Bodily Sensations and Context Effects: the Moderating Role of Physical Distance

Extant research indicates that people’s psychological processes often induce incidental diffuse feelings (e.g., moods) and these are frequently assimilated in people’s assessments of unrelated products. We extend on this by demonstrating that more localized bodily sensations that emerge when people’s sensory receptors come in contact with external stimuli also can produce context effects, though they can foster either assimilation or contrast effects. Specifically, we find that the physical distance from which a person views a product when standing on an (un)comfortable hard tile or carpeted floor can moderate the direction of the such context effects on people’s product assessments.

Citation:

Joan Meyers-Levy (2009) ,"Bodily Sensations and Context Effects: the Moderating Role of Physical Distance", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 20-21.