Knowledge that Transforms

This research examines whether each of two different options of comparable overall quality will be perceived more positively when presented in isolation and evaluated separately (separate evaluation) or when juxtaposed and evaluated side by side (joint evaluation). Six studies, involving either judgment or choice as the dependent variable, reveal a general principle: If the focal options are already attractive (relative to their natural reference) in separate evaluation, then subjecting these options to joint evaluation will hurt their attractiveness. If the focal options are unattractive (relative to their reference) in separate evaluation, subjecting them to joint evaluation will enhance their attractiveness.

Journal Article Language in Multimedia: Interaction of Spoken and Written Information Get access Nader T. Tavassoli Nader T. Tavassoli Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 25, Issue 1, June 1998, Pages 26–37, https://doi.org/10.1086/209524 Published: 01 June 1998 Article history Received: 01 November 1996 Revision received: 01 September 1997 Published: 01 June 1998

This article focuses on the complex role of category knowledge in context effects by examining how knowledge interacts with the mode of information presentation (verbal vs. numerical) to moderate the magnitude of the attraction effect. On the basis of Chakravarti and Lynch's framework for understanding context effects and prior research on consumer knowledge we delineate two distinct influences of knowledge on the choice process and demonstrate that the moderating influence of knowledge on the attraction effect varies with the information mode. When the choice set information is presented numerically, greater category knowledge attenuates the attraction effect, but when information is presented verbally, greater knowledge actually increases the size of the attraction effect. The implications of these findings for the role of knowledge in consumer context effects are discussed.

This study considers the interaction effect of service stage (conceptualized as the distance to the goal state of the service encounter) and delay type (procedural, correctional, and unknown) on consumers' reactions to waiting. Field theory suggests that the further away a delay occurs from the goal state of the service encounter, the more negative its impact will be on consumers. The anticipatory model, however, suggests that the direction of the impact should be the other way around. Results obtained from an experimental study confirm that the nature of the delay, in terms of whether it constitutes a threat to the successful completion of a task or not, moderates the impact of service stage (i.e., how close to the goal state the delay occurs) on consumers' reactions to the wait.

Using classifiers—lexical items that depict perceptual and conceptual properties of objects—six cross-cultural experiments were conducted in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States to investigate how structural features of languages affect mental structures and, in turn, consumer behavior. Experiments 1–4 show how classifiers affect the perceived similarity between objects, attribute accessibility, and concept organization. Experiment 5 shows how classifier-based schemata result in inferences about product features. Experiment 6 provides evidence for the effect of classifiers on judgment and choice via assimilation and contrast processes and affect transfer. We discuss our findings in light of the Whorfian hypothesis and argue for the incorporation of structural components of languages into models of consumer behavior.

This research examines the impact of age-related deficits in recognition and source memory on repetition-induced increases in belief in fictitious statements (the “truth effect”). Young and elderly subjects made recognition-memory judgments and rated the credibility of new and previously presented statements. Experiment 1 assessed the level of memory impairment in the elderly, as compared to the young, and its influence on the truth effect. The elderly, who had a greater tendency to make false-alarm errors in recognition and had poorer source memory for the claims, were more susceptible to the truth-inflating effect of repetition than were the young. Deeper (semantic vs. perceptual) processing was ineffective in reducing age-related deficits in memory or sensitivity to repetition-induced beliefs. Experiment 2 demonstrated that an imagery encoding task did provide more environmental support (a greater improvement in recognition and source memory for the elderly than the young) than did a perceptual encoding task. When both young and elderly subjects engaged in an imagery task during encoding, their memory performance was equivalent and age-related differences in the truth effect were abolished. Thus, it appears that the elderly are more susceptible to the truth-inflating effect of repetition, and this effect seems to be mediated via their poor memory. However, if memory is enhanced using environmental support, the elderly are no longer especially vulnerable to the truth effect.

The HIV virus is now an international killer, but individuals perceive that they are less likely to contract the virus than are others (the self-positivity bias). Three studies investigate the antecedents and consequences of the self-positivity bias in judgments of the risk of contracting AIDS. We show that the perceived similarity of another person to oneself and the ease with which related information can be retrieved from memory (the accessibility of information) moderate self-perceptions of risk in an absolute sense and reduce the self-positivity bias. We then demonstrate that increasing the accessibility of a cause of AIDS, in an advertisement propounding safe sex, increases perceptions of one's own risk of contracting AIDS, reduces the self-positivity bias, leads to more favorable attitudes and intentions toward practicing precautionary behaviors (e.g., using condoms, taking an HIV test), and also leads to deeper processing of AIDS educational material. Theoretical implications regarding the use of the accessibility of information as a cue and the self-positivity bias are discussed, and recommendations for social marketing communications are offered.

Four studies examine the process by which consumers integrate critic opinions and attribute information into their product evaluations and how critic consensus affects this process. A reference-dependent model is proposed such that consumer response to consensus depends on whether the average critic rating for an alternative is above or below an aspiration level. Consensus is shown to be preferred for alternatives above an aspiration level, whereas critic disagreement is preferred for alternatives below an aspiration level. Consumers exhibited a tendency to prefer critic disagreement for high-priced products or decisions associated with high social risk because most alternatives fell below their high aspiration levels.

Two studies investigated the extent to which heavy television viewing affects consumers' perceptions of social reality and the cognitive processes that underlie these effects. Both studies found evidence that heavy viewers' beliefs about social reality are more consistent with the content of television programming than are those of light viewers. The use of a priming methodology provided support for the notion that television is a causal factor in the formation of these beliefs and that a failure to discount television-based exemplars in forming these beliefs accounts for its influence. Implications of these results for a heuristic processing model of television effects are discussed.