Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America.
Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 30;16(11):e0260589. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260589. eCollection 2021.
Humans express loyalty to consumer brands much like they do in human relationships. The neuroactive chemical oxytocin is an important biological substrate of human attachment and this study tested whether consumer-brand relationships can be influenced by oxytocin administration. We present a mathematical model of brand attachment that generates empirically-testable hypotheses. The model is tested by administering synthetic oxytocin or placebo to male and female participants (N = 77) who received information about brands and had an opportunity to purchase branded products. We focused on two brand personality dimensions: warmth and competence. Oxytocin increased perceptions of brand competence but not brand warmth relative to placebo. We also found that participants were willing to pay more for branded products through its effect on brand competence. When writing about one's favorite brands, oxytocin enhanced the use of positive emotional language as well as words related to family and friends. These findings provide preliminary evidence that consumers build relationships with brands using the biological mechanisms that evolved to form human attachments.
人类对消费品牌的忠诚度与人际关系中的忠诚度非常相似。神经活性化学物质催产素是人类依恋的重要生物基质，本研究旨在测试催产素的使用是否会影响消费者与品牌之间的关系。我们提出了一个品牌依恋的数学模型，该模型生成了可通过经验验证的假设。通过向男性和女性参与者（N = 77）施用合成催产素或安慰剂来测试该模型，参与者在接受有关品牌的信息并获得购买品牌产品的机会的同时，接受了该测试。我们重点研究了两个品牌个性维度：温暖和能力。与安慰剂相比，催产素增加了对品牌能力的感知，但对品牌温暖的感知没有影响。我们还发现，催产素通过影响品牌能力，使参与者更愿意为品牌产品支付更高的价格。当参与者撰写自己最喜欢的品牌时，催产素会增强其使用积极的情绪语言以及与家人和朋友相关的词语。这些发现初步证明，消费者使用进化来形成人类依恋的生物机制与品牌建立关系。
