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This research examined attitudes toward condom purchase. Recent evidence is mixed. While some studies show attitudes have become more positive, other studies suggest that negative attitudes still dominate. Our own research examined the possibility that such attitudes may be ambivalent, meaning that the same individuals may simultaneously hold both positive and negative beliefs about condom purchase. The results confirmed this prediction. Study 1 showed that condom purchase evoked a combination of both negative beliefs about lifestyles and positive beliefs concerning the personal confidence of the consumer. These beliefs had competing effects on more global attitudes toward condom purchase. Specific beliefs about condoms were shown to provide the best indication of whether participants actually used condoms. Study 2 employed standard measures of attitudinal ambivalence. The results conceptually replicated the finding that ambivalence was greater for those who purchased condoms compared to controls.

The psychometric properties of consumer affect produced by a sales promotion offer like price discount, coupon redemption, free gift, and others are examined. With reference to the existing sales promotion and emotion literature, a new 28-item scale instrument, the Promotion Affect Sales (PAS) that measures affective response to promotion is proposed.

Conventional wisdom suggests that more concrete and detailed information is helpful in evaluating new products. The current research, however, demonstrates that when consumers use visualization to evaluate new products, the value of concrete versus abstract visualization is dependent on the temporal perspective taken by the consumer. Specifically, concrete information is beneficial when product visualization is retrospective in nature (i.e., focused on the past), whereas abstract information is found to be more helpful when product visualization is anticipatory in nature (i.e., geared toward the future). This occurs because the match between visualization aids and consumers’ temporal construal facilitates the extent of imagery processing realized, which, in turn, enhances new product evaluation. When the new product is very difficult to visualize, this pattern of effects is attenuated. Further, the effect is reversed when the product is highly familiar (i.e., not a new product), as preexisting memories are shown to hinder imagery processing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]