Research field 4: Consumer behavior

At the core of the research area “consumer behavior” lies the idea to understand why consumers behave as they do, i.e., how consumers think about marketing activities, for example, or how they make judgments, and which underlying cognitive processes drive their behavior. “Consumer behavior” research bridges many different perspectives from many different disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, or the neurosciences: from this blending of disciplines comes a dynamic and complex research perspective to understand consumer behavior. The BreLAB experiments help to observe participants’ behavior in a controlled environment and to draw conclusions about their (economic) behavior. The empirical findings are used to further develop existing theories and to put theoretical assumptions to the test. These findings are greatly important in understanding economic and social behavior in all domains of life.

The research area predominantly uses the possibilities of the “Research Lab” of the BreLAB and also offers students the possibility to conduct their own experiments for their final theses. As such, it is also used as a didactical instrument in teaching.