We hypothesize that the accessibility of task-relevant knowledge determines whether judgments reflect the substance of the information that is brought to mind or the ease of generating and retrieving such information. Our findings indicate that when relevant knowledge is highly accessible or not...

Choices of multiple items can be framed as a selection of single offerings (e.g., a choice of two individual candy bars) or of bundled offerings (e.g., a choice of a bundle of two candy bars). Four experiments provide strong evidence that consumers seek more variety when choosing from single...

Respondents in five experiments were more likely to choose a brand when the brand name started with letters from their names than when it did not, a choice phenomenon we call "name letter branding." We propose that during a first stage an active need to self-enhance increases the positive...

Three experiments explore how presenting a new product launch as occurring in the future versus the past affects the information used to evaluate the product. When a launch is described as a future event, marketplace conditions and characteristics of the sponsoring company receive consideration,...