To what extent does psychology play a role in marketing?

Abstract
In my project, I will discuss the importance and discovery of psychology in
an effective marketing campaign, I’ll do this by looking at some of the key
psychological methods used in marketing, and discuss the effectiveness
and impact of each, allowing me to determine the importance that
psychology has on a marketing campaign. In my second chapter I will
discuss key events and figures in chronological order that lead to the
current uses of psychology in marketing, allowing a clear understanding of
where different applications of psychology have come from. In my final
chapter, I will discuss what I believe could be the future uses of
psychology in marketing, the ethics behind using psychology in marketing,
as well providing solutions to ethical problems for both social media and
real-world marketing.

Introduction
Marketing is an unstoppable force in the modern world, with an
overwhelming number of advertisements seemingly everywhere you look
and the average person in the UK seeing between 50-400 advertisements
a day, it seems to be an essential building block that shapes society. The
modern day marketplace is also continuously changing, consumers
seeming somewhat oblivious to the compelling marketing campaigns
designed to influence their decision making to do one thing- make a
purchase. Marketers do this by using a variety of marketing strategies that
take advantage of cognitive biases, behavioural science and psychological
triggers to gain power over consumer decision making.

With technology advancements forever moving forwards, and the use of

psychology in society becoming more mainstream and complex, it gave
me the question- to what extent does psychology play a role in marketing
success, and what are the ethics behind it? This dissertation aims to
explore this question, by critically evaluating different techniques,
examining the historical evolution and the ethical implications of
psychology in marketing, I aim to analyse how psychology is used as a
marketing tool and the potential ethical dilemmas.

The first section of my dissertation provides an overview of the most

popular psychological techniques that are applied in marketing, including
cognitive biases and emotional appeals, and the strengths and drawbacks
of each specific technique. My section sections aims to provide a historical
timeline of the key moment in marketing psychology, to illustrate the
development and growing influence over time. My final section assesses
the ethical concerns surrounding these strategies and explores potential
future trends, like the applications of AI and neuroscience. Ultimately this
dissertation argues the role of psychology in marketing and the need for
clear ethical guidelines and responsible application.

CHAPTER 1
An overview of psychological
techniques used in marketing.
Loss aversion bias
What is loss aversion bias?
“Loss aversion is a cognitive bias where the emotional impact of a loss is
felt more intensely than the joy of an equivalent gain.” ¹

In simpler terms it is effectively the idea that the feeling of losing is

greater than the feeling of winning, even when it is in the same
proportion. A good example of this would be using money, where the pain
of losing £50 would be much larger than the happiness of gaining £50.
According to the original research by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky,
who were the pioneers of loss aversion and Nobel-prize winners, the pain
of a loss can be psychologically twice as powerful as an equivalent gain.²
This concept can be applied to many circumstances outside of marketing
such as, social status, time and even relationships as it causes us to value
and protect what we already have instead of the desire to have more.

How does it effectively used in marketing?

Loss aversion bias is used by many businesses while marketing, with ideas
and prompts such as:

‘Limited time offer!’

‘Stock running low!’

‘Discount lasts till midnight!’

These ideas take advantage of the human nature of loss aversion, as it

pushes potential customers to make a purchase instead of losing the deal.
By taking away the idea that the deal will still be available tomorrow, it
pushes the urgency of the sale onto the customers which forces them to
take action, or feel the pain of not taking action, and losing the deal. This
strategy has proved to be extremely affect with Marcus Taylor claiming it
helped him increase his sales by 332%. ³However, there can be risks of
using loss aversion in marketing.

Dangers of using loss aversion bias

Whilst loss aversion can be a highly affective technique, the dangers of
over using it is that you can destroy the sense of urgency as the offers will
constantly stand, leading to customers procrastinating the sale, as well as
damaging the trust from the customer as they may begin to stop believing
the company and also could only start buying items when they are
discounted as they know another discount will arrive, due to the overuse.

Expert, Margo Aaron, said

“People who over-use urgency dilute its effects. It's like walking past a
store that says "LAST DAY – CLEARANCE! EVERYTHING MUST GO!" but the
sign is still there the next day... and the next day... and the next day.
Eventually people catch on.”⁴

Aswell as this, research shows that people with damage to the amygdala,
a part of the brain, don’t experience loss aversion.⁵ The amygdala is a
part of the brain related to emotional responses, such as fear and risks,
which also brings the suggestion that the use of loss aversion over time
could cause your brand to become associated with fear and risk, which is
not the best brand image!

Social proof
What is social proof?
According to Sprout Social⁶

“Social proof is the psychological concept that people are influenced in

their decision making by others, compelling them to act within societal
norms or expectations.” ⁶

In terms of marketing, this means that people are more likely to buy a
product or service if they have seen that other people have bought it and
highly rated and/or had a positive experience. The psychological
phenomena was first discovered by Robert Cialdini, who referenced it in
his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion ⁷ in 1984. Since then it
has become increasingly popular especially throughout online advertising,
being used in several different ways such as:

 Reviews- show’s customers opinion on the product/service which

can encourage others to also buy, this is particularly useful in
technical markets that are highly competitive.

 Testimonials- a short recommendation from a happy customer, this

can also be from an influencer or celebrity who is liked and trusted
by a large amount of people, this is more useful for online retailers.

 Case studies- an in-depth analysis of the product/service you

provided for a current customer, this is useful for companies that
are trying to sell to another company rather than an individual.
 Data/statistics- this communicates to customers that a business is
preferred compared to competitors and the business can benefit a
potential customer, this is useful for all types of businesses.

Social proof is used commonly by many big brands such as Netflix,

Amazon and Fitbit who use social proof to encourage customers to buy
their products – or to watch a certain Netflix show! One business in
particular, Airbnb, has social proof at the core of their business. When
Airbnb first opened, many people were sceptical about staying in a
stranger’s house when they weren’t there or staying in a random persons
house, and to overcome the issue, Airbnb marketed user reviews and
gave host ratings which allowed customers to feel safer, which
transformed Airbnb into an international giant. ⁸

The Pygmalion effect

The Origins of the Pygmalion effect

The originations of the term ‘’Pygmalion Effect’’ are debated, with many
people claiming it comes from Greek mythology where king Pygmalion
falls in love with a statue that he carved and his love turns it into a real
women, whereas others say that it comes from the
play, Pygmalion (1913), where a professor makes a bet that he can teach
a poor flower girl to act like an upper-class lady, which he succeeds in, due
to his high expectations for her, however both stories have the same
premise, that high expectations cause something positive to happen.

The effect was first discovered in a school study by Robert Rosenthal et al.
in 1964. In his study he chose an elementary school in California and did
an IQ test on all the children at the begging of the year. After the test, the
teachers were given a list of ‘intellectual bloomers’ who performed highly
on the test. At the end of the school year the students redid the test and
the ‘intellectual bloomers’ improved the most, although the researchers
revealed that they picked the group of ‘intellectual bloomers’ at random
and they did not actually have the highest potential, but due to the
teacher’s belief in those students’ outcomes, they ended up achieving the
highest scores at the end of the year. ⁹

What is the Pygmalion Effect?

‘‘The Pygmalion effect describes situations where someone’s high

expectations improves our behaviour and therefore our performance in a
given area. It suggests that we do better when more is expected of us.’’ ¹⁰
How does it occur?

For example, imagine in a school, there’s an upcoming English test and a

teacher says to one of their students ‘I’m really excited to read your work
in the upcoming test, you always write such interesting stories!’ Since the
teacher has high expectations, they may be more likely to give them
support during the test and help them think of ideas, as well as this, the
student may do extra revision to prepare and may also focus more during
the test to meet the teacher’s expectation. As the student’s and teacher’s
behaviours changed, the students test may have been successful than if
the teacher hadn’t told them that they had high expectations for them, as
it caused the student to work harder which led to an improved
performance and a more successful outcome.

How is it applied to marketing?

For the Pygmalion effect to be beneficial in marketing, the part of the

cycle marketers needs to focus on is others (customers) beliefs. This is
because if a customer has high expectations for your business, then they
are likely to buy from you and expect high quality products and services,
which in turn will reinforce top quality service from the business resulting
in a positive feedback loop for your business which will attract more
customers, but how can this be applied?

 Consistent Brand Messaging- By ensuring that all brand messaging

across all platforms is consistent with a positive image it reinforces
customers expectations and brand perception.
 Quality Assurance- As long as Quality is consistent or exceeds
customers expectation it will increase trust and reinforce a positive
perception
  Visual identity-Through designs and logos, the business can create
an impression on the customer which will impact how they perceive
the brand
 Brand associations-Forming partnerships with well-known individuals
who align themselves with the desired brand image can influence
consumer perception and association
 Exclusivity- Limited edition releases and membership programmes
create a sense of exclusivity, which increases the consumers
perceived brand value
 Community building- Being part of a community enhances customer
loyalty and brand perception

Limitations

Despite the research done by Rosenthal and the support it received,

behavioural scientists have struggled to replicate the results, as the
effective size is too small or the improvement in performance is so
minimal, it can’t be considered proven.

Aswell as this, Kent Harber et al. (2005) ¹¹, suggested that the effect
works in the other direction and that performance affects expectations
rather than expectations affecting performance.

Despite the drawbacks, most psychologists still consider the Pygmalion

effect as a legitimate marketing technique although in recent years the
affects are considered to be less impactful.

Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is different to the other forms of psychology I have
discussed previously, as it is not something that can be directly
implicated, due to its focus on neural activity in the brain.

Essentially, it is ‘the study of how people's brains respond to advertising

and other brand-related messages by scientifically monitoring brainwave
activity, eye tracking and skin response.’¹²

This means that neuromarketing tries to predict/ influence customer

purchases and decision making,

Neuromarketing is based on a form of biological determinism called

neurobiology
A common misconception that many people believe, including myself
before furthering my research, is that Neuromarketing gives companies
the ability to control customer’s spending through advertising, although
currently neuromarketing is predominantly used to gain knowledge about
customers purchasing motivation, which can be used to create informed
marketing campaigns.

How is data collected?

data is collected by measuring physiological and neural signals, which is

split into brain scans that measure neural activity and physiological
tracking which measures physiological activity.

The two primary brains scans used are an fMRI (Functional magnetic
resonance imaging) and an EEG (electroencephalogram). An fMRI machine
uses magnetic fields to track changes in blood flow inside the brain while
a person lies inside the machine, and it takes continuous measurements
over time which allows marketers to show participants adverts and it will
show what parts of the brain the adverts trigger. An EEG is placed on a
person’s head and then tracks change in brain activity although it cannot
pinpoint exactly where in the brain which makes it less effective than an
fMRI. However, the cost EEG equipment is about $20,000 compared to an
fMRI machine costing typically $5million making EEG equipment much
more accessible.

The 3 methods to measure physiological responses are Eye tracking,

Arousal and Facial coding:

Eye tracking- indicates where someone’s looking for a certain amount of

time which can show which points in an advert produce heightened
interest

Arousal- measuring bodily regulated functions such as heart rate,

respiration rate and pupil dilation.

Facial coding- analysing the muscle movements of someone’s facial

expressions to show their emotional response to something.

How is this used by businesses?

examples

Strengths:
Weaknesses:

Ethical concerns:

Most people believe that they have free will- meaning that any decision,
including purchases, are decided consciously by considering all the factors
involved. However, as Neuromarketing shows that people can be
unconsciously influenced without them knowing, it leads to people having
concerns and can lead to people feeling like they are being manipulated
by brands, which could cause people to avoid their business. Aswell as
this, anti-neuromarketing activists, such as Gary Ruskin (executive
director of Right to Know), believe that Neuromarketing will lead to
marketers being able to stimulate specific neural responses, which could
exploit customer’s fears to lead them into buying a product, although
neuromarketers claim that this is not possible.

Chapter
2
The history and
integration of
psychology in
marketing
The birth of psychology
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) – The Father of Experimental Psychology

Whilst Wundt’s work may not directly impact marketing, his importance in
establishing psychology as a field of science rather than a branch
philosophy and his experimental methods meant I had to mention him.

Wundt was originally a physiologist, and he worked as a lecturer at the

University of Heidelberg until 1862, when he offered the first eve course of
psychology. This lead to him writing ‘one of the most important (books) in
the history of psychology’ called Grundzüge der physiologischen
Psychologie and opening the first psychological lab ever in Zurich. This
ultimately set the path for psychology to be able to applied into
marketing.

The beginning of psychology in marketing- Walter Dill Scott

Scott is generally credited as the first person to apply the studies of

psychology to marketing and advertising, which happened due to his
interest in advertising whilst he was a psychology professor at
Northwestern University. His interests in both fields lead to him becoming
the first ever professor in the field of ‘psychology of advertising’, where he
wrote many books, such as ‘Psychology is advertising’, ‘Theory of
advertising’ and ‘Pyschology of Advertising in Theory and pratice’, all of
which became essentials in advertising education. Scott also opened a
consulting firm which looked at applying psychology to business problems.

Scott’s application of psychology into advertising was unmatched at the

time, leading many to call him ‘the father of applied pyschology’

John B. Watson behaviourism

Watson is considered to be the founding father of behaviourism, which in
his own words is ‘the science of observable behaviour’ which is essentially
the belief that behaviour is caused by interaction/conditioning from the
environment. Watson’s theory is best proven in his controversial “little
Albert” experiment where he used loud noises to condition a child to
become afraid of a white rat. Whilst Watson’s original theory and research
do not have any impact on marketing, the applications and importance of
Watson later on meant that it had to be mentioned.

Hugo Munsterberg published

Hugo Münsterberg was a German American Doctorate Psychologist who
moved to America in 1862 to work at Harvard university after working
with Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig in Germany. He believed that psychology
had applications to many industries such as education, law and
advertising. This led to him to publish his book called ‘Psychology and
industrial efficiency,’ where he discusses the role of psychology in
advertising and marketing, like how/ why people make purchasing
decisions, how different elements of an advert influence consumers
emotions and how adverts can be designed to be remembered.
Münsterberg’s applications of psychology and his emphasis on the
importance of understanding consumers mind’s led to the beginning of
industrial psychology and to him laying the foundations for
neuromarketing.

1920-50s:
Watson leaves academia for
advertising
Watson worked at the University of Hopkins, where he conducted his
research and made his theory until 1920, when he was asked to leave due
to an affair he had with one of his students, which meant Watson was
forced to leave academia and pursued a career in advertising where he
worked at an agency until 1945. During his time working in advertising,
Watson introduced the idea of scientific advertising, which applies
scientific methods to advertising to act based on data, he also built on
Pavlov’s work and used classical conditioning to associate products with
emotions and his use of targeted ad’s is one of the most popular modern-
day marketing techniques.

Edward Bernays published propoganda

Sigmund Freud, potentially the most famous psychologist ever, had a
nephew called Edward Bernays. Bernays used Freud’s psychodynamic
theory and other Freudian theories to write his book ‘propaganda’ where
Bernays explains how public opinion can be controlled and the uses of
propaganda in marketing. According to Bernays, propaganda is “A
consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the
relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.” Bernays believed
that advertisers should connect their products with deep psychological
desires, such as luxury brands selling status, through their expensive
clothing, as well as this, Bernays strongly believed in social proof and he
believed that using celebrities to endorse products would make people
more trustworthy of the product.

Bernays’ “Torches of Freedom” campaign

In 1929, Bernays methodologies were shown in action when an a tobacco

company organised women to march down New York with ‘torches of
freedom’ cigarettes, which was orchestrated by Bernays in order for
cigarettes to be marketed as selling ‘freedom’ to women. The campaign
was a great success as it made the appeal of cigarettes to be associate
with social change and modern (at the time) ideologies.

1960s-80s:
Cognitive psych emerges
During the 1960s, general attitudes from psychologists began to shift from
Behaviourist approaches to a more cognitive approach, which shifted
the focus from external behaviour, to internal processes like attention,
memory and thinking. Influential figures in the development of cognitive
psychologists actually came from behaviourists, such Edward Tolman, who
had a less rational approach to someone such as Watson, and believed
that not all learning is through observable behaviour.

Howard-Sheth Model
Jadish Sheth and John Howard met on a PhD marketing program at
Pittsburgh, USA, where they collaborated to make the Howard-Sheth
model, which tried to focus on the cognitive functioning of consumer
behaviour and its outcomes. The model used factors such as social,
psychological and cultural influences to explain how a stimulus can get
the brains attention to output a purchase. The model gave a large
advance in the study of consumer behaviour and the use of numerous
variables allowed an in-depth view of the relationship between marketing
and purchasing decision making.
Behavioral economics
Before Behavioral economics, economists assumed that all consumers
would act logically and do whatever would best interest there
survival/growth, meaning they would always act rationally, however
behavioural economics uses psychology to explain why people don’t
always act rationally when making purchasing decisions. Although the
exact beginning of behavioural economics is debated, Richard Thaler is
generally considered to be the father of behavioural economics. The
emergence of behavioural economics has allowed marketers to gain a
further understanding of customer influence and decision making,
allowing marketing to become increasingly effective.

Emotional branding
In 1980s there began a big shift of large companies switching from
traditional marketing techniques, to adapting to Edward Bernays
psychological approach of marketing by using emotional branding, this
meant that instead of focusing on purely selling the product, brands
began to sell feelings, that they would associate with their product. This is
shown largely by Nike and Coca Cola.

In 1988, Nike released their renowned “Just do it” campaign, which

motivated people to strive to achieve greatness. Aswell as this, Nike also
sponsored athletes such as Michael Jordan, which lead to customers
associate feelings of winning and success with Nike. Coke also launched
similar emotional campaigns such as their “Coke Is It!” Campaign in 1982
and their “Share a Coke” campaign which both linked coke with feeling of
fun and community.
This was a pivotal moment in marketing, which is still as popular as ever
today, and caused Companies such as Apple and Starbucks to also adapt
emotional marketing and also showed that people buy based off emotions.

1990s-2000s:
Daniel Kahneman Nobel prize
Daniel Kahneman was an American psychologist who proposed the
Prospect Theory (Loss Aversion bias) and received a Noble prize in
Economic Science in 2002, and is considered to to be the first person to
recognise the role psychology has in economic decision-making.
Kahneman’s work completely redefined behavioural economics and
caused behavorial economers to redesign decision-making models and
also Kahneman’s work was used to develop AI marketing analyizers.

Neuromarketing
Also in 2002, neuromarketing was first introduced as a term used by
Professor Smidts in a published article “Looking into the brain,” , however
the first neuromarketing research was actually done a few years before in
the late 1990s where he used fMRI’s to show correlation between brain
activity and marketing stimuli, leading to him creating the Zaltman
metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) which analysed .unconscious and
conscious responses to images. This quickly gained popularity from major
businesses such as coca cola and Nestle, who all quickly integrated
neuromarketing techniques to analyse their campaigns, allowing them to
optimize the responses to them

2010- modern day:

Social media domination
During the late 2000’s to the early 2010s, social media began to grow
rapidly, giving a new platform for marketers to access consumers,
creating opportunities for an abundance of new techniques to be tried and
tested. The addictive nature of social media is through its dopamine-
driven design, which makes users keep coming back for more, in 2013,
Instagram released stories, reinforcing the addictive behaviour and
meant that social media became imbedded into people’s daily behaviour.
While marketing techniques that are used in social media such as
Influencer marketing, affiliate marketing and brand management
may not be direct uses of psychology, there is no denying that the reasons
social media has become so essential in the 21 st century is due to the
psychological research and techniques behind it.

Facebook targeted advertising

In 2007, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced ‘Facebook ads’ as a
form of targeted marketing, which meant users were receiving
personalized ads based on a system that would analyse users Facebook
actions such as: Likes, comments, shares, browsing history and interaction
with ads to ensure that only interest customers/ the target audience would
be shown the adverts. This became known as Psychographic Profiling
where Facebook was able to segment users based on personality traits
and emotions. This was great for small businesses as it allowed them to
afford highly targeted ads instead of spending large amounts of money on
broad campaigns, and exponentially increased ROI. Aswell as this, it
meant consumers were no longer seeing unnecessary adverts and allowed
people to access products they were interested in. However, this led to
major ethical concerns as users were unaware they were being so
intensely tracked and many people saw this as psychological manipulation
and breaches of data security, leading to many Regulations, laws and
policies being emplaced in the future.

Cambridge Analytica scandal

On March 16th 2018, The guardian and the New York times wrote articles
about how a data mining firm, Cambridge Analytica, which also worked
on Donlad Trumps election campaign, had wrongly gained access to the
data of an estimate of 50 million Facebook user profiles. People believe
this data could have been used for Trump to gain an unfair advantage in
the election. Despite the fact that many people are sceptical that they
actually had access to 50 million profiles, it still meant that Cambridge
Analytica where using private Facebook user data to create psychological
profiles of American voters, and using for political campaigns, which at the
time was the biggest social media data breach in history. This event was
momentous for the use of psychology in marketing as it made people
begin to question if there was even a place for psychology in marketing
and made consumers aware of the ethical concerns of collecting
psychological profiling data, also causing stronger media regulations as all
META platforms no longer allow 3rd party access to user data, which has
become an industry norm, and laws are also now in place forcing
marketers to be more transparent about using users data.

AI- marketing predictive psychology

AI predictive marketing essentially uses Artificial Intelligence to analyse
consumers, behaviour patterns, psychological insights and emotional
responses to try and influence consumer decision making, all of which a
user would be oblivious to. This is done by using reinforcement
learning which strengthens addictive nature of social media, and also
uses conformation bias to ensure users see content and brands that
align with their beliefs. Another technique AI uses is analysing emotional
displays from a user, so showing ads when users are at a peak moment in
stress, happiness etc.. An example of this would be AI analysing that a
user is posting about feeling overworked, so the AI would show videos
recommending work management software. Like Facebook marketing and
other social media marketing techniques, there are major ethical concerns
due to the use of emotional manipulation as the AI exploits
psychological/emotional vulnerabilities in order to produce a sale and is
also seen as an invasion of privacy. This has lead to businesses beginning
to switch to opt-in AI features and Ethical AI guidelines being constructed
in order to protect users.
CHAPTER
3
The Future of Psychology in
marketing and ethical
concerns.

Ethical concerns in
psychological marketing
Though out my dissertation, I have been looking at the effectiveness of
psychology in marketing and to what extent it is used and applied.
However, in this topic, I’m going to analyse whether it is ethical to apply
psychology into marketing and the effects it can have on people while
they’re oblivious to it the whole time.

Consumer manipulation
Many of the topics that I discussed in my first chapter, such as social
proof, scarcity and the anchoring effect and other techniques such as
emotional appeal and priming can manipulate customers feelings in order
to try and get a sale, but how ethical is this and what are the
psychological effects? While these methods are all pretty standard in
marketing, they can raise ethical concerns when marketers use these
techniques to mislead customers or manipulate unconscious biases that
aren’t in the customers best interests. In a study (Grabe, Ward and Hyde
2008) researchers found that adverts that depicted a product as leading
to unrealistic, extreme joy/ happiness lead to customers who did not have
the same levels of happiness experiencing decreased self-esteem and
high rates of anxiety and depression, particularly in younger people. This
shows that the emotional appeal of an advert can manipulate and
negatively impact consumers emotions in order to gain a sale.

Psychological Exploitation in
Marketing
While consumer manipulation aims to influence consumers decisions by
using psychological tactics, psychological exploitation takes it a step
further by taking advantage of consumers vulnerabilities and cognitive
biases- often to deceive customers or making causing them to think
irrationally in order to produce a sale. This can happen in numerous ways,
such as using Fear-based marketing, which is when marketers spread fear
onto consumers to try and push them to immediately making a purchases,
an example of this could be an alarm company over emphasising the
amount of crime in order to try and push customers into buying an alarm.
Another way exploitation marketing can happen is by targeting people’s
insecurities such as in the beauty industry by creating unrealistic body
standards, which creates customer dissatisfaction and pressures
customers into buying products that they may not need or benefit from.
Companies can also intentionally confuse customers by using free trials
that automatically renew and making subscriptions hard to cancel, which
can make customers purchase things they no longer wanted and exploits
customers lack of knowledge, all of these techniques can have
consequences both financially and mentally for consumers. This can be
prevented if companies ensure that their campaigns are not
overexaggerated, provide clear and accurate information to allow
customers to act rationally and refraining from using emotional
exploitation.

Data tracking and Privacy concerns

In the modern online marketing world, it has become essential for media
companies to track consumers data in order to personalise advertising
experiences and predict spending behaviour. Whilst this may enhance
sales and the user experience, there are serious concerns regarding
privacy, lack of consent and manipulation of unconscious desires, without
users awareness. Data tracking involves pixel tracking, purchase history
and social media activity to create a psychological profile for individual
users allowing marketers to create hyper-targeted campaigns. There
many ethical issues to this as when many users accept the T&Cs of a
media platform, they are often unare of how much of their data is being
tracked including mental health, finances and habits, which in some cases
can be without explicit permission. Aswell as this,in Hyper-personalized
marketing campaigns, ads can be shown to exploit psychological
vulnerabilities and Companies can use the data to manipulate voting
opinions, such as in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In order to
combat these concerns, laws and regulations have been put in place, such
as the GDPR requiring all companies in Europe to obtain clear consent
before collecting users data, and the CCPA gives users the right to know
all of their data that is being collected, however these laws have very little
enforcement. In order for companies to try to balance personalization and
privacy, I believe that they should ensure that they are open to users
about all data that is collected and how it’s used, allowing consumers to
easily opt-out of data tracking and prohibit exploiting subconscious
weaknesses.

Ethical guidelines and measures

put into
Place
When it comes to standardisation of advertising, the two main bodies are
the federal trade commission (FTC) in the USA and the advertising
standards authority (ASA) in the UK, both of which enforce and regulate
laws against consumer advertising, and the prevention of deceptive
advertising. They essentially have the same role, just in different countries
although only the ASA has the power to ban misleading ads, and only the
FTC can fine companies. Key laws and regulations are:

 in 2020 the FSA passed an act that banned marketing tricks such as
hidden fees and forced subscriptions.
 In 2019 the ASA updated misleading ad guidelines that bans ads
that misleads consumers or misrepresents products
When it comes to data and privacy protection though, the general data
protection regulation (GDPR) has set strict guidelines about requiring
explicit consent of individuals before their data is collected, which is
shown in article 6 that was passed made effective in 2018 and article 22
that prohibits AI-profiling that manipulates emotional vulnerabilities.
Despite these articles, many businesses try to find loopholes by using pre-
ticked boxes to collect data, although these laws have significantly
reduced manipulative marketing techniques. Consumer Protection laws
have also been put in place in the EU and UK that prohibit aggressive
marketing techniques and ensure purchases aren’t made based off
psychological influence. With all things considered, these laws and
regulations have significantly improved the ethics regarding psychology in
marketing and consumer protection, however they can widely vary
depending on the region and industries with older and well-established
industries and forms of marketing having stricter regulations. To keep their
effectiveness, these laws must also adapt and change with the
development of new techniques like neuromarketing and AI profiling and
require strict enforcements.
The future of
psychology in
marketing
With social media becoming an unsuspecting phenomenon in the 21 st
century, that completely redefined the way marketers work, it is safe to
say that the future of marketing appears to be online, but who knows
what could happen? In this section I will delve into several topics that I
believe could have tremendous growth in marketing with applied
psychology.

Virtual reality
Over the past 10-15 years, the emergence and popularity of virtual (VR)
and augmented (AR) realities has lead to attempts at successful virtual
reality business models such as the “Metaverse” and other types focused
more on entertainment and games like “Pokémon Go”. VR has also had
some application for business such as IKEA using VR to project furniture
models into people’s homes and McDonalds producing “Happy Goggles”
that allow children to access educational games. Whilst covid produced an
increase in the amount of people accessing virtual/augmented realities,
due to lack of technology development, affordability and content the VR
market has not been able to expand rapidly in previous years. However,
due to technological advancements, I believe that in upcoming years the
virtual reality will significantly increase, but how is psychology applied to
this?

There are several ways that psychological marketing can be applied to

(VR) through both Behavioural approaches and Cognitive
approaches, like through the repeated brand exposure in VR, it could
lead to users experiencing operant conditioning towards brands,
reinforcing behaviours. Aswell as this, when someone sees something in
AR in their own home, they will gain a sense of psychological ownership,
causing them to feel attachment towards the product and making it more
likely for the customers to make a purchase. Aswell as this, a study done
by Mishra et al. (2021), found that participants who experienced a café
through VR and Ae has increased purchase intentions compared to a
control group that saw the café through a normal website, which could be
due to the more vivid imagery of the products/location.

Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is a rapidly growing field, but it seems than we have only
discovered the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gaining insights on the
psychological phenomena that influence consumer behaviour. One
interesting potential developed in neuromarketing could be the uses of
brain-Computer Interfaces(BCI) in order to gain further understanding
of consumers decision-making. Brain-computer interfaces, are very
complex, but are essentially chips in the brain that allows the brain to
communicate with external software/hardware through electrical impulses
in the brain. While these were first used on people in the late 1990s,
almost all BCI research has been focused around health care, but in the
future BCIs could be used for an array of ways, such as a new level of
emotional insights, allowing real-time feedback of peoples emotions,
which could be analysed by AI software to fine-tune marketing campaigns.
Moreover, it could also allows retailers to produce virtual shopping
environments that consumers would be able to navigate just with their
thoughts.

In modern day, neuromarketing can be used in a highly controlled lab

experiment to understand consumers decision-making process, and
another potential use, perhaps in the more foreseeable future, could be
using neuromarketing to adapt marketing in real-time, like analysing facial
expressions and eye-movements while in shops, allowing AI to predict
purchase intent. While these techniques would definitely have massive
ethical issues, these are ideas are only theoretical and would have to be
regulated strictly if they ever became mainstream.
Ethical Branding
With the amount of ethical concerns and forms of manipulation often
associated with the use of psychology in marketing, ethical branding takes
a unique approach, focusing on values like honesty, social responsibility
and sustainability. These values can be very beneficial in a marketing
campaign, as it makes customers trust the business, leading to customers
building an emotional connection to the brand, meaning they are less
likely to experience cognitive dissonance and spread a bad image of
the business. As well as this, many modern consumers often prioritize
ethical considerations when buying a product, such as:

 if a product is fairtrade
 sustainable
 has recyclable packaging
 if any animal testing has been used

This can cause the alignment effect, where consumers often use brands
that reflect their own morals and beliefs, which makes consumers
confident to purchase from the business, as well as spreading a positive
message.

Balancing effectiveness and

ethics
Now that I have discussed ethics, guidelines and psychological
misconduct, in this section I will expand on what I think is an acceptable
use of psychology in marketing and how to balance the effectiveness of a
marketing campaign and the ethical implications.

Many psychological techniques can often appear to be unethical,

especially techniques that mislead consumers into making a one-time
purchase that they will end up regretting, such as using techniques to
manipulate someone who is emotion vulnerable, so one way of trying to
be both ethical and effective could be to try and create a long-term
relationships with customers, causing them to become loyal to the brand
and make repeat-purchases. Another way brands can ensure they stay
ethical whilst remaining effective could be through honesty, like when
using tactics like scarcity and FOMO, but only when they are actually
genuine, like for example when websites say “limited stock!” or “selling
quick!”, ensuring that these are not fake means that businesses are less
likely to run the risk of overusing them which can actually result in the
opposite effect, causing consumers to have distrust in the business and
not believe the need to act urgently.

As I have previously discussed, personalized marketing can have ethical

implications, but it can also be very effective for businesses and useful for
consumers, so one way to use personalized marketing whilst still being
ethical, could be to ensure that companies are very open about consumer
data usage and only track in-media activity (not tracking across multiple
websites). Emotional marketing can be effective by using marketing that
triggers feelings of joy and happiness, but other types of emotional
marketing that manipulate peoples emotions using fear to try and force
consumers to buy unnecessary products is unethical. To avoid this,
marketers should focus on trying to selling positive emotions, instead of
fear and guilt, to avoid customers feeling emotional distress.

Neuromarketing can be highly effective for brands, allowing them to

analyse the subconscious mind, to gain insight in consumer decision
making, but this can become unethical if researchers use this information
to manipulate subconscious biases to confuse customers into buying
unwanted products. In order to remain ethical but stay effective,
neuromarketers should focus on using neuromarketing to improve ad
effectiveness without using biometric data, and should be open about
their findings.

To conclude, there is a way to balance ethics and effectiveness, when

marketers focus more being open with consumers and broadening the
information available to consumers, it means that customers will have
clearer decision making, rather than clouded decision making, so they will
be able to make the correct purchase decisions that they will be happy
with.

Conclusion
To what extent does psychology play a role in marketing?

Psychology plays a fundamental role in marketing, shaping consumers

behaviour by applying cognitive biases, emotional appeals and
behavioural science. As explored in this dissertation, these techniques
have proven to be highly effective at influencing consumer decision-
making, brand perception and consumer engagement, often with
consumers being unaware of the full impact. The increasing complexness
and sophistication of psychological marketing- particularly in the fields of
neuromarketing and AI-driven personalization- has made marketing more
effective and powerful as it’s ever been. Despite this, it’s growing uses
and applications have raised significant ethical concerns considering
manipulation, consumer autonomy and businesses transparency.

While psychology is undeniably a key component of marketing success,

it’s vital to establish that not consumer-decision making is not purely a
result of psychological influence- rational thinking, economics constraints
and personal experiences also play a crucial role in shaping consumer
behaviour. Additionally, the role of psychology in marketing can be seen
as significantly less dominant in fields where purchase decisions are more
crucial- such as real estate, investments and healthcare, where factors
like credibility and trust are much more critical.

Despite all of this, psychology is still a central pillar of marketing, that is

only growing with new discoveries and technological advancements. This
has created lots of opportunities for potential further research, such as the
long term of effects of psychologically driven marketing on consumer well-
being and cultural differences on view of ethical-responsibility- both areas
could be crucial in gaining further understanding of the ethics behind
psychological marketing.

Ultimately, psychology will continue to be essential in marketing, but it’s

applications must be balanced with ethical responsibility, meaning
businesses must understand that trust and transparency are just as
paramount as persuasion in maintaining customer relationships.
Reference
list:
Author/Editor (put the corporate author if no individual author or editor
is specified)

(year of publication)

Title (should be in italics)

[Online]

Available from: URL

[Date of access]

1- Pilat, D. & Sekoul D. (2021) Loss aversion [Online] Available from:

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/loss-aversion [Accessed 7th November
2008].

2- Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1977) Prospect Theory. An Analysis of

Decision Making Under Risk. [Online] Available from:
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/tr/ADA045771 [Accessed 7th November
2024].
3- Taylor, M. (2023) How Creating a Sense of Urgency Helped Me Increase
Sales By 332% [Online] Available from: https://cxl.com/blog/creating-
urgency/ [Accessed 7th November 2024]

4- Aaron M. (2023) Loss Aversion Marketing: When Loss Aversion Works

(and When it Kills Your Marketing) [Online] Available from:

https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/loss-aversion-marketing#how-is-
loss-aversion-used-in-marketing [Accessed 24th November 2024]

5- Martino B et al. (2010) Amygdala damage eliminates monetary loss

aversion [online] 107 (8), 1-4. Available from:
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0910230107 [ Accessed 27th December 2024]

6-Sprout Social, Inc. (2024) Social Proof [online] Available from:

https://sproutsocial.com/glossary/social-proof/#:~:text=Social%20proof
%20is%20the%20psychological,within%20societal%20norms%20or
%20expectations [Accessed 3rd December 2024]

7- Cialdini R. (2006) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, revised

Edition. England, HarperBusiness [Online] Available
from:https://ia800203.us.archive.org/33/items/ThePsychologyOfPersuasion
/The%20Psychology%20of%20Persuasion.pdf [ Accessed 3rd December
2024]

8- Barron S. (2016) 20 Examples of Social Proof in Action in 2021 [online]

Available from: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-proof-examples
[Accessed 3rd December 2024]

9-Rosenthal, R., Jacobson, L. (1968) Abstract. Pygmalion in the classroom.

[Online] 3, 16–20 Available from: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02322211
[Accessed 27th December 2024]

10- Pilat D. Sekoul D. (2021) The Pygmalion effect. [Online] Available from:
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-pygmalion-effect [Accessed 27th
December 2024]

11- Jussim L. Harber K. (2005) Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling

Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved
Controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review [Online] 9, 2
131–155. Available from:
http://nwkpsych.rutgers.edu/~kharber/publications/Jussim.&.Harber.2005.
%20Teacher%20Expectations%20and%20Self-Fulfilling%20Prophesies.pdf

[Accessed 30th December 2024]

Chapter 2
Links needed for references:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-Wundt-accseed 01/02/25-
for Wilhelm Wundt

https://www.lahistoriadelapublicidad.com/protagonista-71/walter-dill-
scott#:~:text=Scott's%20integration%20of%20science%20into,while
%20simultaneously%20improving%20its%20effectiveness – accessed
01/02/25- for Walter Dill Scott

https://www.simplypsychology.org/john-b-watson.html

https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-watson-and-behaviorism-theory-
lesson-quiz.html#:~:text='%20This%20lecture%20established%20Watson
%20as,study%20of%20humans%20or%20animals both accessed
08/02/25- for Watson Behaviourism

https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/hugo-m%C3%BCnsterberg

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15154#:~:text=The%20book
%20explores%20the%20application,benefits%20commercial%20and
%20industrial%20endeavors -both accessed 08/02/25- for hugo
munstererg

https://www.verywellmind.com/john-b-watson-biography-1878-1958-
2795550#toc-john-b-watsons-career

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4188763#:~:text=Watson's%20work%20was
%20to%20help,assumed%20a%20role%20of
%20prominence.&text=behaviorism.%22

-accessed 08/02/25 John Watson enters marketing.

https://omeka.uottawa.ca/jmccutcheon/exhibits/show/american-women-in-
tobacco-adve/torches-of-freedom-campaign#:~:text=Bernays%20central
%20idea%20was%20to,cigarettes%20with%20broader%20social
%20change.

https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/tobacco-industry-marketing/
three-key-moments-history-marketing-tobacco-women#:~:text=For
%20the%201929%20Easter%20parade,a%20social%20taboo%20for
%20women.

https://www.nutshellapp.com/publicsummaries/the-influence-of-edward-
bernays-and-freuds-theories-on-mass-manipulation#google_vignette

accessed 08/02/25- Edward Bernays.

https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Psychology/
Cognitive_Psychology/
Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience_(Wikibooks)/
01%3A_Cognitive_Psychology_and_the_Brain/
1.01%3A_History_of_Cognitive_Psychology

https://nmoer.pressbooks.pub/cognitivepsychology/chapter/history-of-
cognitive-psychology/

emergence of cognitive psych 12/02/25

https://www.mbaknol.com/marketing-management/howard-sheth-model-
of-consumer-behavior/

https://www.mbaknol.com/marketing-management/howard-sheth-model-
of-consumer-behavior/

https://www.ama.org/2019/07/28/jagdish-sheth-the-accidental-marketer-
sheth-explains-rule-of-three-and-how-small-firms-can-compete/

howard-sheth model- 12/02/25

https://hbr.org/2017/10/the-rise-of-behavioral-economics-and-its-influence-
on-organizations

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK593518/#:~:text=The%20term
%20behavioral%20economics%20was,Svoren%C4%8D%C3%ADk
%20%26%20Truc%2C%202022).&text=The%20name%20has%20its
%20roots,reinforcement%20in%20shaping%20human%20behavior.

Behavioral economics- 12/02/25

NIKE- Singh, A., Tripathi, N. & Kumar, G. (2023) influence of Celebrity
Endorsements and Emotional Branding on the Historical Trajectory of
Nike's "Just Do It" Campaign: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Campaign
[Online]

COKE-

Carbone, Lou. "Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and
Again". Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times Prentice Hall (2004): 140-
141, 254. -neuromarketing accessed 22/02/25

https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/the-subconscious-mind-of-
the-consumer-and-how-to-reach-it -Gerald zaltman accessed 22/02/25

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2002/kahneman/
facts/

accessed 22/02/25 daniel Kahneman

https://about.fb.com/news/2007/11/facebook-unveils-facebook-ads/

Facebook accessed 22/02/25

CHAPTER 2 reference list

Wilhelm Wundt

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025) Wilhelm Wundt. Available

at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-Wundt (Accessed: 1
February 2025).

Walter Dill Scott

La Historia de la Publicidad (2025) Walter Dill Scott. Available

at: https://www.lahistoriadelapublicidad.com/protagonista-71/walter-dill-
scott (Accessed: 1 February 2025).

Watson Behaviourism
Simply Psychology (2025) John B. Watson and Behaviorism. Available
at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/john-b-watson.html (Accessed: 8
February 2025).

Study.com (2025) John Watson and Behaviorism: Theory and Lesson.

Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/john-watson-and-
behaviorism-theory-lesson-quiz.html (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

Hugo Münsterberg

Harvard University Department of Psychology (2025) Hugo Münsterberg.

Available at: https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/hugo-m
%C3%BCnsterberg (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

Project Gutenberg (2025) Hugo Münsterberg: Psychology and Industrial

Efficiency. Available
at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15154 (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

John Watson Enters Marketing

Verywell Mind (2025) John B. Watson Biography. Available

at: https://www.verywellmind.com/john-b-watson-biography-1878-1958-
2795550 (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

JSTOR (2025) Watson's Work in Marketing. Available

at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4188763 (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

Edward Bernays

University of Ottawa Omeka (2025) Torches of Freedom Campaign.

Available
at: https://omeka.uottawa.ca/jmccutcheon/exhibits/show/american-
women-in-tobacco-adve/torches-of-freedom-campaign (Accessed: 8
February 2025).

Truth Initiative (2025) Three Key Moments in the History of Marketing

Tobacco to Women. Available at: https://truthinitiative.org/research-
resources/tobacco-industry-marketing/three-key-moments-history-
marketing-tobacco-women (Accessed: 8 February 2025).

Nutshell (2025) The Influence of Edward Bernays and Freud’s Theories on

Mass Manipulation. Available
at: https://www.nutshellapp.com/publicsummaries/the-influence-of-
edward-bernays-and-freuds-theories-on-mass-manipulation (Accessed: 8
February 2025).

Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

Social Sci LibreTexts (2025) History of Cognitive Psychology. Available

at: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Psychology/Cognitive_Psych
ology/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience_(Wikibooks)/
01%3A_Cognitive_Psychology_and_the_Brain/
1.01%3A_History_of_Cognitive_Psychology (Accessed: 12 February 2025).

Pressbooks (2025) History of Cognitive Psychology. Available

at: https://nmoer.pressbooks.pub/cognitivepsychology/chapter/history-of-
cognitive-psychology/ (Accessed: 12 February 2025).

Howard-Sheth Model

MBA Knowledge Base (2025) Howard Sheth Model of Consumer Behavior.

Available at: https://www.mbaknol.com/marketing-management/howard-
sheth-model-of-consumer-behavior/ (Accessed: 12 February 2025).

American Marketing Association (2025) Jagdish Sheth: The Accidental

Marketer. Available at: https://www.ama.org/2019/07/28/jagdish-sheth-
the-accidental-marketer-sheth-explains-rule-of-three-and-how-small-firms-
can-compete/ (Accessed: 12 February 2025).

Behavioral Economics

Harvard Business Review (2025) The Rise of Behavioral Economics and Its
Influence on Organizations. Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/10/the-rise-
of-behavioral-economics-and-its-influence-on-organizations (Accessed: 12
February 2025).

National Library of Medicine (2025) Behavioral Economics: An Overview.

Available at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-
scandal-fallout.html
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/items/8317a547-d5aa-4962-9c15-
fe051bbcf4e2

the Cambridge Analytica scandal accessed 27/02/25

Naz, H. and Kashif, M. (2025), "Artificial intelligence and predictive

marketing: an ethical framework from managers’ perspective", Spanish
Journal of Marketing - ESIC, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 22-
45. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJME-06-2023-0154

AI predictive marketing- accessed 28/03/25

CHAPTER 3
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/how-not-to-think/202406/the-
psychological-dangers-of-marketing#:~:text=Marketing%20Manipulation
%20and%20Consumer%20Behavior&text=This%20can%20include
%20tactics%20such,consumers'%20feelings%20to%20drive
%20purchases.

Accessed 01/03/25 for consumer manipulation

Accessed 01/03/25 for data privacy

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
308578866_The_Role_of_Data_Privacy_in_Marketing

: Strycharz, J. & Duivenvoorde, B. (2021). The exploitation of vulnerability

through personalised marketing communication: are consumers
protected?. Internet Policy Review, 10(4).
https://doi.org/10.14763/2021.4.1585

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/emotional-exploitation-ethical-
considerations-marketing-cheris-henry-xiuoe

Psychological exploitation in marketing accessed 01/03/25

https://www.hatads.org.uk/education/advertising-regulation-timeline.aspx

https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/our-history.html

Laws and regulations- accessed 01/03/25

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21678

https://influencermarketinghub.com/vr-marketing-examples/

https://www.google.com/imgres?q=predicted%20market%20growth%20of
%20vr&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fwww.grandviewresearch.com%2Fstatic
%2Fimg%2Fresearch%2Fus-virtual-reality-market.png&imgrefurl=https
%3A%2F%2Fwww.grandviewresearch.com%2Findustry-analysis%2Fvirtual-
reality-vr-market&docid=iRs1TaJBcvRt4M&tbnid=2GHEdmye-
SaIrM&vet=12ahUKEwjzhIDgsuuLAxUzWUEAHUb7FIQQM3oECBoQAA..i&w
=670&h=350&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjzhIDgsuuLAxUzWUEAHUb7FIQQM3o
ECBoQAA

virtual reality- accessed 02/03/25

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21600

https://www.neuroscienceof.com/branding-blog/virtual-augmented-reality-
consumer-psychology

virtual reality applied to psych – accessed 02/03/25

https://builtin.com/hardware/brain-computer-interface-bci

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonsnyder/2024/12/12/neuromarketing-ai-
enabled-brain-computer-interfaces-shaping-our-future/

BCI neuromarketing- accessed 02/03/25

https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2024/5/28154.pdf

neuromarketing- accessed 02/03/25

https://www.frontify.com/en/blog/what-is-ethical-branding-and-why-is-it-
important/#:~:text=Ethical%20branding%20is%20the%20process,%2C
%20animals%2C%20or%20the%20environment.

Ethical marketing- accessed 04/03/25