Steven Swelden
Biographic Data
| ID | 142350 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Swelden |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Swelden |
| SIGNATURE | SWELDEN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | INSEAD |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4145-694X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How Numerical Cognition Explains Ambiguity Aversion
Consumers generally prefer precise probabilities or outcomes over imprecise ranges with the same expected value, a bias known as “ambiguity aversion.” We argue that two elementary principles of numerical cognition explain great heterogeneity in this bias, affecting consumer choices in many domains where options are characterized by varying levels of uncertainty (e.g., lotteries, discounts, investment products, vaccines, etc.). The first principle…
How people (fail to) control the influence of affective stimuli on attitudes
People's attitudes toward almost any stimulus (e.g., brands, people, food items) can change in line with the valence of co-occurring stimuli (e.g., images, messages, other people), a phenomenon known as the evaluative conditioning (EC) effect. Recent research has shown that EC effects are not always controlled, which is problematic in many circumstances (e.g., advertising, misinformation). We examined conditions under which uncontrolled EC effect…
The Science of Creating Brand Associations
The continuous trinity model (CTM) of brand associations integrates 50 years of consumer learning research with recent conceptualizations of consciousness. Three types of brand associations are proposed at the representational level (expectations, meaning, and affect), corresponding to three types of learning at the process level (predictive learning, referential learning, and direct affect transfer). A core proposition derived from research on a…
Dissociating Controllable and Uncontrollable Effects of Affective Stimuli on Attitudes and Consumption
This research studies a fundamental and seemingly straightforward question: Can basic advertising elements, such as the presence of attractive imagery, have uncontrollable effects on consumers’ attitudes and consumption decisions? Answering this question is methodologically challenging, because the presence of an uncontrollable process can be masked by a simultaneously operating controllable process. We argue first that existing methods conflate …
How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman
Consumer research can benefit greatly from more insight into unconscious processes underlying behavior. Williams and Poehlman’s effort at more clearly conceptualizing consciousness and call for more research provides a welcome stimulus in this regard. At the same time, providing evidence for unconscious causation is fraught with methodological difficulties. We outline why it is vital to uphold standards of evidence for claims regarding unconsciou…
The Symmetric Nature of Evaluative Memory Associations
Changing attitudes by repeated co-occurrences of initially neutral stimuli (conditioned stimuli [CSs]) with affective entities (unconditioned stimuli [USs]) is called evaluative conditioning (EC). The vast majority of EC procedures in the literature are “forward” in nature, presenting the CS before the US. Scant empirical research into the issue has argued that forward procedures are more effective than backward procedures, but this research suff…
Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes
Changing brand attitudes by pairing a brand with affectively laden stimuli such as celebrity endorsers or pleasant pictures is called evaluative conditioning. We show that this attitude change can occur in two ways, depending on how brands and affective stimuli are presented. Attitude change can result from establishing a memory link between brand and affective stimulus (indirect attitude change) or from direct “affect transfer” from affective st…
Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes
Changing brand attitudes by pairing a brand with affectively laden stimuli such as celebrity endorsers or pleasant pictures is called evaluative conditioning. We show that this attitude change can occur in two ways, depending on how brands and affective stimuli are presented. Attitude change can result from establishing a memory link between brand and affective stimulus (indirect attitude change) or from direct “affect transfer” from affective st…
Dissociating Controllable and Uncontrollable Effects of Affective Stimuli on Attitudes and Consumption
This research studies a fundamental and seemingly straightforward question: Can basic advertising elements, such as the presence of attractive imagery, have uncontrollable effects on consumers’ attitudes and consumption decisions? Answering this question is methodologically challenging, because the presence of an uncontrollable process can be masked by a simultaneously operating controllable process. We argue first that existing methods conflate …
How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman
Consumer research can benefit greatly from more insight into unconscious processes underlying behavior. Williams and Poehlman’s effort at more clearly conceptualizing consciousness and call for more research provides a welcome stimulus in this regard. At the same time, providing evidence for unconscious causation is fraught with methodological difficulties. We outline why it is vital to uphold standards of evidence for claims regarding unconsciou…
The Science of Creating Brand Associations
The continuous trinity model (CTM) of brand associations integrates 50 years of consumer learning research with recent conceptualizations of consciousness. Three types of brand associations are proposed at the representational level (expectations, meaning, and affect), corresponding to three types of learning at the process level (predictive learning, referential learning, and direct affect transfer). A core proposition derived from research on a…
How people (fail to) control the influence of affective stimuli on attitudes
People's attitudes toward almost any stimulus (e.g., brands, people, food items) can change in line with the valence of co-occurring stimuli (e.g., images, messages, other people), a phenomenon known as the evaluative conditioning (EC) effect. Recent research has shown that EC effects are not always controlled, which is problematic in many circumstances (e.g., advertising, misinformation). We examined conditions under which uncontrolled EC effect…
Evaluative Conditioning Procedures and the Resilience of Conditioned Brand Attitudes
Changing brand attitudes by pairing a brand with affectively laden stimuli such as celebrity endorsers or pleasant pictures is called evaluative conditioning. We show that this attitude change can occur in two ways, depending on how brands and affective stimuli are presented. Attitude change can result from establishing a memory link between brand and affective stimulus (indirect attitude change) or from direct “affect transfer” from affective st…
The Symmetric Nature of Evaluative Memory Associations
Changing attitudes by repeated co-occurrences of initially neutral stimuli (conditioned stimuli [CSs]) with affective entities (unconditioned stimuli [USs]) is called evaluative conditioning (EC). The vast majority of EC procedures in the literature are “forward” in nature, presenting the CS before the US. Scant empirical research into the issue has argued that forward procedures are more effective than backward procedures, but this research suff…
How to Study Consciousness in Consumer Research, A Commentary on Williams and Poehlman
Consumer research can benefit greatly from more insight into unconscious processes underlying behavior. Williams and Poehlman’s effort at more clearly conceptualizing consciousness and call for more research provides a welcome stimulus in this regard. At the same time, providing evidence for unconscious causation is fraught with methodological difficulties. We outline why it is vital to uphold standards of evidence for claims regarding unconsciou…
Dissociating Controllable and Uncontrollable Effects of Affective Stimuli on Attitudes and Consumption
This research studies a fundamental and seemingly straightforward question: Can basic advertising elements, such as the presence of attractive imagery, have uncontrollable effects on consumers’ attitudes and consumption decisions? Answering this question is methodologically challenging, because the presence of an uncontrollable process can be masked by a simultaneously operating controllable process. We argue first that existing methods conflate …
How people (fail to) control the influence of affective stimuli on attitudes
People's attitudes toward almost any stimulus (e.g., brands, people, food items) can change in line with the valence of co-occurring stimuli (e.g., images, messages, other people), a phenomenon known as the evaluative conditioning (EC) effect. Recent research has shown that EC effects are not always controlled, which is problematic in many circumstances (e.g., advertising, misinformation). We examined conditions under which uncontrolled EC effect…
The Science of Creating Brand Associations
The continuous trinity model (CTM) of brand associations integrates 50 years of consumer learning research with recent conceptualizations of consciousness. Three types of brand associations are proposed at the representational level (expectations, meaning, and affect), corresponding to three types of learning at the process level (predictive learning, referential learning, and direct affect transfer). A core proposition derived from research on a…
How Numerical Cognition Explains Ambiguity Aversion
Consumers generally prefer precise probabilities or outcomes over imprecise ranges with the same expected value, a bias known as “ambiguity aversion.” We argue that two elementary principles of numerical cognition explain great heterogeneity in this bias, affecting consumer choices in many domains where options are characterized by varying levels of uncertainty (e.g., lotteries, discounts, investment products, vaccines, etc.). The first principle…
Psychology (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification (3 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (3 works) · Advertising (2 works) · Business (2 works) · Cognition (2 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (2 works)