Is consumer psychology research ready for today’s attention economy?

ABSTRACT

Attention has become an area of major interest in marketing research as a dependent or moderating variable. In this article, we argue for respondent attention as a pivotal part of any consumer psychology research protocol and highlight the risks of not incorporating realistic attention components into research design. We propose four areas where this approach can help the external validity of consumer psychology research. Our recommendations include accounting for variability in the baseline attention levels; smart use of distractions; allowing for variability in attention over the task and avoiding attention leading/assumptive questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer psychology
• research methods
• attention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jenni Romaniuk

Jenni Romaniuk is Research Professor and International Director at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Her research has been published internationally in a wide range of marketing journals including Marketing Letters, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, and International Marketing Management. Her expertise covers Brand equity metrics, Mental Availability, Distinctive assets, Advertising Effectiveness, and Word of Mouth.

Cathy Nguyen

Cathy Nguyen is a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of South Australia’s Business School and a Senior Research Associate at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Cathy’s research focus is on Advertising Effectiveness and Co-branding.  Her interests also include Cause-related/Charity marketing and Word of mouth behaviour and measurement. She has presented her research to industry and academic audiences throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.