Msc Marketing
Thesis
DOES DRINKING ALCOHOL BENEFIT CREATIVITY?
THE EFFECTS OF MODERATE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION, ALCOHOL
CONSUMPTION PRIMING, AND ITS INTERACTION EFFECT, ON CREATIVITY SIMON KAMSTRA
Focus of this thesis
Creativity
The production of novel and appropriate ideas, products, and solution
to problems
Consumer Creativity
Important in new product development and consumer behavior
Alcohol Consumption
6.2 liters pure alcohol per person per year (World Health Organization)
Alcohol Priming
Literature Review
Alcohol consumption
Effects of alcohol
increased distraction mindwandering Decrease attentional control
Increase in breadth of attention More relaxed emotional state
increase in self-confidence and self-esteem
Hypothesis 1: A moderate dosage of alcohol consumption results in
Literature Review
Alcohol consumption priming
Effects of alcohol priming
exposure to alcohol primes activates representations of alcohol
expectancies and expectancy consistent behavior
Hypothesis 2: Participants presented with an alcohol consumption
priming task prior to the experiment show a higher score on
Literature review
interaction effect
The ability of alcohol priming to grab ones attention increased among participants who consumed around three alcoholic
beverages (Duka & Townshend 2004; Schoenmakers & Wiers 2010). Consumption of a moderate dosage of alcohol most likely results in
a better interpretation of the alcohol priming stimuli (Stacy 1997).
individuals who have recently consumed alcohol are more affected by the alcohol prime since their expectancies are based on recent experience (Goldman 1999)
Hypothesis 3: The positive effect of a moderate dosage of alcohol
Method
Creativity measurement(s)
Remote Associates Test
Time measurement (for exploratorive reasons)
Alcohol Consumption
Before and after football practice/match
Alcohol Consumption Priming
Research
The experiment was conducted among 100 football players on fridays, saturdays and sundays
50 participants were involved in the experiment before their
practice/match and belonged to the low alcohol consumption condition
50 participants were involved in the experiment after their practice/match and belonged to the moderate alcohol consumption condition
Results
Remote Associates Test
The results showed a very significant positive main effect of alcohol consumption on creativity
The main effect of alcohol consumption priming on creativity also showed a significant positive effect
There was no statistically significant interaction between the effects of alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption priming on
creativity
Results
time of completion
Results showed that neither the alcohol consumption condition, nor the priming condition, have a significant effect on time of
completion. The interaction effect of alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption priming also showed to be non-significant Due to the not normal distribution of time of completion, the
negative effect of the noise during the experiment and the
distracting conditions during the experiments, time of completion of the RAT was considered as an inappropriate measurement for
Contributions
This study adds to literature by showing prove for the benefits of alcohol consumption on creativity.
This study contributes to current literature by showing the positive effect of alcohol priming on creativity
This study acknowledges prior study of Kramer and Goldman (2003) who showed that
alcohol expectancies can be primed and activated through exposure to alcohol related stimuli.
Contrary to the results of Jarosz et al. , this study found that alcohol consumption did not influence time of completion of the remote associates test
An interesting finding of this study is that participants, who reported themselves to be
Practical Implications
Customer engagement – idea generation phase
Sales strategies: Ad exposure during events/situation where alcohol is present/ Alcohol priming in Ads and in selling situations
Consumers who have consumed alcohol or have been primed with
alcohol consumption will be processing the ad information in a more creative way. This is crucial information since creative
What to do?
Depending on the intention of the marketing effort The results can be used for;
customer engagement strategies; Increasing creative consumer
input
by presenting alcohol related cues or serving alcoholic consumptions before asking consumers about new or other ideas for certain
Or
Sales strategy; Increasing consumers’ impulsive buying
radio ads of beer commercials in supermarkets or beer commercials on
