The neural mechanism involved in the consumer decision-making process and the relationship with self-concept

Abstract

Background: Consumer decision-making follows a rather complex process and is influenced by one’s health, identity, and psychological factors, to name a few. Self-concept affects the ability to make autonomous and informed decisions in economic situations, which is central to one’s independence and constructing who he or she is. In recent years, consumer neuroscience has revealed the neurobiology of decision-making. However, many of the previous studies have investigated the neural mechanism of the entire decision process, and also lacks knowledge in the effect of self-concept on this process. Thus, identifying the specific neural mechanism involved in the evaluation period and final purchasing period, and examining the modulatory effect of self-concept is imperative. The present study delineated two constructs of self-concept into two shopping contexts. Methods: A total of forty-two healthy female subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing two shopping tasks that illustrated both independent and interdependent contexts of self-concept. For Experiment 1, subjects were to evaluate a product either on a mannequin or on the subject herself, and then they were to make a purchase decision (internal context). For Experiment 2, they were to evaluate a product either with a price or customer review information, and then subjects disclosed the purchase decision (external context). Results: Experiment 1 showed greater activations of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), ventrolateral PFC during the purchase phase than the evaluation phase. The activities of the dorsolateral PFC were modulated by social self-concept throughout the whole decision process. The physical self-concept modulated the ventrolateral PFC, and the classification accuracy of this region was modulated by social self-concept. For Experiment 2, the ventromedial PFC deactivated more during evaluation period than purchase period. However, social self-concept was positively associated with its activity during the purchase phase. Additionally, the classification accuracy of the ventromedial PFC was positively modulated by family self-concept. Conclusion: The present dissertation demonstrated the prevailing theme of value computation during purchasing phase of consumer decision process in both internal and external frameworks through the engagement of the PFC. However, the employment of the lateral portion of PFC in the internal context illustrated the key distinguishing features of evaluating and purchasing phases are the integration of attribute values and utility maximization when shopping involves the self. These efforts increased as self-concept became more negative. Whereas activation of the medial portion of PFC in the external context provided evidence for the combined value encoding when shopping involves factual information about the product. The perceived overall value was, however, modulated positively by self-concept. The repeated modulatory effects of social and family self-concept highlighted the importance of the self as part of a member of a community, whether it be the self-worth among peers or in the family. The confirmatory analysis using MVPA underlined the distinguished influence of social and family self-concepts in the consumer decision-making process.