Working Paper Poster Session Information Processing and Decision-Making

Citation:

N/A (1999) ,"Working Paper Poster Session Information Processing and Decision-Making", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 26, eds. Eric J. Arnould and Linda M. Scott, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 262-263.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 26, 1999      Pages 262-263

WORKING PAPER POSTER SESSION

INFORMATION PROCESSING AND DECISION-MAKING

 

SELF-PRESENTATIONAL EFFECTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY ON CHOICE

Manuel C. Pontes, Farleigh Dickinson University

Previous research has shown that accountability increases issue-specific elaboration and that the effects of accountability on decision outcomes are primarily mediated by such elaboration. The principal aim of the present research is to demonstrate that the effects of accountability on decision outcomes are not always exclusively mediated by attribute-specific elaboration. The central premise of this research is that even when the opinions of the audience are unknown, accountable decision makers may attempt to make inferences about these opinions and defer to these inferred opinions even when they engage in more attribute-specific elaboration. Two experiments showed that accountable decision makers were less likely to choose the alternative with the best attributes and a unknown brand name or a low market share relative to the others in the choice set. Further analyses ruled out the possibility that this effect was a consequence of the effects of accountability on attribute-specific elaboration; even though accountable decision makers engaged in greater elaboration, elaboration was positively associated with the choice of the best alternative. Rather, results showed that , when heuristic cues, such as brand name and market share, were present, accountable decision makers predicted that the other subjects would be less likely to choose the product with the best attributes; accountable decision makers made worse choices because they were more likely to conform to their predictions of the choices of the other subjects (who were their audience).

 

WHEN GAINS EXCEED LOSSES: AN EXTENSION OF PROSPECT THEORY

Taihoon Cha, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Loss Aversion of Prospect Theory has been supported in various contexts although there are some counter-evidence. By introducing brand hierarchy especially in terms of price, we show that non-loss aversion can happen when the brand is located high in the brand hierarchy whereas loss aversion can be found when the brand is located low in the hierarchy. This is because consuemr may be 'surprised’ when they face low prices of highly located brands while they may be 'surprised’ if facing relatively high prices of low positioned brands. Asymmetric price expectation is proposed to explain consumer 'surprise’.

 

CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON OF PRICE-PERCEIVED QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Myung-Soo Jo, Griffith University, Australia

This study examines how perceived price-perceived quality relationships differ across countries. Consumers from two countries, Australia and Japan, which differ greatly on cultural values such as role tenseness, and susceptibility to interpersonal influence and prestige, are examined. The findings show that price changes cause greater perceived-quality changes to Japanese consumers than to Australian consumers. Implications of the findings are drawn, and limitations of the study are discussed.

 

INFORMATION PROCESSING BY GENDER: DIFFERENTIATING EFFECTS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF INFORMATION IN MEMORY AND THE USE OF INFORMATION IN EVALUATION FORMATION

Sharon MacLeod, University of Guelph, Canada

Karen Finlay, University of Guelph, Canada

Vinay Kanetkar, University of Guelph, Canada

A study is reported that examines gender-processing differences in response to various communication strategies. Multiple processing measures converge on the finding that females compare brand features at encoding and attempt to organize them in memory to a greater extent than males. When elaboration motivation is high, differences in male versus female processing are attenuated. When no particular motivation to elaborate is provided, however, females appear to process to a greater extent, thereby retaining more information overtime than is the case for males.

Significant differences were found in the way the two genders form evaluations. Females weight negative information in the formation of immediate brand impressions, while males consider primarily positive information. After a delay, females rely almost exclusively on stored brand evaluations. Males also consider positive brand features that can be recalled. Implications for advertisers are discussed.

 

FACTORS AFFECTING DELEGATION OF CHOICE DECISIONS

Praveen Aggarwal, Syracuse University

Tridib Mazumdar, Syracuse University

Traditionally, researchers have assumed that consumers acquire attribute-level information from various sources and process that information on their own to make a decision. In this study, we examine a different kind of choice strategy wherein consumers delegate the decision-making to someone else, usually to an expert. We develop a theoretical framework to understand the phenomenon of decision delegation and the factors that influence delegations. The impact of three factors, consumer, surrogate, and task characteristics, on decision delegation is examined. Empirical verification of the model is done in the context of new computer purchases.

 

A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION OF TWO COGNITIVE PROCESSING SCALES: NEED FOR COGNITION AND NEED FOR EVALUATION

Michael Sherrard, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Ronald Czaja, North Carolina State University

The present study builds on the works of Petty and Cacioppo (1982) and Jarvis and Petty (1996). They posit that individuals have different cognitive processing styles and that these individual differences can be reliably measured with the Need for Cognition Scale (18 items) and the Need for Evaluation Scale (16 items). This paper presents research that reduces the two scales from a total of 34 items to 18 items. Preliminary results and implications for a health promotion intervention study ae presented.

 

BELIEF TRANSFER WITHIN BRAND CATEGORIES: DO AD-INDUCED BELIEFS HAVE BROADER CONSEQUENCES?

Christopher Joiner, Kansas State University

A mixed-representation model of brand category structure suggests that information about a specific existing product may have implications for other existing products in the brand category and/or for the brand name itself. This research examined the transfer of beliefs from an advertisement for a prototypical member of a brand category to other members of the brand category and to the overall brand name.

The data demonstrated that belief transfer is a significant phenomenon in brand categories. An ad not only changed beliefs for the advertised product, but also impacted the brand name and the majority of the individual products in the brand category. Additionally, the data suggested that the graded structure of the category plays an important role in belief transfer. Finally, when the variability of the advertised attribute across products in the brand category was salient, the amount of transfer was greater in categories characterized by low variability than in categories with high variability. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed.

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