A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery - February 2021
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A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery February 2021
Background
Information
Engagement Insights® is pioneered for
creatives, by creatives, to enhance, de-
risk and optimise your creative ideas. It’s a
consultancy service that unveils what visual
language impacts your brand perception. By
measuring implicit associations, we tap into
emotional response, which informs us on
potential consumer behaviour.
Testing brand imagery allows you to gain a deeper
understanding of the campaign value, consumer
engagement and emotional and visual impact of your
brand.
Whether you are looking to research current campaign
imagery effectiveness, review brand consistency or
analyse your creative development, Saddington Baynes’
Engagement Insights® consultancy service will help future
proof your marketing output before, during and/or after
launch.
We tailor the methodology to meet your specific targets
and expectations, so you can use the metrics to understand
the impact of your imagery on consumer perception.
Our virtual platform takes testing out of the lab and into the
home, meaning all of our testing is conducted remotely,
with no Covid risks and no travel required.
www.saddingtonbaynes.com/engagement-insights
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A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery: Introduction A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery: Introduction
know why we like something, but our minds will come • The first impressions effect: our attitude towards an
up with a plausible sounding but incorrect explanation. image, whether we like it or not etc, is formed within
Introduction For this reason, simply asking people why they like an
image can be misleading: we may not really know why, or
may have an incorrect theory why. This is where Implicit
a second. This effect is important when, for example,
designing a landing page for a website or launching a
new product. (5)
Response tests come in: they give us a way to measure
reactions without the need to directly ask people. These types of insights are now being mined by visual
neuroscientists, who have coined a term to describe
Darren Bridger, Callum Gould, Keith Ewart, Ellie Lucas, up our shopping bill or make a tough logical decision that Some of the general things that have been discovered this new field of understanding: neuroaesthetics. One
Chris Christodoulou, James Digby-Jones involves weighing up different factors. System 1, however, about how we perceive images include: advantage of Implicit response tests is that - unlike many
is the always-on mode of our brains that makes quick, neuroscience tools - all they require to run is a computer
snap and intuitive reactions. It’s the mode that creates • We pay more attention to visuals in our left visual field and keyboard (or even a smartphone or tablet will suffice).
than our right. This is due to a slight advantage that the Meaning that they can run online, anywhere in the world.
A new generation of online neuroscience gut reactions and drives habitual behaviour. It’s this mode
right cortex of the brain has in processing visuals and This enables a fast turnaround of image testing, to the
that governs most of our responses to imagery. A good
tools are enabling better understanding design may just ‘feel right’ or be instantly fascinating information from our left visual field gets fed first into point where it can be incorporated into the workflow of a
of how people respond to imagery. As our and engaging, yet we don’t always know why. We’ve all the right cortex (and vice versa for the right visual field production studio.
non-conscious minds influence much of our experienced seeing an image of a product and feeling and the left cortex). There is a very slight tendency for
an automatic pull of desire. Or seeing a magazine ad us to exaggerate the number of elements of something
responses to imagery, these measures can if we see it to our left rather than if it’s placed to our
and feeling intrigued to gaze at it for longer than normal,
reveal insights unavailable via traditional without quite knowing why. right. (2)
surveys. Saddington Baynes’ Engagement Science behind the insights
• The more we see something, the more we tend to
Insights® uses these new tools to enrich like it. We’re wired to automatically value familiarity. Yet Even seeing an image of a product, such as a car,
its artists’ understanding of how to create our brains also can’t always readily tell the difference triggers our brain to make an unconscious decision on
truly evocative and engaging imagery that between something that is easy for us to understand whether or not we desire it. (6)
and an image that we’ve seen before. Meaning that
effectively communicates with viewers images that are simple or ‘easy on the eye’ can feel
and inspires brand devotion. The measures familiar and hence we are more comfortable with
reveal respondent’s strength of associations them! (3)
between different images and words such
• There is an effect known as the ‘beauty in averageness’
as ‘Unique’ or ‘Modern’, which are quantified effect, whereby we find things attractive if they represent
and analysed to uncover powerful trends the statistical average of all typical examples. For
and patterns. instance, if you take hundreds of photographs of faces
and average them together into one face, people will be
more likely to find it attractive. (4)
Great artists have always understood that creating
powerful imagery is both an art and a science. Equally,
whether it be understanding of optics or the adoption of
new image-creation technologies, most new advances in
the visual arts and science come from experimenting with
new tools. New tools give us new views of the world. When System 1 vs System 2
it comes to understanding people’s reactions to images,
new science tools for comprehending the brain, and, in
particular, the visual system, offer intriguing new insights.
So why not simply conduct a regular questionnaire survey Desirability metrics comparison between a red and blue Honda NSX car
Cognitive psychologists have developed a powerful new and ask people how they feel about various images?
tool for understanding how people react to imagery: The most powerful images move us at a deeper, more
implicit response tests. Implicit response tests developed emotional level. Not only are they more likely to affect us
Saddington Baynes have pioneered the use of this
in psychology labs around the world over the last thirty at a level that’s more likely to drive our behaviour, but they
new tool to understand what drives our reactions to
years. They are designed to measure what psychologists are more likely to affect more people. We respond to them
images. Through an ongoing program of research on
call ‘System 1’ responses. While psychologists used to in a System 1 way: automatically and intuitively. We see
both sides of the Atlantic, they have begun to build a
think of our minds as being made up of the conscious and an image and a feeling automatically pops into our minds.
large database of Implicit responses to images.
the subconscious, they now think in terms of Systems 1 We call these gut feelings or first impressions. This means
and 2. Immortalised in Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking that we don’t always know why we like what we like.
By testing images with varying characteristics, they
Fast and Slow’, we have a slow, deliberate and conscious can deduce which ones are driving people’s responses.
mode, and a fast, automatic and non-conscious mode. For example, experiments(1) have shown that when shown
The research uses CloudArmy’s Reactor technology: an
Most of our reactions to images are of the fast type. a series of faces and asked to pick the ones they found
online platform for creating and running sophisticated,
attractive, people can then be shown faces that they
science-based tests online. Participants can take
System 2 is conscious thinking, when we are thinking hard, didn’t choose and still justify why they chose them as the
these tests anywhere in the world that they can get
deliberately and slowly, such as when we are trying to add- attractive ones. In other words, not only do we not always
online with a personal computer or mobile device. The
Image copyright from the Face Research Lab (4) platform uses the latest technical standards to ensure
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A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery: Introduction A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery: Comparing Categories
highly accurate capture of people’s responses, and good The test allows us to probe how automatically connected
quality presentation of images. an image is to a particular word, such as ‘Unique’, ‘Modern’,
Since time immemorial, designers have had a range
of beliefs and gut instincts about how people react to
or an emotional word like ‘Positive’. These image-reaction
words are called ‘attributes’. By comparing the response
times to individuals when they are seeing an image before
Comparing Categories
images. Do people prefer symmetrical faces? Do they like an attribute - such as ‘Modern’ - to its opposing term - such
designs that incorporate the proportions of the golden as ‘Old Fashioned’ - and also comparing to their individual
ratio? Engagement Insights® allows Saddington Baynes baseline speed, we can calculate the degree to which an
to test these out. Which are true? Which are myths? And image is automatically evoking different associations in
what new insights can science reveal to us? viewers.
Science behind the insights
So far the database comprises a huge volume of Our brain’s visual cortex gets limited information about the visual world around us, as all it receives is reflected light.
responses, including: As lighting conditions can change how much light gets reflected off an object, our brain has to make assumptions
• Data from over thirty-thousand participants in the UK
Science behind the insights about the lighting conditions before it can figure out the colours of what we are seeing. Occasionally there are
images in which the lighting can be ambiguous that show off this effect by leading different people to see different
and US. Two types of visual information have their own
• Over 300 individual images assessed. colours. Such as the image of a dress which, in 2015, went viral online: some saw the dress as black and blue,
dedicated processing areas in the brain: faces and others perceived it as white and gold. The difference was because the photo was overexposed and some people
• Across 5 different commercial sectors.
colours. They get processed in our temporal cortex (the black-and-gold group) unconsciously realised this and their visual system compensated accordingly. (9)
• Capturing 7.75 million data points.
and link in to areas involved with processing emotion.
The specific type of Implicit test used to generate the For this reason it’s not surprising that faces and
Engagement Insights® database is known as the evaluative colours are particularly powerful in their ability to
priming task. In this test participants are not consciously evoke emotional reactions in us. (7) Images tested in the Engagement Insights® database are Taking out the attributes that were specific to each
evaluating how they think they feel about images. organised into categories of products. The five categories category and only looking at those attributes that
of images tested were: cosmetics, fragrances, watches, were common across all categories: Cosmetics were
Instead, they are given a very precisely designed and cars and beverages. Within each of the categories tested still the highest performing images. Followed by
controlled task that involves reacting to emotional words there were three types of images: Brochure, Creative and fragrances, watches, auto and beverages. In the US,
as quickly as possible. The test begins with a ‘baseline’ Product. the order of success was cosmetics, then watches,
task where we learn the average reaction times for each fragrances, beverages and lastly auto, whereas in
person when they are sorting a series of words that Across all attributes tested in both countries, the cosmetic the UK fragrance images were the most successful,
appear on their computer screen by pressing keys on their images were, on average, the best performers, followed by followed by cosmetics, watches, auto and beverages.
keyboard. fragrance, watches, cars and beverages, which were the In both countries the best performing categories were
lowest. This pattern was also individually the same for statistically significantly stronger in performance than
Some people just have a naturally quicker average reaction both reactions in the US and UK. the weakest.
time to others, and different people will respond differently
to different words. The baseline task allows us to take
these individual differences into account. Next, we begin
to randomly display an image before each word for a brief,
controlled period of time. Image Category Definitions
This quick presentation of an image activates what Creative: Imagery is taken from website headers or
psychologists call a ‘priming’ effect: essentially whenever social campaigns.
we see something we become ‘primed’ to recognise
anything that we associate with it more quickly. If, for Brochure: Taken from print ads or online brochures.
example, you see an image of a spider, you will immediately
be able to read and react to the word ‘scary’ faster than if Product: Usually on white or similar with the main
you had been exposed to an image of a cute bunny rabbit. focus being the product.
MRI scan of the emotional impact to the brain (8)
This exciting strand of neuroscience is redefining our understanding of how
we, as humans, respond to imagery on a deep emotional level which is why
- as a creative studio that creates original imagery for brands worldwide -
we have embraced neuroscience to reinforce our mission to create the most
powerful emotional impact with our work.
Chris Christodoulou, CEO of Saddington Baynes
Image of “The Dress” (9)
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A Science-Based Approach to Understanding Imagery: Comparing Attributes
Comparing Attributes
The greatest factor that differed between images were Once reactions to images have been recorded in the
the attributes themselves: the feelings that images evoke.
Across the common attributes, ‘Unique’ tended to be the
Engagement Insights® database then they can be tagged
to enable statistical analyses to be performed. For References
most strongly evoked, with ‘Modern’ the weakest (and the example, tags can be applied to images to describe their
difference between them was statistically significant). colours, lighting conditions, whether they include an image
of a person or not, and so on. Once these tags have been
In the US, the best performing images were: watches, applied, the system can analyse what effect each tag has
fragrances and cosmetics on ‘Unique’. The weakest in terms of evoking different responses in viewers. Equally, (1) Hall, L., Johansson, P., Tärning, B., Sikström, S.
performing were fragrances and cosmetics on ‘Modern’. the results can be broken out by particular characteristics and Deutgen, T., 2010. Magic at the marketplace: Choice
These overall industry trends are just the tip of the iceberg of the viewers, such as location or gender. blindness for the taste of jam and the smell of tea.
for the types of insights that can be gleaned from the Cognition, 117(1), pp.54-61.
Engagement Insights® database.
(2) Ellis, A.W. and Miller, D., 1981. Left and wrong
in adverts: Neuropsychological correlates of aesthetic
preference. British Journal of Psychology, 72(2), pp.225-
229.
Science behind the insights
When we look at a material with texture, similar brain regions are activated as when we touch it. Perhaps explaining (3) Bornstein, R.F., 1989. Exposure and affect:
why we are so good at understanding the way a material will feel at just a glance. (10) overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987.
Psychological bulletin, 106(2), p.265.
(4) Halberstadt, J. and Rhodes, G., 2003. It’s not just
average faces that are attractive: Computer-manipulated
averageness makes birds, fish, and automobiles attractive.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(1), pp.149-156.
(5) Lindgaard, G., Fernandes, G., Dudek, C. and
Brown, J., 2006. Attention web designers: You have 50
milliseconds to make a good first impression!. Behaviour
& information technology, 25(2), pp.115-12.
All images are full-CGI. Left to Right: Panerai product, close-up of a Honda car seat, Jo Malone London product
(6) Tusche, A., Bode, S. and Haynes, J.D., 2010. Neural
responses to unattended products predict later consumer
choices. Journal of neuroscience, 30(23), pp.8024-8031.
We have long known that imagery has the power to move people, to evoke (7) Kandel, E., 2016. Reductionism in art and brain
something deep inside of them, an emotion that is ultimately the result of science: Bridging the two cultures. Columbia University
Press.
a chemical reaction in the body. Just as science has enabled us to measure
these physical effects, it is now giving us the ability to decode the visual (8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
ingredients themselves and with this knowledge, the power to optimise the PMC4875847
desired emotional response of brand imagery. (9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
James Digby-Jones, ECD of Saddington Baynes (10) Lacey, S. and Sathian, K., 2012. Representation
of object form in vision and touch. The neural bases of
multisensory processes.
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Thank you For more information, please contact: Callum Gould | Head of Insights neuro@saddingtonbaynes.com www.saddingtonbaynes.com
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