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Abstract
Pro-social behavior by companies and consumers plays an increasingly important role in marketing. Consequently, the way consumers perceive and think about their own or a company’s public interest activities have become significant factors in their decision making. To address these issues, I examine the related functions of pro-social behavior, visual perception, and consumer cognitive processing. Essay 1 demonstrates how positive consumer perceptions of justice in a company’s treatment of its employees can serve as a powerful marketing tool. The essay also considers how and when marketing messages based on a company’s justice toward its employees outperforms marketing messages based on corporate social responsibility. Essay 2 shows that magnification of food images can positively influence consumer attitudes toward healthy foods. This research suggests that companies selling healthy food would find consumers more responsive to magnified images and it also contributes to the policy options available to public health officials. Essay 3 examines how the use of cognitive processes, specifically, unconscious thought by consumers, can reduce the likelihood of consumers falling victim to fraudulent and scam offers that currently cost Americans more than three-quarters of a billion dollars annually.