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When and how aesthetics influences financial decisions

Claudia Townsend; Suzanne B. Shu

Journal of Consumer Psychology 2010

AbstractWe observe the influence of aesthetic design on consumer behavior involving financial products—an area where financial decision‐makers say they do not take aesthetics into account. In a series of three studies we find that the look of a document in hypothetical investment decisions impacts stock valuation and behavior in some but not all situations. Specifically, our results show that calling attention to the influence of design on behavior moderates the effect, including the paradoxical finding that the effect of design is attenuated when investments involve entities for which aesthetics is of intrinsic value.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcps.2010.06.013
Volume
20 (4)
Pages
452-458
Language
en
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Sources
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