The Psychology of Product Aesthetics: Antecedents and Individual Differences in Product Evaluations

Abstract

Even though product design and aesthetics are important marketing concerns, they remain largely ignored variables in academic research. Integrating recent research in marketing, psychology and the visual arts, this inquiry studies product aesthetics (shape, color, texture etc.) in a consumer behavior context. Using an extension of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study proposes and supports a theoretical framework that explains how product aesthetics are processed by consumers, and how product aesthetics interact with individual differences in product evaluations.