Mere Accessibility Effect: Products May Be Effective Without Consumption

We show that merely having access to a product can yield the effect claimed to be brought about by the product. Participants who had access to coffee (but did not consume it) during a concentration task performed better than participants who did not have access to coffee during the task. In a second study, participants who had access to a dictionary performed better in word puzzles. The effect of product accessibility on performance was moderated by self-efficacy. Only participants that received negative feedback on a previous task showed the performance enhancing effect of product accessibility.



Citation:

David Faro, Monika Heller, and Caglar Irmak (2011) ,"Mere Accessibility Effect: Products May Be Effective Without Consumption", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 90.

Authors

David Faro, London Business School
Monika Heller, London Business School
Caglar Irmak , University of South Carolina



Volume

E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9 | 2011



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