Article Abstract:
Contrast effects in consumers' judgments of products can stem from changes in how consumers mentally represent the stimuli or in how they anchor rating scales when mapping context-invariant mental representations onto those scales. We present a framework for distinguishing between these types of contrast effects on the basis of whether changes in mean ratings of multiattribute stimuli are accompanied by evidence of changes in their rank order. We also report two empirical studies. In study 1, mean overall ratings of a "core set" of car profiles showed contrast effects due to manipulations of the ranges of gas mileage and price in several sets of "context profiles." Diagnostic tests implied that these effects reflected changes in response-scale anchoring rather than in mental representations. In study 2, consumers high and low in knowledge of automobile prices showed equally large contrast effects on ratings of the expensiveness of a core set of real cars. Diagnostic tests showed that these reflected true changes in mental representation for low-knowledge consumers but only changes in scale anchoring for more knowledgeable ones. Thus, ostensibly similar context effects on simple ratings have different underlying causes and implications for behavior. The findings suggest alternative interpretations of contrast effects in past research on price perception, consumer satisfaction, and service quality. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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Article Abstract:
This study explores consumers' inference strategies in a mixed choice task involving memory, external information, and missing information on attribute values for some brands. Accessibility of relevant information was manipulated, and both instructed and uninstructed or natural inferences were studied. Instructed inferences by low accessibility subjects conformed more with prior overall evaluations of the brands, displaying evaluative consistency. Instructed inferences by high accessibility subjects tended to follow a correlational rule linking missing information to other attribute information in memory, displaying probabilistic consistency. Choices conformed to inferences, and both were more variable when inferences were uninstructed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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Article Abstract:
How do memory and external information blend to impel consumer brand choices? A study by two University of Houston professors examined eight factors tied to this question. They found that some people relied heavily on outside information, others on memory. Memory-dependent choosers used more processing techniques to make choices. However, these techniques were less complex than those of information processors. Memory accessibility was found to relate to choice differences.
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