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