Unconscious Thought Effect In Consumer’s Brand Impression Forming Process

Dijksterhuis and colleagues (2004) have proposed that unconscious thought leads to better complex decisions than conscious thought; this is also known as the unconscious thought theory(UTT).Unconscious thought is assumed to possess superior processing capacity and because it has large capacity of information processing,so it could eliminate the stereotypes of impression forming process. Despite its scientific acclaim and its appeal to a broad audience, UTT has been heavily criticized. One recurring point of criticism is that the UTT is difficult to replicate.This research based on the existed achievment of UTT research,throught adding a new variable of brand impression of consumers to study the UTT of impression forming process.This research inculd one stereotypes survey and two UTT paradigm experiment.The conclusion of this research find that:(1) Local participants’overall impression of local brand is negative.(2)Unconscious thought could eniminate the existed stereotypes of local brand and form an objective impression about local brand;but conscious thought would be influenced by the existed stereotyps and forming a biased impression of local brand.In the unconscious thought groups,participants recall more description informations that inconsistent with the existed stereotyps than conscious groups,and unconscious thought participants also recall more description informations than couscious thought on the total amounts.(3)When the consumers faced to judge about different brand products,unconscious thought consumers could eliminated the existed local brand preconception and obtain a more precise judgment,however,conscious thought consumers prone to regard the foreign brand as the best options and make a prejudicial judgment on the contrary.This article confirms the UTT is an real effect in the complex impression formation process,and it also raise apposite suggestion for the further research of UTT.