Can Take My Eyes off - Making a Shopping List Reduces Visual Distraction in Shopping Situations

This research examines how shopping lists influence consumers’ susceptibility to impulsive purchases. It is argued that making a shopping list activates an implemental mindset, which reduces the distraction by task-irrelevant products already at the level of visual attention. Results from an experiment using eye-tracking support this hypothesis. In a simulated shopping task, participants who made a shopping list allocated more attention toward a focal product and less attention toward task-irrelevant distractor products compared to participants who did not make a list. The effect occurred independent of whether the shopping list was relevant for the shopping task or not.