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Preference Exploration and Learning: The Role of Intensiveness and Extensiveness of Experience
Abstract
In this research, the authors partition the construct of experience and examine the impact of two specific types of experience on preference learning. Findings from the first study demonstrate that experience affects preference learning. In the next two studies, the authors’ theory that experience can be partitioned into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) of experience is supported; they suggest that the latter exerts a larger influence on preference learning. In the final three studies, the authors investigate three factors that lead to the selection of novel alternatives.
... Marketers often infer consumers' level of expertise in a product category from their sampling behavior in that category. For instance, the overall number of products that consumers have sampled (Bettman & Park, 1980;Brucks, 1985;Park & Lessig, 1981) or the number of unique products consumers have sampled (Hoeffler et al., 2013) have been suggested to capture experience. We propose that a measurement (i.e., a correlational) approach conflates two forms of sampling that involve different forms of learning: horizontal and vertical sampling. ...
... The few existing investigations on vertical sampling provide inconclusive evidence for its effect on enjoyment and learning. Presumably, because they measure, rather than manipulate, consumers' sampling histories and therefore potentially conflate vertical and horizontal sampling (Hoeffler et al., 2013;Park & Lessig, 1981;Quoidbach et al., 2015). Our investigation contributes to the literature by exploring the effects of vertical sampling (i.e., experiencing variation in product quality) keeping constant horizontal sampling (i.e., experiencing variation in product types). ...
... Our investigation contributes to the literature by exploring the effects of vertical sampling (i.e., experiencing variation in product quality) keeping constant horizontal sampling (i.e., experiencing variation in product types). We will hold the overall number of sampled products (i.e., intensiveness) as well as the number of unique products sampled (i.e., extensiveness) constant (Hoeffler et al., 2013). To our knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation that unconfounds horizontal and vertical product sampling when examining experience-based learning (Hoch & Deighton, 1989 Vertical sampling allows consumers to compare the quality of a target product to the quality of other products they have sampled. ...
Consumers can build expertise by sampling products that are differentiated vertically, in terms of quality, or horizontally, in terms of taste. While the effects of horizontal sampling are well understood, the effects of vertical sampling are understudied. Four experiments (total N = 1080; one preregistered; with US American, British, and Dutch participants) elucidate how vertical sampling (i.e., experiencing products of varying quality) affects enjoyment. We find that vertical sampling strengthens the association between product quality and enjoyment. Gaining experience can thus involve hedonic benefits (i.e., greater enjoyment of high‐quality products) but, perhaps more importantly, also hedonic costs (i.e., lower enjoyment of low‐quality products). Our studies provide evidence for a similarity‐testing account. Effects on enjoyment occur if consumers sampled products of similar (vs. dissimilar) quality as the target. Customer expertise may therefore need to be conceptualized in terms of whether consumers' sampling history covers many (vs. few) different product quality levels. Customer expertise depends less on the overall number of sampled products.
... When people get familiar with the targets of their judgments, they learn to discriminate the aspects that are related to their evaluations (Dijkstra, Van der Pligt, & Van Kleef, 2013). Instead of just judging whether something, say beer, is more or less drinkable, an individual is able to discriminate different aspects of taste after having more experience with different kinds of beers (Hoeffler, Ariely, West, & Duclos, 2013). We learn to associate certain features with good quality and certain features with bad quality. ...
... This represents the development of expertise, or connoisseurship in the context, and this is accompanied by the development of self-understanding in the JDM processes (Dijkstra et al., 2013). For everyday targets, this kind of learning appears inevitable, as long as one is exposed to different kinds of targets, so how different aspects affect experience can be learned (Hoeffler et al., 2013). ...
... This development is manifested in more stable preferences. The more experience people have with different attributes in a certain context, the more expertise they acquire within that context (Hoeffler et al., 2013). As the effort in these novel tasks has been associated with better learning results, it appears plausible that effortful conscious thinking could benefit learning in these tasks. ...
Academic psychology has traditionally considered subjective explanations for
judgments and decisions unreliable or even fabricated. Additionally,
explanations have been shown to interfere with judgment and decision making
processes, which can degrade the quality of choices. These phenomena have
been attributed to processes that cannot be verbalized, either because of the
lack of vocabulary or conscious access to these processes. This is assumed to
shift the processing from the non-verbal or non-conscious mode into a more
verbal and conscious mode, leading to either fabrication or interference. The
problem affects particularly the judgments and decisions that are based on
subjective experience.
This dissertation examines these effects in the context of high image quality
by assuming that subjective experience is a highly relevant intermediate
processing stage in perceptual decision making, whereas subjective
explanations reflect the contents of socially oriented conscious thought, which
originates from the metacognitive understanding related to the judgment and
decision-making processes. When these different forms of conscious mental
content are dissociated due to social pressure or lack of conceptual knowledge
about the perceptual features, interference or fabrication can occur.
This dissertation presents the ideas underlying the Interpretation-Based
Quality (IBQ) method, which emphasizes the special nature of subjective
experience (or phenomenal consciousness) in judgments and decisions: Every
individual has his or her own subjective point of view, from which the world is
interpreted. These interpretations underlie personal and subjective
experience. In the context of preferential judgment and decision making, the
differences between individuals, arising from different ways of experiencing
the world, are easily regarded as measurement error. The IBQ method
approaches these differences by asking research participants to explain their
decisions in their own words. These explanations have been further analyzed
qualitatively in order to find the relevant subjective dimensions on which
decisions are based.
As subjective explanations are used as data, the use of the IBQ method must
respond to claims concerning unreliability, fabrication and interference.
Therefore, four studies were conducted to test these claims in the evaluation
of high image quality. As explaining has been found to shift processing into a
more conscious mode, these studies can also inform about the role of
conscious thought in perceptual judgments and decisions.
The general finding of this research was that conscious thought, evoked by
the requirement to explain judgments, can also enhance the decision maker’s
performance in cases that require tradeoffs, effortful information search and
consistency over several decisions. This is typical for the context of high image
quality evaluation, where the differences between stimuli are small and
4
multidimensional. The results suggest that, generally, when conscious thought
and subjective experience work in concert, subjective explanations can provide
highly useful qualitative data about the dimensions of subjective experience
that are relevant in judgments and decisions. These dimensions are dependent
on personal and contextual factors and cannot be predicted from physical data
alone.
The results support the recent findings and theoretical contributions about
the relations between decision making and consciousness. They emphasize the
role of phenomenal consciousness as a multi-dimensional space where
information about voluntary actions is presented. The information integration
processes, however, are usually automatic and non-conscious. The importance
of conscious thought in decision making appears to be its ability to bring
relevant information into consciousness by means of voluntary attention. This
happens particularly in conflicts and when the decisions are novel. In these
situations conscious thought and an analytic approach is activated
automatically. This mechanism derives from metacognitive understanding,
which is learned gradually in similar judgment and decision-making
situations.
... In the current study, we propose that the tourist experience involves two dimensions: the objective experience (tourists' activity) and the subjective experience (the experience value). According to Hoeffler et al. (2013), the objective experience can be measured in terms of intensiveness (amount of activity) and extensiveness (scope of the activities). Both the intensiveness and extensiveness of activities can trigger a positive evaluation of the experience. ...
... The objective dimension of the experience reflects the quantitative aspects related to the tourist's consumption at the destination. One aspect of the experience is the mere exposure to the stimuli (Hoeffler et al. 2013). In the tourist context, this dimension has been evaluated in terms of visit intensity. ...
... All of these evaluations underscore the extent of the activity but neglect the issue of variety. Hoeffler et al. (2013) refine the objective experience into two subdimensions: intensiveness and extensiveness. Intensiveness is the "amount of frequency with which a person has been exposed to a product category." ...
Recently, tourist companies and destinations have moved from designing products to focusing on creating experiences that engage and involve the tourist. Although the intensity (intensiveness) and variety of the experience (extensiveness) leads tourists to feel their experience has been livelier and richer and to appraise it positively, it might also bring unwanted consequences such as a feeling of saturation. The present study seeks to explore the role played by the value of perceived experience and of satiety as mediators between experience intensity and variety as well as future visitor behavior. The empirical study reveals that the variety of activities improves the perceived experience value, whereas investing too much time reduces the value and causes satiety in the tourist. Moreover, while the experience value reinforces the intention to return, the intention to recommend and the intensification of the experience, the feeling of satiety reduces the intention to return and recommend.
... As the intensity of distant experience increases and the owner accumulates more distant knowledge, the owner's decisions are likely to rely more on distant knowledge than on available local knowledge, thereby increasing the gap between local customer expectations and customer experience. Second, changes in the distant experience alter the owner's existing market knowledge base, namely, its market knowledge breadth (the extent of knowledge of various markets) and depth (the extent of knowledge of a particular market) (Hoeffler et al., 2013;Zhou & Li, 2012). Higher intensity of distant experience increases the depth of an owner's knowledge for distant markets; however, it is unlikely to increase the depth of knowledge for the local market, which is essential for achieving local adaptation and satisfying the local customers' idiosyncratic preferences (Zahra & George, 2002). ...
... Whereas high intensity of distant experience increases the depth of knowledge, high heterogeneity of distant experience increases the breadth of knowledge by exposing the owner to diverse markets (Hoeffler et al., 2013). It is breadth, not depth, of market knowledge that should help owners accumulate critical local knowledge on consumers and market conditions, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of their local adaptation activities. ...
Despite the importance of experience, the question of whether and how a franchisee’s operating experience affects performance remains undertheorized. Taking a multi-unit franchisee owner’s perspective, we unravel the performance effect of an owner’s operating experience. We theorize on the differential effects of three facets of this experience: local experience, intensity of distant experience, and heterogeneity of distant experience. Bringing customers into franchising research, we propose customer satisfaction as a key intervening mechanism and customer diversity as a key contextual condition for the performance effect of an owner’s operating experience. An analysis of 14,069 stores in the McDonald’s chain over three years and of more than six million customer reviews shows that an owner’s greater local experience and higher heterogeneity of distant experience improve, whereas higher intensity of distant experience impairs, store survival and sales growth through customer satisfaction. Those performance effects are moderated by the extent of customer diversity.
... Third, experiences can be differentiated due to intensity and extensity, and have varying effects (Hoeffler, Ariely, West, & Duclos, 2013). Intensity refers to exposure to similar experiences during the travel. ...
... The extensity of food experiences may range between ordinary, daily breakfasts at the hotel, snacks at the local food market among locals, lunches at beach restaurants and culinary-gastronomic dining in fine-dining restaurants (Basil & Basil, 2009;Lupton, 1994;Quan & Wang, 2004). While the mere-exposure effect implies that repeated exposureintensityaffects liking (Hekkert, Thurgood, & Whitfield, 2013), the variety of experiencesextensityis claimed to affect memory (Hoeffler et al., 2013). ...
This study addresses the question of how an inherent interest in food affects consumers as travellers. This is done by focusing on food interest as an antecedent and uncovering the effects of such an interest on travel motivation, destination choice, positive food experiences and, further, on satisfaction and overall holiday experience. The links between food attitudes and travel satisfaction and experiences are studied among Finnish travellers using a quantitative research approach. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that destination food experiences consist of five dimensions with varying effects on satisfaction and travel experiences. The results also prove that these dimensions are conditioned by travellers’ food interest. The provided insights have managerial implications as they highlight that food has multifarious effects, which do not emerge only in service encounters.
... A positive experience with a product also leads to increased favourability. It is an intuitive finding that people take into consideration things that they used to like or things that they have come to like over time (Hoeffler et al., 2013). ...
Dried chilli is widely used for its hotness and pungent odour enhancing properties. In an attempt to get a broad overview of drying effects on hotness and pungent odour characteristics contributing to dominant features of various types of Thai dried chilli, major volatile flavour compounds responsible for perceived hotness and pungent odour of the dried chilli-(freeze (FD), hot air (HD) and sun (SD) dried samples) were identified by trained panel (n=15) in conjunction with HS-SPME/GC-MS and LLE/GC-MS. Consumer liking of the three dried chilli was assessed on the basis of pungent odour and hotness characteristics by Thai consumers (n=120) using 9 point-category hedonic scale. The GC-MS and trained panel data were analyzed by PLS and results show that capsaicin was the main compound responsible for the oral hotness sensation, while 1-penten-3-one compound was found to be an indicator of strong pungent odour. The FD sample presented the highest intensity of hotness characteristic (p≤0.05). The content of 1-penten-3-one in FD was also higher than that of HD and SD. Although trained panellists could not differentiate between the intensities of pungent odour of FD and HD (p>0.05), consumers had a tendency to prefer HD. This research proposes that there is substantial value to analysis such as this that integrates human sensorial perception with objective measurement. The outputs of this research can be used to provide guidance on dried chilli product development based on consumer acceptance criteria.
... This model posits that, in the long run, organizations should consider spending more time testing new ideas and practices rather than sticking to the status quo, due to maximizing chances of creative insights. Still other research suggests a similar idea, highlighting the many learning-based benefits that the pursuit of novel activities can bring, such as adding to one's 'experiential CV, ' expanding one's breadth of knowledge, and helping people match preferences (Hoeffler, Ariely, West, and Duclos, 2013;Keinan and Kivetz, 2011;Maddux and Galinsky, 2009;O'Brien and Smith, 2019;Ritter et al., 2012). Across all of this research is an underlying assumption that pursuing novel future experiences is the dominant strategy for maximizing such outcomes, rather than revisiting past experiences. ...
People fill their time by choosing between old versus new activities. This chapter highlights the unforeseen value of the former choice. First, it summarizes traditional perspectives that highlight the value of the new and exciting (‘variety is the spice of life’). Second, it summarizes recent discoveries that instead highlight the value of the old and familiar. It organizes these discoveries around three primary benefits: Mastery, Mood, and Meaning. Repeating past experiences involves a great deal of (i) learning and rediscovery, thus promoting mastery; (ii) pleasure and positive emotion, thus promoting mood; and (iii) connection to others and to other points in time, thus promoting meaning. These benefits sometimes even outweigh those gleaned from novelty-seeking. People often overlook such benefits, to their own detriment. Finally, the chapter discusses theoretical insights, practical implications, and pressing questions for future research.
... Particularly, when uncertain expectations (i.e., the WOM dispersion is high) for a product are attributed to differences among reviewers rather than the product itself, they may represent an opportunity for self-enrichment, curiosity seeking, or other desirable goals [4]. Consequently, this enables consumers to understand their own preferences through extensive learning [38], satisfy their curiosity about consumers' potential experience, and demonstrate their openmindedness [39]. That is, reviewer-related attribution choices are critical in mitigating negative influences of WOM dispersion on product sales. ...
Using metacognition and dual process theories, this paper studied the role of types of presentation of mixed opinions in mitigating negative impacts of online word of mouth (WOM) dispersion on consumer’s purchasing decisions. Two studies were implemented, respectively. By employing an eye-tracking approach, study 1 recorded consumer’s attention to WOM dispersion. The results show that the activation of the analytic system can improve reviewer-related attribution options. In study 2, three kinds of presentation of mixed opinions originating from China’s leading online platform were compared. The results demonstrated that mixed opinions expressed in moderately complex form, integrating average ratings and reviewers’ impressions of products, was effective in promoting reviewer-related attribution choices. However, too-complicated presentation types of WOM dispersion can impose excessively on consumers’ cognitive load and eventually fail to activate the analytic system for promoting reviewer-related attribution choices. The main contribution of this paper lies in that consumer attribution-related choices are supplemented, which provides new insights into information consistency in consumer research. The managerial and theoretical significance of this paper are discussed in order to better understand the purchasing decisions of consumers.
... • Broadness of current preferences: The broadness of people's current preferences will infuence their new preferences development [14]: it is easier for people with extensive experience to build new preferences than those with limited experience. • Personality traits: Oreg [29] established a scale for measuring the individual diference in resistance to change with a fourfacet structure. ...
The research topic is to investigate how recommender systems can help people develop new preferences and goals. Recommender systems nowadays typically use historical user data to predict users' current preferences. However, users might want to develop new preferences. Traditional recommendation approaches would fail in this situation as these approaches typically provide users with recommendations that match their current preference. In addition, users are not always aware of preference development due to the issue of filter bubbles. In this case, recommender systems could also be there to help them step away from their bubbles by suggesting new preferences for them to develop. The research will take a multidisciplinary approach in which insights from psychology on decision making and habit formation are paired with new approaches to recommendation that included preference evolution, interactive exploration methods and goal-directed approaches. Moreover, when evaluating the success of such algorithms, (longitudinal) experiments combining objective behavioral data and subjective user experience will be required to fine-tune and optimize recommendation approaches.
... Spending time together facilitates all of these factors, and may thus contribute to the shaping of dietary preferences through social learning. Accordingly, as suggested by Hoeffler (2012), if an individual feels sufficiently close to a model (e.g. a peer) that is observed to use a particular product, s/he may be inclined to use the same product. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore associations between food-related self-control, intentions, descriptive peer norms, parents’ healthy eating guidance and adolescents’ consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) in a school lunch setting. An additional aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the measure used to assess food-related self-control in order to reveal potential multi-dimensionality.
Design/methodology/approach
A web-based survey was conducted among 694 Norwegian high school students. Multiple logistic regression was used to explore associations between the independent variables and SSB consumption. Psychometric evaluation of the self-control measure included factor analysis and internal consistency reliability.
Findings
Factor analysis resulted in two food-related self-control dimensions: resistance and avoidance. Multiple logistic regression showed that intentions was the strongest predictor of SSB consumption in the sample. Avoidance and descriptive peer norms appeared as weaker predictors.
Research limitations/implications
Based on the findings, the authors suggest that future studies may consider developing guiding principles on how to create health-promoting eating intentions in adolescents, how to deal with peer norms related to foods and beverages and how to avoid tempting stimuli in the environment. Such strategies may be helpful when structural changes in the environment are not feasible in the near future.
Originality/value
An original aspect of the present study is that it includes a psychometric analysis of a supposedly one-dimensional self-control measure. Further, it adds to the knowledge about variables associated with adolescent SSB consumption in a school lunch context.
... Furthermore, Hoeffler et al. show that exploration is an important part of learning about a domain. They show that the breadth (rather than depth) of a user's experience in a domain is a positive predictor of the user's ability to "identify, predict, and appreciate higher-quality products" [8]. ...
This ¹ paper introduces and evaluates MovieExplorer, an interactive exploration tool designed to use the data available in a traditional ratings-based recommender system to provide an interactive interface more suited to user exploration and fulfillment of short-term recommendation needs. A field deployment with 1,950 users showed that users found the tool useful for a variety of exploration and short-term recommendation tasks, even preferring it to existing interfaces for several tasks. Experimentation with several design features found that the actual user navigation algorithms were significant (user satisfaction was lower for algorithms with faked controls) and that offering positive and negative feedback options led to increased feedback and user retention.
... Given the level of uncertainty linked to exploration of unknown processes, it is likely that cognition and emotions may be generated all along the experience (Jafari et al., 2015), as it is the case in the case of retail services (van Waterschoot et al., 2008). Notably, the intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) of experience may have a great impact on preference learning as underlined by Hoeffler et al. (2013). ...
Co-creating with partners can offer attractive opportunities for companies to create new
products offerings and offer value for all involved stakeholders. To co-create efficiently with customers, companies are increasingly equipped by a wide range of tools that improve value creation, such as product configurators. A huge number of researches address the determinants and consequences of the co-creation. Even though it is likely that customers need to learn on how to use configurators toolkits, any research addressed the client’s learning process during the product configuration.
Our study proposes to identify the influences and perceptions of customers during the learning process induced by product co-creation. In the purpose of exploring perceptions, emotions and learning behaviours all along the customization of two types of products (shoes and automobiles), we gathered 15 interviews from adults in between 21 and 47.
The resulting model underlines the central role of the learning process during co-creation and describes the variables leading to client’s satisfaction in the design of products.
... Expertise, preferences, and conscious reasoning Experience with a certain JDM context and the subsequent learning leads to expertise in the long run (Hogarth, 2001). Experience with many different types of beers, for instance, leads to enhanced ability to evaluate the quality and other aspects of beer (Hoeffler, Ariely, West, & Duclos, 2013). Therefore, it seems plausible that any interaction between reasoning and learning in JDM could be understood by comparing the effect of reasoning on judgments within novice and expert populations. ...
Certain experiments have shown that reasoning may weaken the stability of people's preferences, especially with regard to well-learned perceptual judgment and decision-making tasks, while learning has an opposite, consistency-enhancing effect on preferences. We examined the effects of these factors in a visual multi-attribute decision-making task where reasoning, in contrast, has been found to benefit judgments by making them more stable. The initial assumption in this study was that this benefit would be typical for novel tasks, like the one employed here, and that it would decrease when the task is thoroughly learned. This assumption was examined in three experiments by contrasting it with an alternative assumption that this previously obtained beneficial effect is caused solely by learning, not by reasoning. It was found that learning indeed makes preferences more stable by consolidating the weights of the attributes. Reasoning, however, does not benefit this task when it is completely novel but facilitates learning and stability of the preferences long run, therefore increasing the consistency of the participants in the macrolevel. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Behavioral Decision Making Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
... This is not surprising. Initial exposure in a new environment is considered to be an important factor for individuals' attitude formation (Hoeffler et al., 2012). The disadvantaged people interviewed in our study were all novice users of mobile lottery services; a positive attitude toward initial use could motivate their later use. ...
... In contrast, the implications of WOM attributed to reviewer characteristics are markedly less negative. In fact, reviewerattributed dispersion presents consumers with opportunities to learn about their own preferences (i.e., extensive learning; Hoeffler et al. 2013), to satisfy curiosity about their potential CONCEPTUAL MODEL experience (Raju 1980), or to demonstrate open-mindedness (Ratner and Kahn 2002). Together, these opportunities should mitigate the negative effects of dispersion on product evaluations. ...
The widespread availability of online word of mouth (WOM) enables modern consumers to assess not only the opinions of others about products and services, but also the extent to which those opinions are consistent or dispersive. Despite long-standing calls for greater understanding of mixed opinions, existing evidence is inconclusive regarding effects of WOM dispersion, and theoretical accounts have relied primarily on the notion of reference dependence. Extending prior work, this research proposes an attribution-based account, in which consumer interpretation of WOM dispersion depends on the extent to which tastes in a product domain are perceived to be dissimilar, so that dispersion can be attributed to inconsistency in reviewer preferences rather than the product itself. Across four experimental studies, participants presented with online rating distributions were more tolerant of dispersion in taste-dissimilar product domains than taste-similar product domains , and the difference was driven by underlying attributions. Together, these findings expand current understanding of WOM, social distributions, and risk perception , by revealing distinct pathways through which consumers respond to differences of opinion. In addition, they suggest the opportunity to proactively influence the manner in which dispersion is perceived, highlighting its positive connotations while diminishing its association with risk.
... Information improves customer evaluation skills in relation to product quality (Sproles et al., 1979) because over time customers become able to identify and appreciate higher-quality products. In addition, extensiveness more than intensiveness of experience, increases the ability to predict the customer's own preferences (Hoeffler et al., 2013). Accordingly, it seems reasonable to argue that expertise level affects customer perception in the after-use phase. ...
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a theoretically grounded conceptual framework regarding the relationships existing between customer education and customer perceived value, mediated by customer evaluation skills. Methodology: This is a conceptual paper whose analytical approach draws heavily on theoretical evidence published in service marketing and management literature. Findings: Customer education is a under-researched concept in the service marketing and management literature. It is a multilevel process aimed at informing and training customers in order to increase their knowledge levels (basic, general, and deep). It affects customer perceived value in terms of benefits (skill of information evaluation, satisfaction and appreciation, perceived risk, purchasing power, and protection of rights and interests), and outlays (economic commitment, product complexity, information accessibility, time employed, cognitive and behavioral effort, and resulting stress). Customer evaluation skill mediates this relationship. Practical implications: Providing to customers a number of aspects and tools for evaluating products reduces information asymmetries between a company and its customers. However, at least in principle, this can reduce the power of the company. Therefore, managers should consider this risk by both creating knowledge about service alternatives and evaluating what information can be offered to customers for increasing their knowledge levels. Managers should not block the development of initiatives aimed at strengthening customers education because they allow companies to obtain a number of advantages. Originality/value: The study contributes to enrichment of analyses of customer education by proposing a conceptual framework primarily considering cognitive dimension of the post-purchase evaluation phase.
... Another limitation is associated by the contextual scope of the study, which is restricted to the Kazakhstan perspective. There is also a large probability that consumers' preferences will change significantly over time (Hoeffler et al., 2013), and it can be concluded therefore that findings may be reliable only for a certain period. ...
Purpose
– This paper aims to investigate Kazakh rural and urban consumers' preferences for different agritourism experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
– The empirical study adopts a survey data-based approach relying on a questionnaire data collection technique.
Findings
– The paper highlights significant differences and similarities in the structure of individual preferences of urban and rural customer segments regarding different agritourism offerings.
Research limitations/implications
– The research is limited by the sample, which covers only two consumer segments presented in the Kazakhstan context. The paper provides managerial implications for agritourism service providers, who are doing or planning to start entrepreneurial activities in rural areas, marketing researchers focusing on product development, and policy makers working out regional development strategies through implementation of tourism stimulating projects.
Originality/value
– This study contributes to the advancement of the limited research investigating customer experience theory as applied to agritourism.
... Note the important distinction between a tutor and an advisor: the advisor uses consumers' preferences to make product recommendations ; the tutor helps the consumer form his or her preferences. In other words, when acting as a tutor, the ICDA does not assume that the consumer has a detailed knowledge of his or her own preferences and, instead, helps the individual determine what these preferences are (e.g., Hoeffler et al. 2006). Current examples of this type of ICDA are quite rudimentary. ...
Implicit self-theories posit that individuals ascribe to one of two beliefs regarding the self: an incremental theory motivated by learning goals and an entity theory motivated by performance goals. This work proposes that these theories—and their underlying motivations—reflect individuals’ preferences for different knowledge types. Specifically, we propose that incremental theorists prefer knowledge that expands their understanding of diverse experiences within a category (i.e., knowledge breadth), whereas entity theorists prefer knowledge that refines their understanding of a preferred experience within a category (i.e., knowledge depth). Five studies show the effect of implicit self-theories on individuals’ preferences for knowledge breadth and depth and the role of learning and performance goals in motivating these knowledge preferences. We address alternative explanations related to general openness, risk-seeking, and perceived quality differences, and we demonstrate the role of negative feedback in reversing these knowledge preferences.
Multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is well suited to address complex public policy problems but could benefit from new tools to involve many laypeople. Online information on specialized topics could be more engaging by including game elements. This paper reports an experiment that assessed a gamified interface to (1) inform laypeople about the objectives to consider in wastewater management decisions, (2) assist them in constructing range‐based preferences, and (3) provide a positive experience. We measured the effects with (1) a knowledge pre‐ and posttest, (2) the elicited weights and a range sensitivity index, and (3) an experience questionnaire based on self‐determination theory. Answers from 174 participants indicated that participants learnt about the objectives and constructed preferences in both the gamified and control treatments. However, in neither were weights sufficiently adjusted. Our gamification making the ranges salient did not help overcome this bias. Both treatments were experienced as neutral to positive, the gamified being more entertaining. We discuss implications: if gamification of tools for participatory decision‐making is to be promoted, it requires further research. Range insensitivity remains an unresolved bias in MCDA.
L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser les différents types de valeurs qui déterminent et expliquent les choix et comportements des consommateurs avec une attention particulière pour les produits innovants. Plus particulièrement, on cherche à déterminer leurs consentements à payer pour des produits innovants avec des caractéristiques durables d’une part, et comment les préférences du consommateur et les caractéristiques du produit interviennent dans le processus de la prise de la décision d’autre part. Dans le premier chapitre, nous affirmons que les préférences individuelles sont reflétées dans leurs consentements à payer pour un produit / service et sont basées sur les valeurs individuelles. Ces valeurs sont stables pour chaque individu, guident ses préférences et ses actions en tant qu'individu (valeurs personnelles) et en tant qu'agent économique (valeurs client et consommateur). En se focalisant sur la consommation de produits innovants et durables, cette thèse aborde également les valeurs environnementales et innovantes. L'analyse des valeurs pour les produits innovants est d'une grande importance pour les entreprises, car elle permet d'anticiper les préférences et leurs changements, et par là même, elle contribue à la définition des priorités dans les processus de développement de nouvelles offres de produits. Les systèmes complexes de ces valeurs entraînent des défis particuliers pour l'estimation, qui sont discutés dans le chapitre 2. Notamment, l'exactitude des estimations du CAP dépend du choix de la méthode utilisée par le chercheur. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les consommateurs ont une valorisation positive de produits innovants avec des caractéristiques durables. Ces valorisations sont basées sur les préférences des consommateurs et ses valeurs personnelles et de consommateur. Les études empiriques présentées dans les chapitres 3 et 4 proposent deux approches expérimentales qui contribuent à la compréhension des comportements des consommateurs à l'égard de produits innovants et à la compréhension des difficultés et défis des méthodes expérimentales d'élicitation de préférences pour ces produits/services. En outre, ils démontrent la validité du concept des valeurs dans le comportement des consommateurs.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the dual effect of sensory experiences on customer behaviour in the context of retailing. Based on the theoretical framework of the optimal stimulation level theory, the authors propose that sensory experiences reinforce satisfaction, engagement and loyalty, but increase customers’ diversive exploration and curiosity for other experiences and may eventually led to reduced loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administrated online questionnaire was distributed via e-mail to 1,000 households in a Spanish town, and 325 usable responses of supermarket customers were collected. The hypothesised relationships were tested using the partial least squares approach. The analysis is extended with an experiment in online fashion stores that explores whether a varied sensory experience reinforces consumers’ diversive exploration. In total, 68 students participated in the study. Hierarchical regression analysis is performed to analyse the results of the experiment.
Findings
Findings support the notion that a pleasant sensory experience increases customer satisfaction and therefore their engagement and behavioural loyalty (exclusivity) towards the retailer whilst also generating more ambitious consumer expectations vis-à-vis the shopping experience and thus encouraging them to search for new retailers and, so, to be less loyal.
Research limitations/implications
This research warns of the risk of increasing customer’s expectations and reducing their loyalty; hence satisfaction is not enough. Retailers should consider offering new experiences and surprise customers every so often, attempting to curtail the effect of satiation or the effect of over-arousal.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study is the proposal of a twofold effect of sensory experience on loyalty, a positive effect, through satisfaction, and a negative effect, through the search for new experiences.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify enablers and inhibitors to the adoption of mobile internet services by socioeconomically disadvantaged people: an understudied population adversely affected by digital inequality.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study combining a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. In total, 32 socioeconomically disadvantaged people explored mobile lottery services and subsequently were asked a series of semi-structured questions about their perceptions of the technology.
Findings
Users’ attitudes toward mobile internet services were ambivalent. They experienced some advantages of smartphones (including escaping spatiotemporal constrains, fashionableness, privacy, and cost-effectiveness) and conceived of mobile internet services in terms of social advantages (including their ubiquitous nature, fitting in socially and fear of being “left behind”). However, they also experienced barriers and concerns, such as limited mobile data packages, external barriers from mobile services (including security concerns, complex online help tutorials, irrelevant pop-ups, and a lack of personalized services) and internal psychological barriers (including technophobia, self-concept, and habitus).
Research limitations/implications
The findings are of limited generalizability due to the small size of the sample. However, the study has implications for understanding the acceptance of technology among socioeconomically disadvantaged people.
Social implications
The study has social implications for bridging digital inequality in terms of socioeconomic status.
Originality/value
While previous studies have primarily focused on enablers of adopting mobile internet services by active users, this study reveals both the promise of and the barriers to the use of such services by inactive users who comprise an under-served population.
Immer mehr Unternehmen motivieren Kunden dazu, ihre Wunschprodukte online zu konfigurieren (Duray, Ward, Milligan, & Berry, 2000). In beinahe allen Industrien wird den Kunden die Möglichkeit geboten, Taschen, Jacken, Schuhe, Uhren und Fahrzeuge selbständig zu gestalten beziehungsweise zusammen zu stellen. Der ausgedehnte Computer- und Internetzugang verbunden mit den Fortschritten in der Produktionstechnologie erleichtert und fördert diesen Trend zusätzlich (Coker & Nagpal, 2013). Es wird geschätzt, dass weltweit mehr als 40.000 dieser Online-Konfiguratoren die individuelle Produktgestaltung unterstützen (www.configurator-database.com).
This paper develops a theoretical framework to address how dynamic competitive interactions and customer preferences change the observed relationship between market price and quality, and it offers an empirical framework to study these phenomena. Our framework proposes that price–quality relationships in a market (the fair value line) evolve according to several processes. We define and discuss these processes, including: (1) line formation, (2) line evolution (comprised of line elevation, erosion, steepening, flattening, blurring, tightening, extension and contraction), and (3) line replacement, which involves redefining price or quality in the marketplace. Instead of assuming that prices are a stable function of observable product attributes only (the static equilibrium view), our framework generalizes to dynamic disequilibrium patterns observed in many industries. These patterns are empirically assessed and explained by customer, competitive, and technology forces analyzed in marketing and strategy literatures. For managers, we discuss how they should react to these processes or, even better, set them in motion. For marketing researchers, we specify several hypotheses on the processes’ antecedents and consequences, testable with readily available datasets.
This paper evaluates factors that affect the probability of loan repayment defaults using repayment data on loans granted by Snapi Aba Savings and Loans Ltd, Ghana. Results from logistic regression analysis of the data indicate that, contrary to findings elsewhere, age of borrowers is irrelevant in predicting probability of defaults in this study. Rather, credit screenings should focus on the gender of borrowers, payment frequency, loan cycle, and loan size. The probability of repayment defaults increases by about 1.3% for male borrowers as compared to female borrowers. Further, clients with longer credit history with the lending agency are more likely to default, and default probability is declining in loan size. Also, one-time lump-sum loan repayments reduce repayment defaults by about 2.2% as compared to regular monthly repayment options. Finally, educational level of borrowers and interest rates are irrelevant in predicting defaults.
Market pioneers outsell later entrants in both consumer and industrial markets. Entry barriers arising from preemptive positioning and switching costs have been advanced to explain this market share difference, termed "pioneering advantage." However, empirical studies show that pioneering advantages are present even in mature markets in which brands reposition and switching costs are minimal. In these cases, the authors argue that pioneering advantage can arise from the process by which consumers learn about brands and form their preferences. This process can produce a preference structure that favors the pioneer, making it difficult for later entrants to "compete away" the pioneer's large market share, even if brands can reposition and switching costs are minimal.
416 soldiers undergoing a 7-day simulated survival experience were issued 8 meat bars as part of the emergency ration. Rating of 5 methods of preparation, number of bars eaten, reports of being "made sick," and attitude toward future use were collected. "The Ss who had previously used the ration, regardless of whether they liked or disliked it, responded more favorably according to all four criteria when compared with those who had no experience with the ration. Even those who had tried the ration and disliked it responded as favorably as those who had not tried it. Fewer of those who had disliked the ration reported having been "made sick' by the ration than those who had never tried it."
Although researchers have suggested that mere exposure may partially account for the strong regional and cultural food preferences human beings exhibit, the existing literature is equivocal on this point. To demonstrate the role of exposure in cultural food preferences, experiments must demonstrate true liking rather than relative preferences. This field study in an Alaskan fishing and cannery village lent support to the hypothesis by demonstrating that an increased rate of consumption of doughnuts in a free-feeding situation corresponded to the number of trials subjects (N = 225) had with the food. Problems with the design are discussed, and it is proposed that cultural flavor markers may become liked as a result of exposure to them.
Recent research has revealed a pattern of choice characterized as
diversification bias: If people make combined choices of quantities of goods for future consumption, they choose more variety than if they make separate choices immediately preceding consumption. This phenomenon is explored in a series of experiments in which the researchers first eliminated several hypotheses that held that the discrepancy between combined and separate choice can be explained by traditional accounts of utility maximization. On the basis of results of further experiments, it was concluded that the diversification bias is largely attributable to 2 mechanisms:
time contraction, which is the tendency to compress time intervals and treat long intervals as if they were short, and
choice bracketing, which is the tendency to treat choices that are framed together differently from those that are framed apart. The researchers describe how the findings can be applied in the domains of marketing and consumer education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
investigates memory development and the nature of representations leading to behavioral dissociations, through neural network modeling and behavioral testing of infants and children. She serves on a grant review panel of the National Institute of Health, and is a recipient of the Boyd McCandless Award for early contributions to developmental Psychology. O'Reilly received an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University in 1989, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992 and 1996. His research focuses on the specialization of function in and interactions between the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and posterior neocortex in learning, memory, and controlled processing. He is an Associate Editor of "Cognitive Science" and a Reviewing Editor for "Hippocampus," and is a recipient of an Excellence in Teaching award. Abstract The ability to generalize — to abstract regularities from our experiences that can be applied to new experiences — is fundamental to human cognition and our abilities to flexibly adapt to changing situations. However, the general-ization abilities of children and adults are far from perfect, with many clear demonstrations of failures to generalize in situations that would otherwise appear to lend themselves to generalization. It seems that people require extensive experience with a domain to demonstrate good generalization, and that their generalization abilities are best when dealing with relatively concrete, familiar situations. In this paper, we argue that people's successes and failures in generalization are well characterized by neural network models. Networks of neurons connected by synaptic weights are naturally predisposed to encode information in a highly specific fashion, which does not support generalization (as has been seized upon by critics of such models). However, with sufficient experience and appropriate architectural properties, such models can develop abstract representations that support good generalization. Implications for the neural bases and development of generalization abilities are discussed.
Affect is considered by most contemporary theories to be postcognitive,
that is, to occur only after considerable cognitive operations have
been accomplished. Yet a number of experimental results on preferences,
attitudes, impression formation, and decision making, as well as
some clinical phenomena, suggest that affective judgments may be
fairly independent of, and precede in time, the sorts of perceptual
and cognitive operations commonly assumed to be the basis of these
affective judgments. Affective reactions to stimuli are often the
very first reactions of the organism, and for lower organisms they
are the dominant reactions. Affective reactions can occur without
extensive perceptual and cognitive encoding, are made with greater
confidence than cognitive judgments, and can be made sooner. Experimental
evidence is presented demonstrating that reliable affective discriminations
(likedislike ratings) can be made in the total absence of recognition
memory (oldnew judgments). Various differences between judgments
based on affect and those based on perceptual and cognitive processes
are examined. It is concluded that affect and cognition are under
the control of separate and partially independent systems that can
influence each other in a variety of ways, and that both constitute
independent sources of effects in information processing. (139 ref)
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Data from several experiments show that, contrary to traditional models of variety seeking, individuals choose to switch to less-preferred options even though they enjoy those items less than they would have enjoyed repeating a more-preferred option. Two explanations for this finding are tested. Results indicate no evidence of a benefit to more-preferred options due to the contrast to less-preferred alternatives. However, the results of three studies suggest that retrospective global evaluations favor varied sequences that also include less-preferred items as opposed to sequences that only include more-preferred items, even though these more varied sequences result in diminished enjoyment during consumption. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.
Our possessions are a major contributor to and reflection of our identities. A variety of evidence is presented supporting this simple and compelling premise. Related streams of research are identified and drawn upon in developing this concept and implications are derived for consumer behavior. Because the construct of extended self involves consumer behavior rather than buyer behavior, it appears to be a much richer construct than previous formulations positing a relationship between self-concept and consumer brand choice.
The purpose of this article is to review basic empirical results from the psychological literature in a way that provides a useful foundation for research on consumer knowledge. A conceptual organization for this diverse literature is provided by two fundamental distinctions. First, consumer expertise is distinguished from product-related experience. Second, five distinct aspects, or dimensions, of expertise are identified: cognitive effort, cognitive structure, analysis, elaboration, and memory. Improvements in the first two dimensions are shown to have general beneficial effects on the latter three. Analysis, elaboration, and memory are shown to have more specific interrelationships. The empirical findings related to each dimension are reviewed and, on the basis of those findings, specific research hypotheses about the effects of expertise on consumer behavior are suggested.
Two consumer strategies for the purchase of multiple items from a product class are contrasted. In one strategy (simultaneous choices/sequential consumption), the consumer buys several items on one shopping trip and consumes the items over several consumption occasions. In the other strategy (sequential choices/sequential consumption), the consumer buys one item at a time, just before each consumption occasion. The first strategy is posited to yield more variety seeking than the second. The greater variety seeking is attributed to forces operating in the simultaneous choices/sequential consumption strategy, including uncertainty about future preferences and a desire to simplify the decision. Evidence from three studies, two involving real products and choices, is consistent with these conjectures. The implications and limitations of the results are discussed.
The authors examine how brand preferences and response to marketing activity evolve for consumers new to a market. They develop a theoretical framework that begins with a consumer's first-ever purchase in a product category and describes subsequent purchases as components of sequential purchasing stages. The theory is based on the notion that choices made by consumers new to a market are driven by two competing forces: consumers' desire to collect information about alternatives and their aversion to trying risky ones. These forces give rise to three stages of purchasing: an information collection stage that focuses initially on low-risk, big brand names; a stage in which information collection continues but is extended to lesser-known brands; and a stage of information consolidation leading to preference for the brands that provide the greatest utility. The authors use a logit-mixture model with time-varying parameters to capture the choice dynamics of different consumer segments. The results show the importance of accounting for product experience and learning when studying the dynamic choice processes of consumers new to a market. Insights from this study can help marketers tailor their marketing activities as consumers gain purchasing experience.
Two consumer strategies for the purchase of multiple items from a product class are contrasted. In one strategy (simultaneous choices/sequential consumption), the consumer buys several items on one shopping trip and consumes the items over several consumption occasions. In the other strategy (sequential choices/sequential consumption), the consumer buys one item at a time, just before each consumption occasion. The first strategy is posited to yield more variety seeking than the second. The greater variety seeking is attributed to forces operating in the simultaneous choices/sequential consumption strategy, including uncertainty about future preferences and a desire to simplify the decision. Evidence from three studies, two involving real products and choices, is consistent with these conjectures. The implications and limitations of the results are discussed.
Mfost of social psychology's theories of the self fail to take into account the significance of social identification in the definition of self. Social identities are self-definitions that are more inclusive than the individuated self-concept of most American psychology. A model of optimal distinctiveness is proposed in which social identity is viewed as a reconciliation of opposing needs for assimilation and differentiation from others. According to this model, individuals avoid self-construals that are either too personalized or too inclusive and instead define themselves in terms of distinctive category memberships. Social identity and group loyalty are hypothesized to be strongest for those self-categorizations that simultaneously provide for a sense of belonging and a sense of distinctiveness. Results from an initial laboratory experiment support the prediction that depersonalization and group size interact as determinants of the strength of social identification.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
What is the role of early experiences in shaping preferences? What are the mechanisms by which such early encounters influence the way preferences are formed? In this research, we examine the impact of the entry position and favorability of initial (and ongoing) experiences on preference development. We predict that the starting point will heavily influence which particular region people select from initially, and favorableness of early experiences and myopic search will both limit their search to that particular region. Across four studies, we find that when the initial experiences are favorable, subjects engage in lower levels of search, experience only a narrow breadth of possible alternatives, demonstrate less ongoing experimentation, and have a reduction in the amount of preference development.
The aficionado consumer is one who consumes and enjoys a hedonic product regularly but has failed to obtain product expertise from his/her many experiences. We conceptualize the aficionado as having asymmetric perceptual and conceptual knowledge and posit that when these two types of knowledge are bridged with a sensory consumption vocabulary, the aficionados are better able to learn from their experiences. In experiment 1, we find that providing aficionados a cross-modal learning tool (wine aroma wheel) during their tasting helps them strengthen their experiential memory and withstand influence from misleading marketing communications. We also find that when aficionados are presented with a misleading consumption vocabulary during their tasting, they more readily accept the marketing misinformation that results in memory distortion. In experiment 2, we find that accurate multisensory information delivered through either the wine aroma wheel or advertising can enhance how aficionados learn from their direct tasting experience. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
This paper deals with the general problem of the acquisition of positive affective responses, by study of the reversal of an innate aversion to the irritant properties of chili pepper. Interviews, observations, and measurements were carried out in both Mexico and the United States. Exposure to gradually increasing levels of chili in food seems to be a sufficient condition for preference development. Chili likers are not insensitive to the irritation that it produces. They come to like the same burning sensation that deters animals and humans that dislike chili; there is a clear hedonic shift. This could be produced by association with positive events, including enhancement of the taste of bland foods, postingestional effects, or social rewards. It is also possible that the initial negative response to chili pepper is essential for the eventual liking. Chili stimulates an innate sensory warning system but is not harmful. The enjoyment of the irritation may result from the user's appreciation that the sensation and the body's defensive reaction to it are harmless. Eating of chili, riding on roller coasters, taking very hot baths, and many other human activities can be considered instances of thrill seeking or enjoyment of constrained risks. Evidence for and against various explanations of chili ingestion is presented.
What is the role of early experiences in shaping preferences? What are the mechanisms by which such early encounters influence the way preferences are formed? In this research, we examine the impact of the entry position and favorability of initial (and ongoing) experiences on preference development. We predict that the starting point will heavily influence which particular region people select from initially, and favorableness of early experiences and myopic search will both limit their search to that particular region. Across four studies, we find that when the initial experiences are favorable, subjects engage in lower levels of search, experience only a narrow breadth of possible alternatives, demonstrate less ongoing experimentation, and have a reduction in the amount of preference development.
Consumers' understanding of their own preferences can be aided by a "consumption vocabulary"--a taxonomy or framework that facilitates identifying the relation between a product's features and one's evaluation of the product. In the absence of such a vocabulary, consumers' understanding of their own preferences will require more extensive experience and may never fully develop. The effect of such a vocabulary is tested in two experiments in which subjects provided with a vocabulary (1) exhibit better-defined and more consistent preferences than control subjects, (2) show improved cue discovery, and (3) show learning (i.e., increases in consistency over time). All results hold regardless of the functional form of the model used to assess subjects' preference formation. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.
Mere exposure to a brand name or product package can encourage a consumer to have a more favorable attitude toward the brand, even when the consumer cannot recollect the initial exposure. This article provides evidence that mere exposure effects persist when initial exposures to brand names and product packages are incidental, devoid of any intentional effort to process the brand information. These unintentional mere exposure effects are attributed to preattentive processes and are explained through hemispheric processing theory.
An experiment was conducted to clarify the nature of the influence active in most prior marketing research on the social influence process. Experimental subjects were exposed to evaluations of coffee which were attributed to either a similar or dissimilar source. These evaluations were high in uniformity, low in uniformity or of unknown uniformity. Subjects then tasted and evaluated the coffee. The subjects' evaluations were made either under a visible (identifiable) condition or an anonymous condition. The data supported a hypothesis of informational social influence.
Taste and smell are considered important influences on food selection and intake. However, the exact nature of the effects of chemical sensory function on dietary habits is still unclear. Future research concerning this interaction should facilitate the development of optimal dietary guidelines concerning the palatability of foods for children. At present, however, some broad generalizations about sensory development and food acceptance can be made. First, sweet preference appears innate, and thus addition of sweet substances is almost certain to increase the palatability of foods. Conversely, aversions to bitterness appear from a very early age, and thus bitter flavors are likely to decrease palatability. Third, saltiness may be aversive or neutral to infants, with adult patterns of salt preference not appearing until about age 2. Fourth, odors, including volatile flavors like cherry, which are perceived via the olfactory receptors, cannot be expected to have much impact on children until about age 5. Even though children can detect such odors, their likes and dislikes are attenuated. Finally, young children probably find strong or irritative sensations in the mouth, e.g., from carbonation or pepper, to be aversive.
Salt appetite and sodium intake in humans are controlled in part by taste. A distinction can be drawn between salt appetite that occurs when the organism is sodium deficient (in need) and when the organism has sufficient sodium stores (non-need) but continues to ingest salt. Although the latter case is most relevant to human sodium consumption, little is known about its physiologic, developmental, and experiential bases. Recent studies show that changes in dietary sodium consumption are followed by taste changes. Moderate decreases in dietary sodium of 2 months or more are followed by a decrease in the concentration of salt in food judged most pleasant.
In order to determine the effects of mere exposure on liking for edible substances, male undergraduate subjects tasted previously unfamiliar tropical fruit juices 20, 10, 5 or 0 times. After this exposure phase, subjects rated each of the juices in terms of their liking for its taste. The results showed a strong exposure effect such that the more frequently a juice had been tasted, the better it was liked. It was suggested that the mere exposure effect may play a role in the acquisition of food preferences.
The relationship between frequency of exposure to foods and preference for those foods was investigated in two experiments. Participants in both studies were two-year-old children. In Experiment 1, each of six children received 20, 15, 10, 5 or 2 exposures of five initially novel cheeses during a 26-day series of familiarization trials in which one pair of foods was presented per day. In Experiment 2, eight children received 20, 15, 10, 5 and 0 exposures to five initially novel fruits, following the same familiarization procedures, for 25 days. The particular food assigned to an exposure frequency was counterbalanced over subjects. Initial novelty was ascertained through food history information. Within ten days after the familiarization trials, children were given ten choice trials, comprising all possible pairs of the five foods. Thurstone scaling solutions were obtained for the series of choices: when the resulting scale values for the five stimuli were correlated with exposure frequency, values of r = 0·95, p < 0·02; r = 0·97, p < 0·01; and r = 0·94, p < 0·02 were obtained for the data of Experiments 1, 2, and the combined sample, respectively. A second analysis, employing subjects rather than stimuli as degrees of freedom, revealed that 13 of 14 subjects chose the more familiar stimulus in the sequence of ten choice trials at greater than the level expected by chance, providing evidence for effects within subjects as well as consistency across subjects. These results indicate that preference is an increasing function of exposure frequency. The data are consistent with the mere exposure hypothesis (Zajonc, 1968) as well as with the literature on the role of neophobia in food selection of animals other than man.
There are two polar schools of thought regarding the existence of preferences. The "economics" tradition is based on the assumption of existing preferences. The emerging "constructive" processing approach assumes preferences are constructed based on the task and context factors present during choice or preference elicitation. Most researchers believe in a middle ground where consumers construct their preferences when they are new to a category and eventually develop more stable preferences with experience in a domain. This research is designed to bridge the gap between these two schools of thought by understanding the process by which preferences are learned and developed over time. Specifically, we investigated the impact of several dimensions of experience (effort, choice, and experience) on preference stability. Results revealed that the type of experience and its corresponding effort had a large impact on the process of preference development. Study 1 demonstrated that by exposing subjects to the tradeoffs in their environment, their preferences developed and stabilized most rapidly. In addition, the act of making a choice (Study 2) and repeated choices (Study 3) both led to increased preference stability, as indicated by measures of objective and subjective preference stability. Consider the decision process of a soon-to-be-parent who is in the market for a dazzling array of products that he has never considered before. He decides that his first purchase is going to be a baby stroller. As he evaluates strollers he notices that some of the strollers are quite heavy while others are rather light. Thus, he learns that the weight of the stroller is one differentiating attribute. He could infer that a heavier stroller is more stable and thus favor the heavy strollers. I...
The essential wine guide
- A D Blue
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Social learning theory Lean Lipps I don't like it: i never tried it: effects of exposure on two-year-old children's food preferences
- Bandura
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- Diane Marlin
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The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Beer
- R Protz
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Consumer learning and expertise Handbook of consumer psychology (pp. 103–132) Preattentive mere exposure effects
- J Hutchinson
- Wesley
- Eric M Eisenstein
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Looking Innovative: Gender Asymmetries in Impression Management via High Tech Product Use
- Stacy Wood
- Steve Hoeffler
Wood, Stacy and Steve Hoeffler (2005), "Looking Innovative: Gender Asymmetries in
Impression Management via High Tech Product Use," working paper, University
of North Carolina.
Capsules of Social Wisdom
- Edward A Ross
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