Showing papers by "James R. Bettman published in 2008"

Of chameleons and consumption: The impact of mimicry on choice and preferences.

Abstract: This article investigates the effect of mimicry on consumer product consumption and appraisal. We propose and test two paths via which mimicry may influence product preferences. In the mimicking consumer path, we suggest that individuals automatically mimic the consumption behaviors of other people and that such mimicry then affects preferences toward the product(s) consumed. In the mimicked consumer path, we argue that being mimicked leads to increased prosociality, which affects preferences for products presented in dyadic interactions. Three studies confirm the two paths and suggest that mimicry can indeed influence product preferences.

Boundary Conditions on Unconscious Thought in Complex Decision Making

Abstract: Should individuals delegate thinking about complex choice problems to the unconscious? We tested two boundary conditions on this suggestion First, we found that in a decision environment similar to those studied previously, self-paced conscious thought and unconscious thought had similar advantages over conscious thought constrained to a long fixed time interval in terms of identifying the option with the highest number of positive outcomes Second, we found that self-paced conscious thought performed better than unconscious thought in a second decision environment where performance depended to a greater extent on magnitudes of the attributes Thus, we argue that it is critical to take into account the interaction of forms of processing with task demands (choice environments) when considering how to approach complex choice problems

Walking with the scarecrow: The information-processing approach to decision research.

Abstract: From the mid-twentieth century on, the “information-processing” approach has been a theoretical and methodological framework (paradigm) driving much research on human judgment and choice. Part of the so-called “cognitive revolution” in psychology, this approach builds upon the pioneering work of Herbert A. Simon. By the time this volume is published, it will be almost exactly 50 years since Simon’s path-breaking 1955 article on the concept of bounded rationality. Our chapter takes its title from the classic tale of the Wizard of Oz (Baum, 1903), in which the Tin Man seeks a heart, the Lion courage, and the Scarecrow a brain. The information-processing approach to decision research has traditionally focused on understanding the cognitive (mind/brain) aspects of decision making; however, as noted later in this chapter, recent work has attempted to integrate the cognitive with more emotional and motivational aspects of decision making (Luce, Bettman, & Payne, 2001; Shiv & Fedorikhin, 1999). Simon captures three key aspects of the information-processing approach to decision research in the following quotes:

Findings---Biased but Efficient: An Investigation of Coordination Facilitated by Asymmetric Dominance

Abstract: In several marketing contexts, strategic complementarity between the actions of individual players demands that players coordinate their decisions to reach efficient outcomes. Yet coordination failure is a common occurrence. We show that the well-established psychological phenomenon of asymmetric dominance can facilitate coordination in two experiments. Thus, we demonstrate a counterintuitive result: A common bias in individual decision making can help players to coordinate their decisions to obtain efficient outcomes. Further, limited steps of thinking alone cannot account for the observed asymmetric dominance effect. The effect appears to be due to increased psychological attractiveness of the dominating strategy, with our estimates of the incremental attractiveness ranging from 3%--6%. A learning analysis further clarifies that asymmetric dominance and adaptive learning can guide players to an efficient outcome.

Discounting Time and Time Discounting: Subjective Time Perception and Intertemporal Preferences

Abstract: Consumers often make decisions about outcomes and events that occur over time. This research examines consumers’ sensitivity to the prospective duration relevant to their decisions and the implications of such sensitivity for intertemporal trade-offs, especially the degree of present bias (i.e., hyperbolic discounting). The authors show that participants’ subjective perceptions of prospective duration are not sufficiently sensitive to changes in objective duration and are nonlinear and concave in objective time, consistent with psychophysical principles. More important, this lack of sensitivity can explain hyperbolic discounting. The results replicate standard hyperbolic discounting effects with respect to objective time but show a relatively constant rate of discounting with respect to subjective time perceptions. The results are replicated between subjects (Experiment 1) and within subjects (Experiments 2), with multiple time horizons and multiple descriptors, and with different measurement orders. Furthermore, the authors show that when duration is primed, subjective time perception is altered (Experiment 4) and hyperbolic discounting is reduced (Experiment 3).

Charitable Giving: How Ego-Threats Impact Donations of Time and Money

Abstract: Rod Duclos: Charitable Giving: How Ego-Threats Impact Donations of Time and Money (Under the direction of Gary Armstrong, Jim Bettman, Paul Bloom, Charlotte Mason, and Gal Zauberman) Consumers can exhibit charitableness in a variety of ways, e.g., by reading to the blind, serving food to the hungry, donating money to the needy, etc. Broadly speaking, however, donation behavior can take one of two forms: One can volunteer time or money. Across four experiments, we examine how and why ego-threats, i.e., menaces to one‟s sense of self and identity, can help foster charitable behavior and lead consumers to prefer donating time over money to their favorite charities. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theory and practice.

Subjective Time and Decisions: The Role of Perception and Experience of Time in Consumer Decision Making

Abstract: SESSION OVERVIEW Almost every decision that a consumer engages in has a temporal dimension. For instance, consumer decisions on which shipping option to choose and how long to wait for service, whether and when to save for future, decisions to keep on waiting on hold when calling customer service or renege from queue, all involve time decisions. While oftentimes the end behavioral variable studied varies, e.g. line chosen, time delivery option, renege or stay; most of them deal with first making a time estimate that is often biased that then leads them to display a downstream behavior. Prior research in different domains have often looked at this problem as either a pure time perception problem or alternatively as an intertemporal decision with the implicit or explicit assumption that time perceptions are unbiased and it is the outcomes valuation that changes at different points in time. Unlike previous research, the three papers in this symposia systematically study how consumers perceive and experience time, and point out the important consumer behavior implications in intertempooral as well as non-temporal settings. Specifically, these three papers explore