Perspective-taking in video advertising: insights from EEG connectivity and channel-wise spectral analysis

Perspective-taking, a key social cognition process, plays a significant role in shaping consumer behavior. Despite its relevance, existing research has largely focused on its visuo-spatial dimensions, with little attention given to its cognitive and emotional aspects, especially in the context of communication content perception, where no established electroencephalography (EEG) measures have assessed these components. In this exploratory study, EEG data were recorded from participants while viewing food and beverage advertisements (ads) featuring product interactions. They also provided ratings of their emotional and cognitive perspective-taking during the viewing, as well as their assessments of ad effectiveness. Channel-wise spectral powers and connectivity measures from both original and Minimum Spanning Tree networks were computed and correlated with self-report ratings. Results showed that cognitive perspective-taking correlated negatively with frontal θ power and positively with α clustering coefficient. Perceived ad effectiveness positively correlated with α clustering coefficient, path length, and degree divergence, as well as with δ path length and average degree. Although exploratory, this study provides initial evidence of EEG correlates of consumers' perspective-taking processes and suggests potential associations with advertising effectiveness. These findings may inform future hypotheses on cognitive load, working memory, and reward-related processes, which should be directly tested in confirmatory studies.