Time-inconsistent preferences and consumer self-control
Article Abstract:
Why do consumers sometimes act against their own better judgment, engaging in behavior that is often regretted after the fact and that would have been rejected with adequate forethought? More generally, how do consumers attempt to maintain self-control in the face of time-inconsistent preferences? This article addresses consumer impatience by developing a decision-theoretic model based on reference points. The model explains how and why consumers experience sudden increases in desire for a product, increases that can result in the temporary overriding of long-term preferences. Tactics that consumers use to control their own behavior are also discussed. Consumer self-control is framed as a struggle between two psychological forces, desire and willpower. Finally, two general classes of self-control strategies are described: those that directly reduce desire, and those that overcome desire through willpower. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1991
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Ambiguity, processing strategy, and advertising-evidence interactions
Article Abstract:
Although advertising persuades through overt appeals to reason or emotion, we focus on the indirect process by which advertising influences the interpretation of objective product evidence. We investigate how two factors moderate advertising-evidence interactions: the ambiguity of the evidence and consumer information processing strategies. We provide a theoretical account of ambiguity, identifying structural characteristics that render evidence about product quality open to either one or multiple interpretations. In our first experiment, the ambiguity of a decision environment played a key role in determining the effect of advertising on product quality perception. In our second experiment, different information processing strategies influenced advertising's effects on interpretations of the evidence. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1989
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Who do we know: predicting the interests and opinions of the American consumer
Article Abstract:
Marketing experts and novices made predictions about the activities, interests, and opinions of the American consumer. Predictive accuracy was low overall, and experts were no more accurate than everyday consumers in predicting consumer opinions. This occurred because (1) everyday consumers were much more similar to the target population than were the marketing experts and (2) the experts had difficulty consistently identifying other information beyond their own attitudes relevant to the target population. For this task, the experts could not overcome the "information deficit" that accompanies being dissimilar to the typical American consumer. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1988
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