The Comparative Mindset:From Animal Comparisons to Increased Purchase Intentions

Stimulating people to state a preference for one of two commercial products can increase their willingness to purchase not only one of these products but also other products in a totally unrelated domain (Xu and Wyer 2007). However, the willingness to make a purchase in a given domain (e.g., computers) can also be increased by (a) asking individuals which of two stimuli in a different domain (e.g., vacation packages) they dislike more, (b) comparing the relative attractiveness of wild animals, (c) comparing the animals with respect to physical attributes, and (d) estimating how similar one country is to another. In short, making any type of comparative judgment appears likely to give rise to a “comparative mindset” and, therefore, to influence decisions in subsequent situations.



Citation:

Alison Jing Xu and Robert S. Wyer, Jr. (2009) ,"The Comparative Mindset:From Animal Comparisons to Increased Purchase Intentions", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 594-594.

Authors

Alison Jing Xu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Robert S. Wyer, Jr., Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, China



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36 | 2009



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