Summary
Consumer Psychology
EBM074A05
Week 46
What is Consumer Psychology and How Do We Study it
ARTICLE 1
Iyengar, S. & Lepper, M. (2000). When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a
Good Thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79 (6), 995-1006.
Week 47
The Self in the Marketplace
ARTICLE 2
Ordabayeva, N., & Fernandes, D. (2018). Better or different? How political ideology shapes
preferences for differentiation in the social hierarchy. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(2),
227-250.
ARTICLE 3
Grewal, L., Wu, E. C., & Cutright, K. M. (2021). Loved As-Is: How God Salience Lowers Interest
in Self-Improvement Products. Journal of Consumer Research.
ARTICLE 4
Yang, H., Stamatogiannakis, A., & Chattopadhyay, A. (2015). Pursuing attainment versus
maintenance goals: The interplay of self-construal and goal type on consumer motivation. Journal
of Consumer Research, 42(1), 93-108.
Week 48
Compensatory Consumer Behavior
ARTICLE 5
Cutright, K. M., & Samper, A. (2014). Doing it the hard way: How low control drives preferences
for high-effort products and services. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), 730-745.
ARTICLE 6
Mead, N. L., Baumeister, R. F., Stillman, T. F., Rawn, C. D., & Vohs, K. D. (2011). Social exclusion
causes people to spend and consume strategically in the service of affiliation. Journal of
consumer research, 37(5), 902-919.
ARTICLE 7
Kim, S., & Gal, D. (2014). From compensatory consumption to adaptive consumption: The role of
self-acceptance in resolving self-deficits. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(2), 526- 542.
, 1
Week 49
Affect and Consumer Behavior
ARTICLE 8
Pham, M. T., Hung, I. W., & Gorn, G. J. (2011). Relaxation increases monetary valuations.
Journal of Marketing Research, 48(5), 814-826.
ARTICLE 9
Lasaleta, J. D., Sedikides, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2014). Nostalgia weakens the desire for money.
Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), 713-729.
ARTICLE 10
Labroo, A & Rucker, D. (2010). The Orientation-Matching Hypothesis: An Emotion-Specificity
Approach to Affect Regulation. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(5), 955-966.
Week 50
Scarcity and Consumer Behavior
ARTICLE 11
Yoon, S., & Kim, H. C. (2018). Feeling economically stuck: The effect of perceived economic
mobility and socioeconomic status on variety seeking. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(5),
1141-1156.
ARTICLE 12
Tully, S. M., Hershfield, H. E., & Meyvis, T. (2015). Seeking lasting enjoyment with limited money:
Financial constraints increase preference for material goods over experiences. Journal of
Consumer Research, 42(1), 59-75.
Week 51
The Prosocial Consumer
ARTICLE 13
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J., & Van den Berg, B. (2010). Going green to be seen: Status, reputation,
and conspicuous conservation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(3), 392-404
ARTICLE 14
Côté, S., House, J., & Willer, R. (2015). High economic inequality leads higher-income individuals
to be less generous. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(52), 15838-15843.
ARTICLE 15
Ehrich, K. & Irwin, J. (2005). Willful Ignorance in the Request for Product Attribute Information.
Journal of Marketing Research, 42(3), 266-277.
Week 2 (2023)
In Pursuit of Happiness
ARTICLE 16
Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2003). To Do or to Have? That Is the Question. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 85(6), 1193–1202.
ARTICLE 17
Hudders, L., & Pandelaere, M. (2012). The silver lining of materialism: The impact of luxury
consumption on subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(3), 411-437.
, 2
ARTICLE 18
Rindfleisch, A., Burroughs, J. E., & Wong, N. (2009). The safety of objects: Materialism,
existential insecurity, and brand connection. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(1), 1-16.
, 3
Week 46
What is Consumer Psychology and How Do We Study it
ARTICLE 1
Iyengar, S. & Lepper, M. (2000). When Choice is Demotivating: Can One
Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 79 (6), 995-1006.
The recurring empirical finding from these studies is that the provision of choice increases
intrinsic motivation and enhances performance on a variety of tasks.
Consumer research suggests that as both the number of options and the information about
options increases, people tend to consider fewer choices and to process a smaller fraction of
the overall information available regarding their choices. → as the complexity of making choices
rises, people tend to simplify their decision-making processes by relying on simple heuristics.
Limited (i.e., psychologically manageable), versus an extensive (i.e., psychologically excessive),
number of choices.
The choice overload hypothesis underlying these studies is that, although the provision of
extensive choices may sometimes still be seen as initially desirable, it may also prove
unexpectedly demotivating in the end.
Study 1
Field experiment → limited (6) or an extensive (24) selection of different flavors of jam.
The two dependent measures of customers' motivation were their initial attraction to the tasting
booth and their subsequent purchasing behavior
Results
The central aim of Study 1 was to examine whether the number of options displayed affected
consumers' initial attraction to or subsequent purchase of the displayed product.
● Initial Attractiveness of Selections
Consumers who encountered the extensive-choice condition were more attracted to the booth
than consumers exposed to the limited-choice condition, suggesting that the variety provided in
the extensive-choice condition was initially more attractive.
● Subsequent Purchasing Behavior
Consumers initially exposed to limited choices proved considerably more likely to purchase the
product than consumers who had initially encountered a much larger set of options
Discussion
The findings from this study show that an extensive array of options can at first seem highly
appealing to consumers, yet can reduce their subsequent motivation to purchase the product.
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Study 2
Students in an introductory social psychology class were given the opportunity to write a
two-page essay as an extra credit assignment. Students were given either 6 or 30 potential
essay topics on which they could choose to write.
Intrinsic motivation was assessed by comparing the percentage of students who completed the
assignment across the two conditions and the quality of the essays written in each condition.
Results
● Assignment Completion
More participants in the limited condition completed the assignment
● Quality of Essays
On average, students in the limited-choice condition scored higher than students in the
extensive-choice condition.
Discussion
In both studies, people actually seemed to prefer to exercise their opportunity to choose in
contexts where their choices were limited, and, in Study 2, they even performed better in such
limited-choice contexts.
The results of Studies 1 and 2 support the hypothesis that extensive-choice contexts may be
initially more appealing but are subsequently more likely to hamper people's intrinsic motivation.
When people have "too many" options to consider, they simply strive to end the choice-making
ordeal by finding a choice that is merely satisfactory, rather than optimal.
Choice-makers in extensive-choice contexts might feel more responsible for their choices given
the potential opportunity of finding the very best option, but their inability to invest the requisite
time and effort in seeking the so-called best option may heighten their experience of regret with
the options they have chosen.
Study 3
Participants initially made a selection from either a limited array or an extensive array of
chocolates.
The design of Study 3 involved three groups: limited choice, extensive choice, and a no-choice
control condition.
Results
- Manipulation Checks
- Choosing time
- Perception of choices
Were participants in the extensive-choice condition more apt to satisfy, and were participants in
the limited-choice condition more apt to optimize? We find no empirical evidence to support
such a hypothesis.
