Visual attention and subjective preference in mascot design: evidence from eye-tracking, ratings, and fsQCA.

Introduction: Mascot design plays an important role in brand communication, yet empirical evidence on how specific visual features shape attention and preference remains limited. This study examined how mascot type, head-to-body ratio, and eye size are associated with fixation-based visual attention and self-reported preference among young adults. Methods: The study followed a three-stage design. First, Experiments 1-3 used eye-tracking to examine visual-attention patterns related to mascot type, head-to-body ratio, and eye size. Second, a questionnaire-based preference rating study examined whether these attention patterns converged with self-reported liking. Third, Experiment 4 adopted a full-factorial stimulus structure, and fsQCA was used to identify configurational pathways associated with high total fixation duration. Results: Animal mascots, the 1:2 head-to-body ratio, and large-eye conditions showed the strongest descriptive attention and preference patterns within their respective design variables. The fsQCA results identified multiple sufficient configurations associated with high total fixation duration. A compact head-to-body ratio condition, operationalized as 1:1.5 or 1:2, appeared as a shared core condition across the sufficient pathways, although it did not meet the threshold for a necessary condition. Discussion: These findings support a configurational understanding of mascot design, suggesting that visual attention and preference are shaped by both individual design features and their combinations.