Current Issue Highlights
December 15, 2015
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  Pain and Preferences: Observed Decisional Conflict and the Convergence of Preferences
Decision making often entails conflict. In many situations, the symptoms of such decisional conflict are conspicuous. This article explores an important and unexamined question: How does observing someone else experiencing decisional conflict impact our own preferences? Observing others' emotional conflict and agony over an impending decision makes the observer's preferences converge to those of the conflicted actor. Observer preferences are not only influenced by an actor's ultimate choice, but also by the process leading to this choice. Participants' real monetary donations to one of two charities converged to those of a paid confederate who agonized over the decision. This effect is triggered by empathy and a greater sense of shared identity with the conflicted actor. Accordingly, the effect is more pronounced for individuals with a greater tendency to empathize with others, and convergence occurs only if participants deem the actor's conflict warranted given the decision at hand. The authors also demonstrate important implications of this effect in contexts of group decision making.
Volume 42, Number 4, December 2015DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv041
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 The Effect of Preference Expression Modality on Self-Control
Anne-Kathrin Klesse
Jonathan Levav
Caroline Goukens
The marketplace affords consumers various modalities to express their preferences (for example, by pressing a button on a vending machine or making an oral request at a restaurant). The authors compare speaking to manual preference expression modalities (button-pressing, writing, and taking) and study their effect on self-control dilemmas. Based on studies of the Stroop task and on neuroscientific evidence, they predict that speaking is less likely than motor movement to evoke self-control. This prediction relies on the observation that different expression modalities activate different regions of the anterior cingulate cortex and hence may influence the extent to which emotions rather than cognitions determine an individual's decision. Speaking prompts more indulgent choice than manual modalities but not when individuals speak in a foreign language.
Volume 42, Number 4, December 2015 DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv043
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Sunaina K. Chugani
Julie R. Irwin
Joseph P. Redden
Repeated consumption of products and experiences leads to a reduction in enjoyment over time, a phenomenon that is commonly referred to as "satiation." Consumers satiate more slowly to products that are consistent with a currently active identity. Because satiation is a natural human response when consuming a product repeatedly, all consumers are likely to feel the pull downward on their product enjoyment over time. This drop in enjoyment produces dissonance in consumers with an activated identity because reduced enjoyment with identity-consistent products conflicts with their identity. Resisting this drop results in lowered levels of satiation, and these satiation differences are even reflected in subsequent consumption behavior. These results have theoretical implications both for the nascent research area of satiation in consumer behavior and for developing a fuller sense of the relationship between consumer identity and consumption.
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Rhiannon MacDonnell
Katherine White
While past research has suggested that consumers have fundamentally different responses to thinking about money versus time, the current work clarifies an important nuance in terms of how consumers construe these two resources. In the domain of charitable giving, money is construed relatively more concretely, whereas time is construed relatively more abstractly. This difference in the construal of these two resources has implications for how appeals for charitable contributions or money versus time should be framed. When the construal level at which the consumer considers the cause is aligned (misaligned) with the construal level of the resource being requested, contribution intentions and behaviors increase (decrease). In addition, the moderating role of resource abundance is examined. In particular, when money is considered abundant (vs. nonabundant), consumers no longer exhibit more concrete thoughts in response to money compared to time. Finally, when the donation request makes consumers think of money in a more abundant manner, monetary donations can be successfully motivated with a more abstract call for charitable support. The theoretical and practical implications for marketers and charitable organizations are discussed.
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 (Autumn 2015) |  (Spring/Summer 2015) |
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(Autumn 2014)
Curator: Jennifer Aaker
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 New York
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The Journal of Consumer Research is sponsored by:
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