Introduction to the special issue: Implicit measures of consumer response—the search for the Holy Grail of marketing research

Abstract

Abstract The advent of measures of implicit cognition provides marketing researchers with tools they can use to probe automatic processes that do not rely on conscious deliberation. Attempts by marketing researchers to probe unconscious or automatic processes underlying consumer attitudes and purchase decisions date back at least as far as the work of motivation researchers in the early to mid‐twentieth century. These newer methods, principally the Implicit Association Test, emerged from work of psychologists concerned with studying implicit attitudes toward the self and social issues. These measures have more recently been applied to marketing studies of implicit attitudes of consumers toward particular brands and products. This special issue of Psychology & Marketing features contributions in which contemporary researchers in the field review applications of implicit measurement to consumer cognition, consumer persuasion, and nonverbal communication in the retailing context. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.