How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman
File(s)
Author(s)
Sweldens, S
Tuk, MA
Huetter, M
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Consumer research can benefit greatly from more insight into unconscious processes underlying behavior. Williams and Poehlman’s effort at more clearly conceptualizing consciousness and call for more research provides a welcome stimulus in this regard. At the same time, providing evidence for unconscious causation is fraught with methodological difficulties. We outline why it is vital to uphold standards of evidence for claims regarding unconscious processes, as it is precisely a lack of rigor on this front that has generated a countermovement by researchers skeptical of dual-process models in general and unconscious processes in particular. We contend that the skeptics have offered valid causes for concern, which we leverage to formulate six concrete recommendations for future research on consciousness. Researchers should (1) specify the process level at which they claim evidence for unconscious processes, (2) not confuse unconscious influences with unconscious processes, (3) carefully choose between different operational definitions of awareness, (4) maximally satisfy four criteria for awareness measures, and (5) complement measurement with experimental manipulations of awareness. Finally, we recommend to (6) refrain from hard claims about unconscious causation that transcend the limitations of the evidence, recognizing that consciousness is a continuous construct.
Date Issued
2017-02-22
Date Acceptance
2017-02-01
Citation
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, 2017, 44 (2), pp.266-275
ISSN
0093-5301
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
266
End Page
275
Journal / Book Title
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
Volume
44
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Consumer Research following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Steven Sweldens, Mirjam A. Tuk, Mandy Hütter; How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 44, Issue 2, 1 August 2017, Pages 266–275, is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx044
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000407202400004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Social Sciences
Business
Business & Economics
consciousness
awareness
dual processes
automaticity
measurement
methodology
CONTINGENCY AWARENESS
UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHT
THINK DIFFERENT
ATTITUDES
CHOICE
IDENTIFICATION
PSYCHOLOGY
EXPLICIT
PITFALLS
BEHAVIOR
1505 Marketing
1506 Tourism
1701 Psychology
Marketing
Publication Status
Published