The Role of Visual Attention in Decision-Making: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

Bettman suggested as early as 1979 that attention may be one of the key factors that influence choice. More recently, Janiszewski et al. (2013) reported that repeated allocation of attention to a product increases the likelihood that consumers will eventually select that product. But which factors determine what products successfully attract consumer attention? More importantly, how do these factors interact and influence one another? And, critically for marketing theory and practice, how exactly does the resulting attentional focus affect consumer choices among various, competing products? The deployment and focus of consumer attention depend on two types of factors: endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous factors are “person factors” that are driven by consumer goals, such as taste, familiarity, and involvement (Chandon, Hutchinson, Bradlow and Young 2009; Pieters and Wedel 2004; 2007). Exogenous factors, on the other hand, are “stimulus factors”, such as color or brightness of packaging. These exogenous factors automatically attract consumer attention irrespective of one’s goals and intentions (Milosavljevic et al. 2012; Chandon et al. 2009; van der Lans, Pieters and Wedel 2008). The marketing literature has identified the interplay between endogenous and exogenous factors, their respective and joint effects on attention, and the effect of attention on the decision-making process as research topics of prime importance (Payne and Venkatraman 2011; Russo 2011; Chandon et al. 2009; Wedel and Pieters 2008; Bettmann 1979; Russo 1978). Addressing these questions is the focus of the current research.