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JACR Issue Topic: Evaluating Physiological Measures for Consumer Welfare and Market Behavior

The issue editors are Martin Reimann (The University of Arizona) & Joel Huber (Duke University).
This issue invites submissions that explore the use of diverse physiological measures to assess the impact of marketing on consumers. We welcome studies on brain activity (e.g., fMRI, EEG), heart rate (e.g., pulse), glandular responses (e.g., sweat), muscular reactions (e.g., facial analysis), and vision (e.g., eye movement). We also encourage submissions that propose additional measures, such as hormone levels or gut microbiome, to expand our understanding of consumer behavior. We are also interested in a better understanding of consumer-facing physiological tools. Papers that compare the predictive power of various physiological measures will be especially appreciated.
Curation of fMRI Research in Marketing

A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neural Dissociations Between Brand and Person Judgements
Yoon et al.
Curiosity Tempts Indulgence
Wiggin, Reimann, & Jain
Crazy-Funny-Cool Theory: Divergent Reactions to Unusual Product Designs
Warren & Reimann
Predicting Advertising Success Beyond Traditional Measures: New Insights from Neurophysiological Methods and Market Response Modeling
Venkatraman et al.
Insights into the Experience of Brand Betrayal: From What People Say and What the Brain Reveals
Reimann et al.
Can Smaller Meals Make You Happy? Behavioral, Neurophysiological, and Psychological Insights into Motivating Smaller Portion Choice
Reimann, MacInnis, & Bechara
How We Relate to Brands: Psychological and Neurophysiological Insights into Consumer-Brand Relationships
Reimann et al.
Aesthetic Package Design: A Behavioral, Neural, and Psychological Investigation
Reimann et al.
Individual Differences in Marketing Placebo Effects: Evidence from Brain Imaging and Behavioral Experiments
Plassmann & Weber
Cost Conscious? The Neural and Behavioral Impact of Price Primacy on Decision Making
Karmarkar et al.
Reducing Self-Control Depletion Effects Through Enhanced Sensitivity to Implementation: Evidence from fMRI and Behavioral Studies
Hedgcock et al.
Trade-Off Aversion as an Explanation for the Attraction Effect: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
Hedgcock & Rao
Brands on the Brain: Do Consumers Use Declarative Information or Experienced Emotions to Evaluate Brands?
Esch et al.
A Sales Force-Specific Theory-of-Mind Scale: Tests of Its Validity by Classical Methods and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Dietvorst et al.
Suspicious Minds: Exploring Neural Processes During Exposure to Deceptive Advertising
Craig, Loureiro, & Venderia
From “Where” to “What”: Distributed Representations of Brand Associations in the Human Brain
Chen et al.
Neural Profiling of Brands: Mapping Brand Image in Consumers’ Brains with Visual Templates
Chan et al.
Neural Correlates of Susceptibility to Group Opinions in Online Word-of-Mouth Recommendations
Cascio et al.
A Neural Predictor of Cultural Popularity, Journal of Consumer Psychology
Berns & Moore
Genetic and Neurological Foundations of Customer Orientation: Field and Experimental Evidence
Bagozzi et al.
Curation of Eye-Tracking Research in Marketing

Eye Tracking Reveals Processes That Enable Conjoint Choices to Become Increasingly Effcient with Practice
Meißner, Musealem, & Huber
Understanding Lateral and Vertical Biases in Consumer Attention: An In-Store Ambulatory Eye-Tracking Study
Chen et al.
How Do Consumers Read and Encode a Price?
Laurent & Vanhuele
Attention Trajectories Capture Utility Accumulation and Predict Brand Choice
Martinovici, Pieters, & Erdem
Attention Spillovers from News to Ads: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment
Simonov et al.
Online Advertising Suppresses Visual Competition during Planned Purchases
Van der Lans et al.
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Official Sponsor
The Association For Consumer Research
The mission of the Association for Consumer Research (ACR) is to advance consumer research and "unpack the consumer experience." Reflecting ACR’s mission, consumer neuroscience is the study of how brain activity and neural processes echo consumers’ thoughts and feelings and how they influence their behaviors in response to marketing stimuli. It more broadly encompasses the use of physiological measures such as heart rate, skin conductance, facial expression analysis, and eye tracking to better understand underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms.
Find out more and connect with ACR
Workshop Facilitators
Martin Reimann
University of Arizona
Joel Huber
Duke University
Past Workshops

2025
2023
2022
2020
2018
2017
2016
Evaluating Physiological Measures for Consumer Welfare and Market Behavior
In this pre-conference, co-sponsored by JACR, the University of Arizona, and the Consumer Neuroscience research initiative at ACR, participants took a deep dive into how consumer physiology—spanning measures like smartwatch data, eye tracking, facial encoding, and fMRI—can revolutionize our understanding of consumer behavior and well-being. We explored how physiological insights can enrich consumer behavior theory, guide data-driven marketing strategies, and offer deeper emotional and motivational clarity, while also examining critical concerns such as privacy, consumer adoption of wearable tech, and potential unintended consequences of physiological data collection. Joel Huber and Martin Reimann led this workshop, with facilitation from Christoph Hüller.
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