Leader-driven primacy uses initial product information to install a targeted brand as the early leader in a choice between two brands. Biased evaluation of subsequent attributes builds support for the targeted brand, causing the choice itself to be biased. Study 1 finds evidence of this effect...

How do consumers manage goal conflicts before making a choice? This question was studied by examining emerging preferences in choices involving two products that were means to conflicting goals. These preference patterns revealed that an initially active goal, which had been set aside to...

This study examines the role of optimum stimulation level (SOL) in exploratory consumer behavior. The concept of SOL and its measurement are discussed, and the literature on exploratory consumer tendencies and their relationship with SOL is reviewed. Hypotheses are developed concerning the...

We investigate how extraneous or incidental emotions influence product evaluations as a function of consumers' salient goals. By manipulating specific emotions that correspond closely to two basic categories of human goals (achievement vs. protection), we extend affect-as-information theory and...

Personality research has long been a fringe player in the study of consumer behavior. Little research is directly devoted to personality issues, and if consumer personality is investigated at all, it tends to be from the narrow perspective of developing yet another individual difference measure...

Assessing the applicability of frameworks developed in one country to other countries is an important step in establishing the generalizability of consumer behavior theories. In order for such comparisons to be meaningful, however, the instruments used to measure the theoretical constructs of...

This article investigates how the individual difference variable of state versus action orientation moderates the pattern of relationships among constructs in the theory of reasoned action. State orientation refers to a low capacity for the enactment of action-related mental structures, whereas...

People need to allocate their limited cognitive resources to current and future tasks. We provide evidence that anticipating the resource demands of a future task creates a "get ready mind-set" that mobilizes these resources. However, the mobilized resources for the future task can carry over to...

Surveys in the social sciences often employ rating scales anchored by response category labels such as “strongly (dis)agree” or “completely (dis)agree.” Although these labels may exert a systematic influence on responses since they are common to all items, academic research on the effect...