Estudos e Pesquisas em Psicologia
On-line version ISSN 1808-4281
Abstract
PACHECO JUNIOR, José Carlos Schaidhauer; DAMACENA, Cláudio and BRONZATTI, Rafael. Priming: the priming effect on consumer behavior research. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.1, pp.284-309. ISSN 1808-4281.
The priming effect has been investigated by neuropsychology and social psychology for around 50 years and is related to how an initial stimulus can affect the responses of an individual to subsequent stimuli, without any knowledge of the subject on such influence. From the 1990s, it also became the subject of researches in consumer behavior (CB), becoming an important variable in works related to the human unconscious and the understanding of the influences that people suffer during the decision making process. Considering the diversity of existing concepts related to priming, this article uses a literature review to discuss the main concepts and organize information relating to their use in CB, focusing in pointing out the existing studies and assist researchers interested in the subject in new researches. It is observed that marketing studies in general have been using priming in three different ways: as a tool, as an object of study and as a means of action of marketing elements. Furthermore, some issues on the subject remain open, which requires further studies on how it works.
Keywords : priming; priming effect; prime.