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You Will Not Remember This: How Memory Efficacy Influences Virtuous Behavior

Maferima Touré-Tillery¹; Maryam Kouchaki²

¹ Associate Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA · ² Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA

AbstractThe present article explores the effect of memory efficacy on consumer behavior—particularly on consumer’s likelihood to behave “virtuously,” that is, in line with standards, such as ideals, values, morals, and social expectations. Memory efficacy refers to people’s general belief that they will be able to remember in the future the things they are experiencing or doing in the present. We hypothesize and find across five studies that when consumers have low-memory efficacy (vs. control), they are less likely to behave virtuously because their actions seem less consequential for their self-concept (i.e., less self-diagnostic). Using two different experimental manipulations of memory efficacy, we examine its effect on virtuous behavior in the context of prosocial choices—that is, charitable giving (study 1A) and volunteering (studies 1B and 2). We then explore our proposed underlying mechanism (perceptions of self-diagnosticity) using causal-chain mediation (studies 3A and 3B) and moderation approaches (studies 4 and 5) in the context of food choices. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of our findings.

DOI

10.1093/jcr/ucaa023

Volume

47 (5)

Pages

737-754

Language

en

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