Journal of Consumer Research
December 14, 2011

   



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Vowels Control Your Brain

NPR

Journal of Consumer Research
Highlights from Two Years Ago

Variety Amnesia: Recalling Past Variety Can Accelerate Recovery from Satiation  

Jeff Galak
Joseph P. Redden
Justin Kruger

Consumers frequently consume items to the point where they no longer enjoy them. People can recover from this satiation by simply recalling the variety of alternative items they have consumed in the past. And yet, people seem to exhibit "variety amnesia" in that they do not spontaneously recall this past variety despite the fact that it would result in a desirable decrease in satiation. Thus, rather than satiation being a fixed physiological process, it appears that it is at least partially constructed in the moment.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/600066

Selected Media Mentions

 

Scientific American

MSNBC

The Globe and Mail 

Gaming Emotions in Social Interactions

Eduardo B. Andrade
Teck-Hua Ho

One's own emotions may influence someone else's behavior in a social interaction. If one believes this, she or he has an incentive to game emotions (to strategically modify the expression of a current emotional state) in an attempt to influence her or his counterpart. In a series of three experiments, this article investigates the extent to which people (1) misrepresent a current emotional state, (2) willfully acknowledge their strategic actions, (3) choose to game emotions over nonemotional information, and (4) improve their financial well-being from emotion gaming.  

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/599221

Selected Media Mentions   
 

Opportunity Cost Neglect

Shane Frederick
Nathan Novemsky
Jing Wang
Ravi Dhar
Stephen Nowlis

To properly consider the opportunity costs of a purchase, consumers must actively generate the alternatives that it would displace. The current research suggests that consumers often fail to do so. Even under conditions promoting cognitive effort, various cues to consider opportunity costs reduce purchase rates and increase the choice share of more affordable options. Sensitivity to such cues varies with chronic dispositional differences in spending attitudes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the marketing strategies of economy and premium brands.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/599764 

 

Selected Media Mentions  

 

The Power of a Nudge Toward Thrift  

The New York Times

  

Another shopping tip: Consider opportunity costs

Psychology Today

 

Opportunity costs: Remind consumers about savings

EurekAlert!  

 


Why Do Consumers Buy Extended Service Contracts?

Tao Chen
Ajay Kalra
Baohong Sun

Why do consumers purchase extended service contracts, which are essentially insurance products, for electronic products in a retail setting? The primary insurance purchase determinants are perceived probability of loss, extent of loss, risk aversion, and amount of insurance premium. How product do characteristics (hedonic/utilitarian, manufacturer's warranty) and retailer actions (promotions, feature advertising) influence the purchase of extended service contracts? What is the impact of consumer characteristics (income, gender, and prior usage) on these insurance purchase determinants? To test the predictions, the authors use revealed preferences from panel data of electronic purchases across several product categories.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/605298

Selected Media Mentions


Seeking Freedom through Variety

Jonathan Levav
Rui (Juliet) Zhu

What is the effect of spatial confinement on consumer choices? Building on reactance theory and the environmental psychology literature, the authors propose that spatially confined consumers react against an incursion to their personal space by making more varied and unique choices. People in narrower aisles seek more variety than people in wider aisles. This effect of confinement in narrow aisles also extends to more unique choices. Perceptions of confinement exert their strongest influence on consumers who are chronically high in reactance. Influencing perceptions of confinement is sufficient to evoke variety seeking. Finally, a field study uses crowding as a proxy for confinement and finds a positive relationship between crowding and variety seeking in real grocery purchases.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/599556

 

Selected Media Mentions    

 

Cramped aisles change shopping behavior 

UPI.com

Feeling cramped while shopping? Variety provides relief

EurekAlert!

  


When Mental Simulation Hinders Behavior: The Effects of Process-Oriented Thinking on Decision Difficulty and Performance  

Debora Viana Thompson
Rebecca W. Hamilton
Petia K. Petrova

What is the effect of process- versus outcome-oriented thinking on consumers' subjective experiences when choosing among alternatives? Because process-oriented thinking leads to a dual focus on both means and end benefits, it increases decision difficulty when consumers face substantive trade-offs between desirability and feasibility. This experienced difficulty results in negative consequences for consumers' subsequent behavior, including greater willingness to postpone choice, lower commitment to the chosen option, and degraded task performance.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/599325  

  

Selected Media Mentions 

 

Too much information: Process thinking can lead to difficult choices
EurekAlert!

 


Emotional Persuasion: When the Valence versus the Resource Demands of Emotions Influence Consumers' Attitudes

Loraine Lau-Gesk
Joan Meyers-Levy

Can properties of emotions other than valence influence consumers' responses to emotional ads? Consumer processing motivation moderates whether attitudes are based on the valence of or the resource demands imposed by the emotion featured in an ad. When motivation is low, consumers respond more favorably to positively versus negatively valenced emotional ads. However, when motivation is high, attitudes are more favorable when the magnitude of allocated resources matches that required to process the ad. Three studies identify three distinct properties of emotions (univalence, purity, and self-consciousness) that can influence the resource demands of an ad.

 

Volume 36, Number 4, December 2009
DOI: 10.1086/605297

 

Selected Media Mentions

   

The complicated consumer: Positive ads aren't always the most effective

EurekAlert!

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