Spring 2024 Student Research
Research Team 1
Evey Kallmeyer | Anna Skinner
Paige Gutierrez
Gender and Marketing Research Study
In this study, the biometric tool of eye-tracking has been used to analyze the effects of different gendered colors and endorsers on certain gendered viewer’s visual attention and engagement. Many companies utilize the color blue to associate products with men while attributing the color pink to products for women. Also, in certain advertisements, men endorsers are used to capture the attention of men viewers while women endorsers are used to capture the attention of women viewers or vice versa. The participants in this study were exposed to many different color analyses of color wheels, color swatches, and products to study their visual engagement. There were 30 participants in this study; 12 men and 18 women. This study was randomized within subject design. The participants also viewed various images of both men and women endorsers promoting an identical product to analyze which gender further captures their visual attention. The conclusion of our study found that men have a stronger aversion towards directing their gaze to the color pink than women have directing their gaze to the color blue. Blue was the most alluring color while shown in a binary with just pink and also when shown amongst other colors. Finally, women strictly prefer and direct their attention to women endorsers and have no fonding of men endorsers. This is contrary to the findings that men either have a preference for men endorsers or have no preference at all. These findings are critical to the marketing field as when marketing to men it can be notable that blue products will indeed more significantly gain their attention and likeness and while using endorsers to market to women to utilize women endorsers to further capture their attention and likeness.
Research Team 1
Adnan Aldaas | Omar Tinawi
João Moraes Barreto | Nate Pascale
Understanding How TikTok Style Video Stimulation Impacts Viewers
Our study aims to find out if TikTok style video stimulation has an impact on cognitive effort, attention, and retention. We used eye tracking, facial expression analysis, and GSR to measure gaze, fixation, and emotion. Participants were shown four TED Talk videos with different levels of stimulation in a randomized order: the base video with no extra stimulation, a video with subtitles, a video with a second screen playing a soap cutting video, and a video with both subtitles and second screen. After each video, participants were asked to answer a series of questions to test their retention of the content of each video.
Research Team 3
Lauren Pflueger | Isabel Butler | AJ Carroll
The Difference in Excitement While Watching Male Vs. Female Athletes
Based on lived experience and previous literature, it is apparent that men's sports are more supported in terms of payment, viewership, attendance, and overall support. Our team's study aims to provide quantitative analysis as to why this is the case – are men's sports physiologically more exciting, or are sociological factors the cause for this difference? Our study consists of 26 participants (10 male, 16 female), who each answered multiple sets of survey questions and watched two videos of college basketball clips (one featuring a men’s team and another, a woman’s team). During the experiment, we measured recorded interest and self-reported interest between male and female viewers, regarding male and female athletes. Attention, engagement, and excitement were measured through eye-tracking technology captured by SmartEye AI-X (measuring fixation count and fixation duration), facial recognition software AFFDEX from iMotions 10 (measuring engagement and attention), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) data captured through Shimmer GSR (measuring arousal). Our group concluded that there is not a significant difference in the physiological response to viewing men’s vs. women’s collegiate basketball games. When comparing the biometric data and and the self-assessment of interest, this study concluded that there is a significant difference in only men’s self-reported interest and measured interest in men’s vs. women’s sports; men will report a preference for watching men’s sports teams, but show no difference in engagement, attention, or arousal while watching the different genders play. Therefore, the difference in self-reported interest and cultural differences in men’s and women’s sports must be attributed to outside, societal factors, and not the practice of the sport by male or female athletes itself.
Research Team 4
Ryan Love | Anne Price | Sofia Martinez
Bounded Rationality & Consumer Decision-Making
We use eye-tracking and GSR in our study to explore how information overload impacts consumer decision-making. We track GSR peaks per minute, fixation duration (by stimuli type and by product), fixation count (by stimuli type and by product), saccade count (overall, horizontal, and vertical), and initial and post-exposure product preference. Our research questions are 1) What is the impact of cognitive pressure on product selection decisions between products of varying familiarity? and 2) How does cognitive pressure impact human visual attention, effort, and arousal in product selection decision-making?. We aim to demonstrate that consumers rely on pre-conceived product/brand preferences to "satisfice" (instead of making an optimized decision) when asked to make a choice between products, particularly under information overload.
Research Team 5
Kaitlin Walker | Oein McDonagh
Ayla Lezic | Bilal Khurshid
Assessing the Impact of Video Options on Comprehension, Perception, and Effort Using Biometrics
We aim to determine how multitasking in the form of reading subtitles while consuming content affects emotional and analytical comprehension, perception, and mental effort. With the rise of streaming platforms, content is easily accessible in many languages with or without subtitles. While older viewers report subtitles are distracting and require more concentration, younger viewers, being avid social media users who are used to dual-tasking, are more accepting of subtitles. Eye-tracking, facial expression analysis, and galvanic skin response combined with survey questions will explore several research questions regarding viewing TV show clips with or without subtitles in various languages.
Independent Researcher
Natasha Schuckman
Investigating the “Positivity Effect” and its effect on Memory Recall of Different Age Groups using iMotions Online Eye-Tracking
This study aims to explore the “positivity effect, ” a psychological phenomenon where individuals shift from focusing more on negative information in youth to preferring positive information later in life. Using the iMotions Online platform, participants will be exposed to photos and social media posts with positive, neutral, and negative content. Eye-tracking and facial expression detection will be used to analyze gaze patterns, gaze duration, and emotional responses. The study seeks to replicate and add to research surrounding the “positivity effect” across different age groups. The study will use a questionnaire after exposure to stimuli to assess participants’ ability to recall information. This data will be analyzed to detect if emotional content affects memory recall among the different age groups. The iMotions Online platform will allow for the distribution of the study using a shareable link. This link will be sent to family and friends as well as Loyola students, faculty, and staff. Data will be split into young adult (ages 18-30), middle-aged (ages 31-59), and older adult (ages 60+) populations to detect changes between groups. This research will add to the understanding of emotional processing of different age groups. The study’s findings may add insights that could be utilized in communications, marketing, and therapeutic interventions
Independent Researcher
Elizabeth Stotz
Emotional Appeals’ Effect on Perceived Cultural Distance as a Mediator of Human Rights Engagement
In this study, the complex relationship between campaign videos’ emotional valence, perceived cultural distance (PCD), and engagement is examined using surveys and biometric data. The present study aims to establish PCD as a mediator of engagement with international human rights issues, particularly, refugee and migration crises, according to the emotional intensity of the campaign video. Biometric data including facial expression analysis and galvanic skin response were used to validate positive, negative, and neutral valence video conditions. Based on previous studies, it was predicted that PCD decreases significantly after watching positive campaigns and negative campaigns. The resulting decrease in PCD was predicted lead to increased engagement across all three dimensions. A within-subjects study design was executed in which all participants reported a pre-test PCD level, then reported PCD and engagement after watching each of three video campaigns in a randomized order. Biometric data was used to validate emotional valence. Preliminary data analyses reveal that participants are significantly more willing to engage across all dimensions after watching the negative-valence campaign video than after the neutral and positive videos. Additionally, exposure to the negative-valence video campaign caused both external PCD and overall PCD levels to significantly increase. These findings can be used to inform the design of human rights organizations’ campaigns to best promote engagement. This study was conducted as a part of BHNR 343 at Loyola University Chicago.