Stress-Inducing Marketing Stimuli: Implications for Consumer Working Memory in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

Stress-inducing marketing incentives include the fear of missing out (FOMO), loss aversion, and social identity threat. These three fears modulate the verbal working-memory components in adult consumers. The theoretical rationale draws on an interdisciplinary framework bridging marketing and cognitive psychology: emotionally charged marketing stimuli function as acute stressors capable of reducing working-memory capacity and the efficiency of cognitive control. As a result, FMCG consumers demonstrate less rational information processing and less critical evaluation of offers. Within this framework, the stimuli are factors that reallocate limited attentional resources between updating operations and verbal maintenance in working memory. The article describes the correlations between the stress-induced marketing stimuli (FOMO, fear of loss, threat to social identity) and the changes in the cognitive patterns in FMCG consumers. The study involved 126 participants aged 21–50, who completed two visual n-back tasks (2- and 3-step) followed by forward and backward digit-span tests before and after a ten-minute exposure to standardized advertising stimuli embodying each frame. Data distribution was verified using Anderson–Darling diagnostics, with differences assessed via Wilcoxon signed-rank or paired t-tests. The findings reveal differentiated impairment profiles. An acute FOMO induction selectively diminishes sequence updating accuracy and reduces both span measures. Loss aversion framing lowers passive verbal storage with a limited impact on executive updating. Social identity threat produces the broadest deterioration, simultaneously depleting buffer and updating functions, with the strongest effects. The practical relevance emerges in predicting which promotional messages critically drain attentional resources and therefore merit regulatory scrutiny. Future research should incorporate neurophysiological monitoring, broader age demographics, and cross-cultural examinations of susceptibility to stressful marketing communications.