Eye-tracking recordings and psychophysiological reactions versus expressed opinions about advertising spots

Nowadays the tools that can study consumers’ behaviour might take advantage of neuroscientific techniques (Knutson et al., 2005). This is the reason why some researchers started to propose a new field, Neuromarketing. Although this is a promising field, there are still many issues about the use and the application of neuroscientific findings, methods and technologies that are still debated in the scientific community (Ariely et al., 2010). For instance, the uncovering of the links between affective states and biological correlates (Rainville et al., 2006), since emotions are significant in purchase intentions (Mano, 1999). Another issue is the uncovering of the links between decision making and biological predictors (Knutson et al., 2007). Another hot topic is also related to the ability to extract information from biological data aimed to indicate the amount of pleasantness of the stimulus without asking subjects to answer some questions about it; in a few words, a “psychophysiological opinion” of perceived stimulus or experience, that in the field of psychophysiology has been named Valence (Lang, 1995). Although about these issues there are many new research groups, for instance the Affective Computing Group (Picard, 1997), it is not clear yet how to apply these research findings and methods in practice. Last but not least, the implementation of non-invasive, wearable and wireless sensors might allow in future the possibility to infer from biological and psychophysiological data the level of engagement or Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; De Manzano et al., 2000; Mauri et al., 2010), a potential measure of the level of consumers’ attention dedicated to products or services, not only in experimental environment within labs or in front of a computer, but also in real world situations. This possibility might represent an interesting and innovative area in consumer researches aside traditional ones. In order to add empirical data about these topics, in this study we showed 30 IULM students a couple of advertising spots. They were asked to come at our Lab and sit in front of a computer while their psychophysiological reactions were recorded with non-invasive sensors: namely, EEG of the frontal lobes, EMG of Corrugator Supercilii muscle, Galvanic Skin Response from the palms, Heart Rate Variability from a Photoplethysmograph on a finger and Respiration from a chest belt. The recording device was synchronized with an eye-tracker system, in order to get pupil dilation, as an additional contactless indicator of emotional reactions, and the tracking of subjects’ gaze pointing on the PC screen. The 2 advertising spots were randomly presented for 30 seconds on a PC screen. After each spot, subjects were asked to express their level of liking of the adv spot on a scale between 0 (I don’t like it at all) and 10 (I like it very much). Since we were recording EEG and EMG signals from the frontal lobes, prone to motor artefacts, subjects were previously trained in simply using the pointing of their gaze to “point” their level of liking on a picture showing for 5 seconds an horizontal bar, from extreme left (I don’t like it at all) to extreme right (I like it very much). Subjects were asked to choose a point within the bar and fix their gaze on it in order to express their judgements. With the same ratio, a second item about their opinion was related to express in what extend they would be available in buying the product presented in the spot. A second picture showing an horizontal bar was then presented for other 5 seconds, and subjects used again their gaze pointing to express their judgements. In our analyses we attempt to combine the results provided by the two items presented above with the psychophysiological reactions and with the eye-tracking recordings, in order to evaluate the actual reactions of subjects versus their expressed opinions about their level of liking and their level of purchase intentions. The first analysis revealed how the combinations of different physiological signals coupled with eye-tracking recordings might provide information about on one side the level of pleasantness and about the purchase intentions; on the other side, the level of engagement or Flow during the exposure to the 2 adv spots, enabling to rank the 2 adv spots as more or less engaging according to psychophysiological and eye-tracking data.