Review

EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Volume: 26 Number: 2 December 31, 2025
TR EN

EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Neuromarketing research has increasingly sought to transcend the limitations of traditional self-report and behavioral measures by incorporating physiological techniques that capture nonconscious consumer processes. Among these, pupil dilation has emerged as a valuable yet underutilized metric for assessing emotional arousal, cognitive effort, and motivational engagement. Despite its theoretical promise, pupil dilation remains secondary to fixation-based eye-tracking metrics in mainstream consumer behavior research. This study systematically reviews 30 empirical studies employing pupil dilation within marketing and consumer behavior contexts. Using the TCCM framework, we analyze how pupil-based metrics have been theorized, applied, and interpreted across diverse marketing settings. A bibliometric analysis complements the review, mapping the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of pupillometric consumer research. Findings reveal that pupil dilation is predominantly associated with visual attention, emotional arousal, cognitive load, and preference formation, offering a nonverbal, real-time window into consumers’ subconscious responses. However, methodological limitations such as luminance sensitivity, emotional valence ambiguity, and lack of standardization persist across the literature. This review highlights the untapped potential of pupil dilation as a diagnostic tool in consumer neuroscience and calls for greater multimodal integration, ecological validity, cross-cultural exploration, and methodological rigor in future research. By moving beyond fixation-based metrics, scholars and practitioners can better capture the hidden cognitive and affective drivers of consumer behavior.

Keywords

Ethical Statement

İkincil verilerle çalışılmış olup etik kurul onayı aranmamıştır.

References

  1. Ahmi, A., Elbardan, H., and Ali, R. H. R. M. (2019, January). Bibliometric analysis of published literature on industry 4.0. In 2019 International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication (ICEIC), 1-6. IEEE.
  2. Alós-Ferrer, C., Jaudas, A., and Ritschel, A. (2021). Attentional shifts and preference reversals: An eye-tracking study. Judgment and Decision Making, 16(1), 57-93. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-198757
  3. Beatty, J. (1982). Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources. Psychological Bulletin, 91(2), 276–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.91.2.276
  4. Biswas, P., Dutt, V., and Langdon, P. (2016). Comparing ocular parameters for cognitive load measurement in eye-gaze-controlled interfaces for automotive and desktop computing environments. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 32(1), 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2015.1084112
  5. Bradley, M. M., Miccoli, L., Escrig, M. A., and Lang, P. J. (2008). The pupil as a measure of emotional arousal and autonomic activation. Psychophysiology, 45(4), 602–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00654.x
  6. Cao, Y., Ding, Y., Proctor, R. W., Duffy, V. G., Liu, Y., and Zhang, X. (2021). Detecting users’ usage intentions for websites employing deep learning on eye-tracking data. Information Technology and Management, 22(4), 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-021-00336-6
  7. Cardamone, E., Miceli, G. N., and Raimondo, M. A. (2025). Color inside and outside the lines: Evidence from eye‐tracking studies on conformity to and differentiation from category color codes. Psychology and Marketing, 42(1), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.22180
  8. Cash, D. K., Pazos, L. A., and Russell, T. D. (2024). Interpersonal pupillometry: The pupil as an indicator of emotion and its utility as a social cue. In Modern pupillometry: cognition, neuroscience, and practical applications, 327-347. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Marketing Research Methodology

Journal Section

Review

Publication Date

December 31, 2025

Submission Date

June 23, 2025

Acceptance Date

September 5, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 26 Number: 2

APA
Tomris Küçün, N. (2025). EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi, 26(2), 412-436. https://doi.org/10.24889/ifede.1725774
AMA
1.Tomris Küçün N. EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi. 2025;26(2):412-436. doi:10.24889/ifede.1725774
Chicago
Tomris Küçün, Nihan. 2025. “EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW”. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi 26 (2): 412-36. https://doi.org/10.24889/ifede.1725774.
EndNote
Tomris Küçün N (December 1, 2025) EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi 26 2 412–436.
IEEE
[1]N. Tomris Küçün, “EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW”, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 412–436, Dec. 2025, doi: 10.24889/ifede.1725774.
ISNAD
Tomris Küçün, Nihan. “EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW”. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi 26/2 (December 1, 2025): 412-436. https://doi.org/10.24889/ifede.1725774.
JAMA
1.Tomris Küçün N. EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi. 2025;26:412–436.
MLA
Tomris Küçün, Nihan. “EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW”. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi, vol. 26, no. 2, Dec. 2025, pp. 412-36, doi:10.24889/ifede.1725774.
Vancouver
1.Nihan Tomris Küçün. EVALUATING CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS CONSUMER RESPONSES IN MARKETING THROUGH PUPILLOMETRY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İşletme Fakültesi Dergisi. 2025 Dec. 1;26(2):412-36. doi:10.24889/ifede.1725774

Dokuz Eylül University Journal of Faculty of Business
is indexed and abstracted by TR-DİZİN, EBSCO and SOBIAD. 

Dokuz Eylül University Publisher's Web Page

Journal Contact Details