Újszászi Bogár László: a smiling face makes people eat and buy more

By: Trademagazin Date: 2022. 11. 01. 12:22

The experiment of Piotr Winkielman, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, and Kent C. Berridge, who works at the University of Michigan, shows that the sight of a smiling or frowning face changes the willingness to consume, even if the recipient is not even aware of this sight – László Újszászi Bogár, an expert in persuasion and influencing techniques points out in his recent post.

As a result of smiling, we not only consume more, we also pay more

Subjects were shown a picture of an emotionless face for less than half a second. This time is enough for the participants to recognize the face and determine its gender, which was the task anyway. However, up to sixteen thousandths of a second, the researchers inserted a smiling or frowning face among the others. This is too little time for the participants to even be aware of what they are looking at, that is, the observation of the face only happened on a subconscious level. This alone did not make the subjects feel better or sad. However, those who were thirsty poured themselves more drinks and drank more when they saw a happy face.

There was also a second part of the study, from which it was revealed that thirsty people not only drank more when they saw smiling faces, but were also willing to pay twice as much for the drink as those who were given a sullen photo. From all of this, the researchers concluded that at a subconscious level, as a result of the combination of thirst and the happy face, some level of emotional change took place in the subjects.