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Journal of Consumer Research 2026

Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity: Preference Uncertainty Can Be Beneficial When Consumers Have Outcome Uncertainty

Xiang Wang1; Amin Shiri2; Chris Janiszewski3

1 assistant professor in marketing at the Faculty of Business , Lingnan University, Hong Kong · 2 assistant professor in marketing at Terry College of Business, University of Georgia , Athens, GA 30602 · 3 University of Florida Russell Berrie Eminent Scholar Chair and Professor of Marketing at the Warrington College of Business Administration, , Gainesville, FL 32611-7155

open access

Abstract

Consumers can experience two types of uncertainty when purchasing a product. Preference uncertainty refers to the uncertainty associated with the horizontal product benefits one desires (e.g., “How strong do I want my coffee to be?”). Outcome uncertainty refers to the uncertainty associated with the actual benefits the product will deliver (e.g., “How strong will the coffee be?”). Ideally, retailers should strive for outcome certainty (i.e., standardize the strength profile of their coffee [coffees in their line]), and help consumers achieve preference certainty (i.e., help consumers learn their ideal coffee strength), so that consumers can purchase the appropriate product with confidence (i.e., achieve a preference-outcome match). Yet there are situations where high outcome uncertainty is a characteristic of the product class, after controlling for quality (e.g., flavor profile of wine). When outcome uncertainty is high, we paradoxically find that high preference uncertainty leads to more purchase intent than low preference uncertainty. We show this occurs because people are more optimistic that they will maximize their utility when preference uncertainty is high (i.e., multiple outcomes could potentially be the best match for their preference) than low (i.e., only one outcome could be the best match for their preference).

DOI
10.1093/jcr/ucag037
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex

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