research@hec - Issue #27 - (Page 2)

marketing research hec Why shoppers choose products from the center of displays Previous research has established that consumers are more likely to pick articles located in the center of supermarket shelves than those on the sides. Selin Atalay, Onur Bodur, and Dina Rasolofoarison explore the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon, showing that this “horizontal centrality effect” is linked to the tendency of centrally located items to receive more visual attention from shoppers rather than conscoius inferences made about product. Selin Atalay B IOGRAPHY Selin Atalay has been teaching psychology of decision-making and experimental design at HEC since 2008. She initially studied psychology at Istanbul's Bogazici University in Turkey and at the University of Denver in the US, then went on to do a Ph.D in marketing with a minor in social psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Whether selecting clothes from a rack, dishes from a buffet, or a movie from an online selection, consumers are constantly choosing from options displayed horizontally. Even in supermarket aisles, goods can only be stacked so high or so low before getting physically out of reach, so they are lined up on long shelves. In such contexts, shoppers tend to go for the option in the center of the horizontal array, the snack at the center of the vending machine, the bathroom stall in the middle of the row, and so on. This tendency, known as “horizontal centrality,” is well documented and, of course, highly relevant to retail shelf management. But Selin Atalay and her co-authors go a step further, identifying why and how the brand in the middle was consistently preferred. “The existing literature is mostly speculative or contradictory in its explaination of the effect, with one stream of research arguing the product in the center gets more attention and another the opposite,” says Selin Atalay. “We reconcile that by looking at the mechanisms.” VISUAL ATTENTION AND CHOICE In fact, the researchers simply look at what consumers look at, with the finding,that horizontal centrality is linked to visual attention (i.e., eyes resting upon an object). The research team proceeded by breaking down to the millisecond the eye movements of study participants. While making a choice in consumption online, the participants gazed more and longer at the products at the center of displays and tended to pick those same products (45.3% of the time) over those on the sides (on average 27.3% of the time). Hardly surprising, though, that our gaze falls on the center of any new scene. “Biologically, our eyes are more comfortable looking straight ahead, it's what is called the orbital reserve,” says Selin Atalay. “Also, to get the widest account of what is in an area, the optimal position is looking in the middle, with our peripheral vision picking up the rest.” But, when looking more closely at eye-movement patterns, it appears that the actual choice predictor is not the initial look at the center, which is pretty much systematic, but the final moments of the gazing process just before a decision is finalised. “The fixation converging onto the chosen option is called the gaze cascade effect,” the researcher explains, “and central gaze cascade effect when participants are more likely to focus on the central brand. Both effects add up.” SIMPLIFYING, REASSURING CHOICES So the correlation with visual attention is clear, but do consumers look more at the product they choose, 2 • june-july 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of research@hec - Issue #27

Cover & Contents
Why shoppers choose products from the center of displays
Word of mouth on the Internet: Being aware of message distortion
Avoiding the dangers of online product recommenders

research@hec - Issue #27