Persuasion, Choices and Consumer Behaviour

About

Do you think people can be influenced outside of their conscious awareness? How do some things get so popular while others flop? Do you agree with the ‘more the merrier’ when it comes to choice? How well are you able to resist persuasion attempts? When was the last time you bought something you didn’t need?

This course turns to research in consumer behaviour to find answers for these, and many other questions. We will focus on the following topics:

Consumer judgement, decision making and choice – the biases and heuristics (short-cuts) we develop over life and how they affect our judgements and choices;

The role of the unconscious – our automatic and habitual processes that may cloud our reasonable and rational judgments and lead to erroneous decisions;

Influence and persuasion – ways in which we influence and are influenced by others and their persuasive techniques;

Successful strategies – contemplate reasons why some products and ideas florish whereas others fail to survive;

Contemporary issues – explore current topics such as collaborative consumption and and the role of neuroscience in marketing.

Course leader

Programme Director – Professor António Robalo Summer School Coordinator – Rita Fernandes

Target group

Master and advanced undergraduate students.

Course aim

At end of this programme, students should be able to:

- Become acquainted with the basic research in selected topics in consumer behaviour;

- Become acquainted with the applications of that basic research to further contexts and domains;

- Understand the methodologies used in developing the above-mentioned research.

Fee info