Professor Steven Sweldens’ inaugural address: consumers’ conscious and unconscious processes

Steven Sweldens, Endowed Professor of Consumer Behavior and Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) will deliver his inaugural address Puppets on a String? Studying Conscious and Unconscious Processes in Consumer Research on Friday, 18 May 2018. His research demonstrates that advertisements have automatic effects on consumers’ attitudes towards products and brands. Consumers are influenced by simple marketing messages without their awareness of the source of the influence, and beyond their ability to control or counter the effects. Sweldens will discuss this evidence in light of the popular theory that humans have two systems of processing information, one operating consciously, the other unconsciously. He will He will  argue that we now should acknowledge that the human mind cannot be neatly divided into two complementary thought processing systems. The reality is much more complex.

Professor Steven Sweldens’ inaugural address is open to the public, and will take place on Friday, 18 May 2018. The ceremony will start at 16:00 in the Auditorium of the Erasmus Building on Woudestein campus, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam and will be followed by a reception.