Neuro-Triggers of Online Impulse Buying: A Cognitive Load Perspective

Abstract

Today, online retail platforms are being more and more infused with elements neurologically proven to be effective, such as countdown timers, live social-proof feeds, gamified reward loops, autoplaying content and continuously updated personalised recommendations, all collectively known as “neuro-triggers.” Existing marketing research shows they can act as persuasive influences, but their role as a cognitive mechanism for turning browsing into an unplanned purchase is examined in fragments across the impulse-buying, neuromarketing, and human–computer-interaction literature. This paper integrates these streams through a cognitive-load perspective and suggests that the main function of neuro-triggers is to increase demand on the limited resources of working memory and, consequently, favour online purchase impulses by displacing deliberative (System 2) evaluation with heuristic (System 1) processing. Based on Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) paradigm and Cognitive Load Theory, a conceptual model is developed, where cognitive load and affective arousal both mediate the relationship between five categories of neuro-triggers and impulse buying intention and where need-for-cognition and trait self-control are identified as boundary conditions. We also elaborate on a research design that integrates psychophysiological data collection (EEG, eye-tracking, galvanic skin response) with self-report instruments, and we present an example of the data collected in this research and the expected pattern through which they pass through the model. The paper ends with theoretical contributions, design-ethics implications on regulating of “dark patterns”, and a future research agenda.