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People are able to order food using a variety of computer devices, such as desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Even in restaurants, patrons can place orders on computer screens. Can the interface that consumers use affect their choice of food? The authors focus on the "direct-touch" aspect of touch interfaces, whereby users can touch the screen in an interactive manner. In a series of five studies, they show that a touch interface, such as that provided by an iPad, compared with a nontouch interface, such as that of a desktop computer with a mouse, facilitates the choice of an affect-laden alternative over a cognitively superior one--what the authors call the "directtouch effect." The studies provide some mediational support that the directtouch effect is driven by the enhancedmental simulation of product interaction with themore affective choice alternative on touch interfaces. The authors also test the moderator of this effect. Using multiple product pairs as stimuli, the authors obtain consistent results, which have rich theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion and rationality are fundamental elements of human life. They are abstract concepts, often difficult to define and grasp. Thus throughout the history of Western society, the head and the heart, concrete and identifiable elements, have been used as symbols of rationality and emotion. Drawing on the conceptual metaphor framework, we propose that people understand the abstract concepts of rationality and emotion using knowledge of a more concrete concept--the vertical difference between the head and heart. In six studies, we show a deep-seated conceptual metaphorical relationship linking rationality with "up" or "higher" and emotion with "down" or "lower." We show that the association between verticality and rationality/emotion affects how consumers perceive information and thereby has downstream consequences on attitudes and preferences. We find the association to be most influential when consumers are unaware of it and when it applies to an unfamiliar stimulus. Because all visual formats--from the printed page to screens on a television, computer, or smartphone--entail a vertical placement, this association has important managerial implications. Our studies implement multiple methodologies and technologies and use manipulations of logos, websites, food advertisements, and political slogans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain tactical aspects of bundling are studied to determine pricing strategies that stimulate the desire of consumers to make a purchase. An interactive computer experiment involving 83 post-graduate students of business was used to test several hypotheses. Results show that bundled complementary items attracted more purchases, bundle price increases revealed consumer sensitivity to the changes, and presentation formats were effective. In addition, respondents who were familiar with the bundles displayed different reactions compared to those who had no familiarity whatsoever.

Consumers often have to make trade‐offs between desirable, "more is better," and undesirable, "less is better," attributes. What drives whether the desirable or the undesirable attributes will be weighed more heavily in decisions? We show that the extent to which consumers focus on desirable versus undesirable attributes depends on the overall attractiveness of their consideration sets. The less attractive the options under consideration are—the higher is the weight allocated to undesirable attributes, such as price. Three experiments set in the contexts of lottery ticket purchasing (study 1), hotel booking (study 2), elections (study 3), and a conjoint study of online course evaluations (study 4) (N = 2,149, p‐curve power estimate 90%), demonstrate that unattractive sets increase the relative weight of "undesirable" attributes (e.g., price of a product, workload of a course) and lead to increased preference for options superior on these attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food has a daily impact on all consumers, requiring frequent evaluations and decisions pre‐consumption, during, and post‐consumption. Given the number of consumer interactions and the complexity of the food consumption process, researchers have increasingly studied food from both a sensory standpoint and cognitive standpoint. In this review, we create a framework for this existing research. Specifically, we discuss research addressing the key sensory drivers of taste perceptions and consumption, including all five senses: vision, olfaction, audition, haptic, and/or taste. We also identify key cognitive contextual drivers of taste perception and consumption within a marketing context, including social cues, atmospherics, branding, and advertising. Building from the extant literature, we generate and propose areas for future food‐related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Size labels adopted by food vendors can have a major impact on size,judgments and consumption. In forming size judgments, consumers integrate the actual size information from the stimuli with the semantic cue from the size label. Size labels influence not only size perception and actual consumption, they also affect perceived consumption. Size labels can also result in relative perceived size reversals, so that consumers deem a smaller package to be bigger than a larger one. Further, consumers are more likely to believe a label that professes an item to be smaller (vs. larger) in the size range associated with that item. This asymmetric effect of size labels can result in larger consumption without the consumer even being aware of it ("guiltless gluttony"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the number of volume judgments made by consumers, for example, deciding which package is larger and by how much, it is surprising that little research pertaining to volume perceptions has been done in marketing. In this article, the authors examine the interplay of expectations based on perceptual inputs versus experiences based on sensory input in the context of volume perceptions. Specifically, they examine biases in the perception of volume due to container shape. The height of the container emerges as a vital dimension that consumers appear to use as a simplifying visual heuristic to make a volume judgment. However, perceived consumption, contrary to perceived volume, is related inversely to height. This lowered perceived consumption is hypothesized and shown to increase actual consumption. A series of seven laboratory experiments programmatically test model predictions. Results show that perceived volume, perceived consumption, and actual consumption are related sequentially. Furthermore, the authors show that container shape affects preference, choice, and post-consumption satisfaction. The authors discuss theoretical implications for contrast effects when expectancies are disconfirmed, specifically as they relate to biases in visual information processing, and provide managerial implications of the results for package design, communication, and pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It is well known that growing portion sizes increase consumption, but grossly enlarged portions also cause consumers to face more and more food leftovers. Despite the relevance of food leftovers, downstream effects of having more food leftovers on consumers' affect and behavior are unknown. In five studies, the authors test the idea that consumers may judge their actual consumption by looking at their leftovers. As such, larger leftovers may reduce perceived consumption and also impact other eating-related behaviors. Using both real and imagined food consumption and leftovers, the authors find that, holding the absolute amount of food consumption equal, larger (vs. smaller) food leftovers lead to reduced perceived consumption. This difference in perceived consumption has consequences for people's motivation to compensate for their eating. Larger (vs. smaller) food leftovers cause them to eat more in a subsequent unrelated food consumption task, and also to exercise less in an explicit calorie compensation task. The psychological drivers of this phenomenon are twofold: larger leftovers reduce perceived consumption, which leads people to feel better about themselves; and feeling better about themselves, in turn, reduces people's motivation to compensate. This research reveals a previously unknown negative consequence of grossly enlarged portion sizes and informs research on perceived consumption. Highlights • People often have food leftovers, which may impact their eating behavior. • Given equal actual consumption, larger (vs. smaller) food leftovers made people feel they ate less. • As a result, larger (vs. smaller) food leftovers led people to eat more and exercise less later. • These findings have implications for the success of "Just Eat Half" interventions. • The findings also underscore the importance of portion-size oriented policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the key factors that influence a firm's decision whether to use front-loaded or rear-loaded incentives. When using price packs, direct mail coupons, FSI coupons or peel-off coupons, consumers obtain an immediate benefit upon purchase or a front-loaded incentive. However, when buying products with in-pack coupons or products affiliated with loyalty programs, promotion incentives are obtained on the next purchase occasion or later, i.e., a rear-loaded incentive. Our analysis shows that the innate choice process of consumers in a market (variety-seeking or inertia) is an important determinant of the relative impact of front-loaded and rear-loaded promotions. While in both variety-seeking and inertial markets, the sales impact and the sales on discount are higher for front-loaded promotions than for rear-loaded promotions, from a profitability perspective, rear-loaded promotions may be better than front-loaded promotions. We show that in markets with high variety-seeking it is more profitable for a firm to rear-load, and in markets with high inertia it is more profitable to front-load. Model implications are verified using two empirical studies: (a) a longitudinal experiment (simulating markets with variety-seeking consumers and inertial consumers) and (b) market data on promotion usage. The data in both studies are consistent with the model predictions., 1. Introduction Consumer promotions account for approximately 25% of the $150 160 billion spent every year by packaged goods manufacturers on promotions (Cox Direct 1997). Manufacturers use many different kinds [...]

An introduction is presented for several previously published articles on consumer research, together with abstracts of these articles, discussing topics such as individual food decision making, consumer behavior and product labels, and the link between perceptual biases and overconsumption.

The target article by John Jost (2017 – this issue) focuses on political ideology (liberalism vs. conservatism) and its association with personal characteristics, cognitive processing style, and motivational interests. Jost's arguments and data are very compelling and will inspire consumer psychologists to do more research in the political domain. To enable this goal further, we complement the target article by focusing on partisanship, another major determinant of political judgments and decisions. Whereas political ideology refers to people being more liberal or conservative, partisanship refers to how strongly people identify with a specific political party (e.g., Republicans or Democrats). In reviewing the literature on partisanship, we concentrate on voting behaviors and attitudes, an area not addressed by Jost, but of great importance for consumer psychologists given the large expenditures on political advertising. Adding to Jost's discussion of the link between political ideology and systematic processing, we examine the interplay between these two constructs and partisanship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]