Retailers nowadays have moved far beyond simple marketing efforts such as promoting a product’s features or offering in-store samples. They’re using the latest research and high-tech tactics to appeal to your senses, your emotions and even your subconscious, in efforts to get you to spend more than you planned.

“Forty to 50 years ago, stores were interested in the thinking process behind consumer purchases,” said Juliano Laran, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Miami. “Today, they are interested in what consumers do without conscious awareness — what happens beyond their thinking that influences what they do.”

A consumer’s best defense is to be aware of these head games and be a more mindful shopper, experts say.

Here are a few examples of tricks and traps to be aware of.

• Luxury cues: A briefcase in a store display might seem innocent enough, but it also might be a visual cue that connotes success and triggers a shopper’s desire for luxury, said Laran, who has published studies on why consumers indulge. A cue can even be a phrase a salesperson purposely slips into a conversation about a product, he said. The only antidote “is being aware of these things,” Laran said.

• Sensory stimulation: Retailers are using lighting, music and fragrances to influence buying decisions.

• Hearing: It’s the most powerful sense, said Martin Lindstrom, author of the book “Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.” “If I play the right sound, I can make you spend 29 percent more in a retail store,” Lindstrom said. How? Playing music with a rhythm slower than your heartbeat is one way to get you to linger.

• Smell: With smell being the second-most important sense, many retailers are crafting scents that trigger words in a consumer’s head to describe the store being visited, he said.

• Touch: Some manufacturers know the power of touch, which is why some design packaging with cutouts so consumers can touch the item inside. That allows the consumer to make a connection with the product and even feel a sense of ownership of it, research shows. A book salesman would be wise not to point you to the right aisle for your desired book, but to retrieve the book and place it in your hands. You’ll be 22 percent more likely to buy it because you touched it, Lindstrom said.

• Live models: Though it’s not widely used yet, expect to see people modeling clothes in stores, Lindstrom said. Consumers who see clothes that look great on a person are more likely to buy than when they see the same clothes on a mannequin, he said.

Researchers know this after monitoring consumer brain activity in a relatively new field of research called neuroeconomics. Consumers’ mirror neurons, associated with empathy, are stimulated by a human model but not a mannequin, Lindstrom said.

• Start high, end lower: Clever salespeople can persuade shoppers to buy more-expensive models by the way they frame a buying decision. Research shows that consumers on their own choose a product by focusing on features they want, which makes sense. But when they’re shown a product with more features, they start paying attention to features they didn’t necessarily want. So, a salesperson’s best way to frame a choice is not to show a consumer a basic model and ask which features to add, but show a full-featured product and ask which features to eliminate. Often, the consumer will not want to eliminate many. “That has been shown to increase spending considerably,” Laran said.

• Sincere flattery: For a long time, salespeople have used flattery as a sales technique, but consumers have become desensitized to that, Laran said. Today, salespeople use “sincere flattery,” which doesn’t have to be sincere but must sound like it. The difference? “That dress looks great on you” is old-school. Today, it’s, “I had to tell another woman that dress didn’t look good on her, but it looks great on you.”

Don’t fall for it

Recent academic research also hints at ways consumers can spend less. For example:

• Don’t shop hungry: Research shows consumers buy more of everything — not just food — when they’re hungry, Lindstrom said. In fact, recent studies show consumers spend up to 30 percent more when they’re hungry, he said.

• Carry big bills: Consumers are loath to break big bills for unnecessary purchases. So, carrying a $100 bill helps you say no to an impulse to buy a pack of chewing gum or a soft drink.

• Shop with a list: Retail stores are designed to entice you and make you spend more time in the store. “You should be aware the retail store is not there for you to have relaxation time. It’s there to persuade you to buy even more,” Lindstrom said. “If you don’t have a shopping (list), that means you’re running on the agenda of the retailer.”

• Wait to buy: Build in a waiting period for making discretionary purchases. Research shows shopping can raise the dopamine levels in our brains, creating a rush similar to taking some recreational drugs. Lindstrom suggests waiting 48 hours for it to wear off.

• Is that ethical? Though several experts had no problem calling some new-wave marketing tactics “tricks and traps,” they stopped short of calling them unethical. Unless a retailer is doing something illegal, the tactics are just part of doing business, said “Buyology” author Martin Lindstrom. “If you’re not aware that you’re going to be seduced when you walk into a retail store, it’s you as a consumer who has a bit of a problem,” he said.