Consumer Psychology:

Retrospect and
Prospect
Hans Baumgartner
Penn State University

Consumer Psychology

Overview
Retrospect

Influential streams of research in consumer

psychology (1956-2007)
Types of influential articles

Prospect

Consumer psychology in the third millennium

Examples of recent research originating in the
substantive, conceptual and methodological
domains

Consumer Psychology

Which research streams and articles

have had an impact?
Citation analysis (based on SSCI) for all articles published in
JCR (1974-2007), JMR (1964-2007), and JM (1956-2007)
For articles published since 1974:
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Total # of
articles

Total # of
citations

(2) (1)

# of
articles
cited 100

# of
citations of
articles
cited 100

(4) (1)

(5) (2)

JCR

1,503

58,232

39

125

22,285

8%

38%

JMR

1,646

57,966

35

112

23,512

7%

41%

JM

1,374

58,279

42

150

32,373

11%

56%

Overall

4,523

174,477

39

387

78,170

9%

45%

Consumer Psychology

Categorization of influential
articles
Articles were classified using the scheme shown on
the next slide;
Articles in JCR, JMR, and JM were categorized;
Articles with at least 100 citations are shown (the
number of citations follows each article), although
articles with a smaller number of citations were also
classified;
Articles reporting empirical studies are underlined;

Consumer Psychology

Categorization of research streams

Marketing influences

Psychological
foundation
Cognition
Affect
Motivation &
personality

Product programs
Price programs
Marketing communication programs
Distribution programs

The purchase
process
Types of purchase
behavior
Decision making and
choice
The consumption
experience
Post-purchase
processes

Environmental
influences
Physical environmental influences
Social environmental influences

Consumer Psychology

Psychological foundation research:

Cognition
Consumer knowledge, expertise and familiarity
Alba and Hutchinson (1987) 579

Consumer memory
Lynch and Srull (1982) 172

Consumer inferences
Meyer (1981) 108 , Huber and McCann (1982) 142 , Folkes (1988) 135 ,
Kardes (1988) 100

Imagery processing
MacInnis and Price (1987) 114

Consumer learning
Hoch and Ha (1986) 193 , Johnson and Russo (1984) 190 ,
Hoch and Deighton (1989) 165

Consumer Psychology

Psychological foundation research:

Affect
Mood

Gardner (1985) 200

Consumption emotions

Richins (1997) 103

Consumer Psychology

Psychological foundation research:

Motivation & personality
Perceived risk

Roselius (1971) 118

Involvement

Conceptual essays: Bloch and Richins (1983) 129 , Greenwald and Leavitt
(1984) 213

Scales: Zaichkowsky (1985) 470 , Laurent and Kapferer (1985) 215

Effects on attention and comprehension: Celsi and Olson (1988) 277

Psychographics and values

Psychographics: Wells (1975) 123
Materialism: Belk (1985) 189 , Richins and Dawson (1992) 219

Consumer Psychology

Psychological foundation research:

Motivation & personality (contd)
Purchasing motives
Shopping motives: Tauber (1972) 108
Means-end chains: Gutman (1982) 195

Consumer personality
Review of theories: Kassarjian (1971) 128
Innovativeness: Midgley and Dowling (1978) 141 , Hirschman (1980) 117 ,

Dickerson and Gentry (1983) 117

Scales: Raju (1980) 143 , Shimp and Sharma (1987) 152 , Bearden,
Netemeyer, and Teel (1989) 146

The self
Self-concept: Sirgy (1982) 181
Products as social stimuli: Solomon (1983) 195
Possessions and the extended self: Belk (1988) 495

Consumer Psychology

The purchase process

Types of purchase behavior:

Hedonic consumption: Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) 414 , Hirschman and

Holbrook (1982) 279

Utilitarian/hedonic shopping value: Babin, Darden, and Griffin (1994) 171

Variety seeking: McAlister and Pessemier (1982) 140
Impulsive and compulsive buying: Rook (1987) 171 , OGuinn and Faber

(1989) 186

Decision making and choice:

Consumer search

Amount of search: Newman and Staelin (1972) 124 , Punj and Staelin (1983)
127 , Brucks (1985) 251 , Bloch, Sherrell, and Ridgway (1986) 160 , Beatty and
Smith (1987) 170

Information overload: Jacoby, Speller, and Berning (1974) 140 , Jacoby,

Speller, and Kohn (1974) 169 , Malhotra (1982) 111

Consumer Psychology

The purchase process (contd)

Decision making and choice (contd):

Preference formation:

Multi-attribute model: Wilkie and Pessemier (1973) 320

Affective influences: Zajonc and Markus (1982) 196
Schemas: Sujan (1985) 253 , Meyers-Levy and Tybout (1989) 159
Time-inconsistent preferences and affect vs. cognition in choice:
Hoch and Loewenstein (1991) 134 , Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999) 125

Pioneering advantage: Carpenter and Nakamoto (1989) 193

The decision making process:

Decision-making strategies and constructive choice processes:

Wright (1975) 157 , Bettman and Kakkar (1977) 179 , Lussier and Olshavsky
(1979) 121 , Bettman and Park (1980) 281 , Park and Lessig (1981) 113 ,
Bettman, Luce, and Payne (1998) 225 , Luce (1998) 106

Lack of decision making: Olshavsky and Granbois (1979) 131

Cost of thinking: Shugan (1980) 205
Noncomparable alternatives:
Johnson (1984) 126 , Bettman and Sujan (1987) 126

Consumer Psychology

The purchase process (contd)

Decision making and choice (contd):

Consideration sets:
Nedungadi (1990) 156 , Hauser and Wernerfelt (1990) 144

Consumer choice:

Memory-based choice: Lynch, Marmorstein, and Weigold (1988) 120

Attraction and compromise effects:
Huber, Payne and Puto (1982) 256 , Huber and Puto (1983) 106 , Simonson
(1989) 255 , Simonson and Tversky (1992) 259

Regret and choice deferral: Simonson (1992) 126 , Dhar (1997) 102

Post-purchase processes

Consumer satisfaction

Expectations: Cardozo (1965) 104 , Anderson (1973) 149

ED models: Oliver (1980) 593 , Churchill and Surprenant (1982) 314
Repurchase and switching: LaBarbera and Mazursky (1983) 113
Alternative comparison standards:
Cadotte, Woodruff, and Jenkins (1987) 149 , Tse and Wilton (1988) 205

Consumer Psychology

The purchase process (contd)

Post-purchase processes (contd)

Consumer satisfaction (contd)

Equity theory: Oliver and Swan (1989) 104 , Oliver and Swan (1989) 186
Comparison of theories: Oliver and DeSarbo (1988) 191
Desires congruency: Spreng, MacKenzie, and Olshavsky (1996) 160
Positive/negative performance: Mittal, Ross, and Baldasare (1998) 106
Affective influences:
Westbrook (1987) 183 , Westbrook and Oliver (1991) 165 , Oliver (1993)
213 , Mano and Oliver (1993) 163

Satisfaction indices: Fornell (1992) 239 , Fornell et al. (1996) 220

Satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase

Oliver (1999) 197 , Garbarino and Johnson (1999) 219 , Mittal and Kamakura
(2001) 112

Consequences of dissatisfaction
Bearden and Teel (1983) 176 , Richins (1983) 168 , Folkes (1984) 151

Consumer Psychology

Environmental influences
Situational influences
Belk (1975) 225 , Milliman (1982) 118

Adoption of innovation
Gatignon and Robertson (1985) 181 , Steenkamp, ter Hofstede, and Wedel
(1999) 112

Interpersonal influences

WOM influence: Arndt (1967) 109 , Brown and Reingen (1987) 106, Herr,
Kardes, and Kim (1991) 135

Reference group influence: Bearden and Etzel (1982) 129

Market mavens: Feick and Price (1987) 114

Household and group decision making

Davis and Rigaux (1974) 113 , Davis (1976) 133

Consumer socialization
Ward (1974) 131

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences: Product programs

Quality and value
Expectations and quality: Olshavsky and Miller (1972) 107
Quality, price, and value: Zeithaml (1988) 568
Extrinsic cues: Rao and Monroe (1988) 137 , Rao and Monroe (1989) 156 ,

Dodds, Monroe, and Grewal (1991) 229

Corporate associations: Brown and Dacin (1997) 119

Brands, brand equity, and brand relationships

Brand concept management: Park, Jaworski, and MacInnis (1986) 135
Brand equity: Keller (1993) 387
Brand personality: Aaker (1997) 133
Brand relationships: Fournier (1998) 254

Brand extension
Aaker and Keller (1990) 232 , Boush and Loken (1991) 125 , Park, Milberg, and
Lawson (1991) 122 , Keller and Aaker (1992) 138 , Loken and John (1993) 106 ,
Broniarczyk and Alba (1994) 122

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences: Product programs

The service encounter and servicescapes

Service encounter: Solomon and Surprenant (1985) 184 , Surprenant and

Solomon (1987) 102 , Arnould and Price (1993) 163

Servicescapes: Bitner (1990) 368 , Bitner (1992) 262

Crowding and delays: Hui and Bateson (1991) 111 , Taylor (1994) 114

Service quality, value, satisfaction and loyalty

SERVQUAL: Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) 980 , Brown and Swartz
(1989) 129 , Cronin and Taylor (1992) 526 , Teas (1993) 167, Parasuraman,
Zeithaml, and Berry (1994) 230 , Cronin and Taylor (1994) 202 , Zeithaml, Berry,
and Parasuraman (1996) 381

Dynamic models: Bolton and Drew (1991) 235 , Bolton and Drew (1991) 124 ,
Boulding, Kalra, Staelin, and Zeithaml (1993) 321 , Bolton and Lemon (1999) 101

Critical incidents: Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault (1990) 385 , Keaveney (1995)
168 , Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree, and Bitner (2000) 128

Failure, complaints, recovery, trust and loyalty: Tax, Brown, and

Chandrashekaran (1998) 123 , Smith, Bolton, and Wagner (1999) 110 ,
Sirdeshmukh, Singh, and Sabol (2002) 101

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences: Price programs

Price knowledge
Dickson and Sawyer (1990) 180

Price perception and reference prices

Price perception: Monroe (1973) 184
Reference prices: Winer (1986) 194 , Urbany, Bearden, and Weilbaker

(1988) 122 , Grewal, Monroe, and Krishnan (1998) 111

Unit prices
Russo (1977) 128

Price-oriented sales promotions

Loyalty and brand switching: Dodson, Tybout, and Sternthal (1978) 111
Deal-prone consumers: Blattberg, Buesing, Peacock, and Sen (1978) 103 ,

Blattberg, Eppen, and Lieberman (1981) 122

Promotion signals: Inman, McAlister and Hoyer (1990) 123

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences: Advertising programs

Advertising in general
Resnik and Stern (1977) 124 , Pollay (1986) 169 , Richins (1991) 142

Information processing of ads

MacInnis and Jaworski (1989) 161 , MacInnis, Moorman, and Jaworski (1991) 131

Information processing of pictures in ads

Edell and Staelin (1983) 155 , Kisielius and Sternthal (1984) 107 , Childers and
Houston (1984) 111

Affect in advertising
Gorn (1982) 180 , Aaker,Stayman, and Hagerty (1986) 126 , Batra and Ray (1986)
210 , Edell and Burke (1987) 224 , Holbrook and Batra (1987) 197 , Goldberg and
Gorn (1987) 106 , Burke and Edell (1989) 126

Attitude toward the ad

Mitchell and Olson (1981) 347 , MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986) 254 , Mitchell
(1986) 114 , MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) 213 , Brown and Stayman (1992) 138

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences: Advertising programs

Attitudes and persuasion

Hierarchy of effects: Lavidge and Steiner (1961) 213

Expectancy-value model: Lutz (1975) 100
Cognitive responses: Wright (1973) 181 , Wright (1980) 128
ELM: Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983) 601 , Park and Young (1986) 151
Framing: Levin and Gaeth (1988) 155 , Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy (1990) 135
Persuasion knowledge model: Friestad and Wright (1994) 208

Attitudes and behavior

Fishbein model and alternatives: Ryan and Bonfield (1975) 112 , Bagozzi (1982)
116 , Shimp and Kavas (1984) 118 , Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw (1988) 535 ,
Bagozzi and Warshaw (1990) 123

Direct experience: Smith and Swinyard (1983) 123 , Fazio, Powell, and Williams
(1989) 135

Consumer Psychology

Marketing influences:
Personal selling and distribution programs
Buyer-seller relationships
Schurr and Ozanne (1985) 137 , Crosby and Stephens (1987)
136 , Crosby and Evans (1990) 359

Electronic shopping
Alba et al. (1997) 273 , Hoffman and Novak (1996) 409

Consumer Psychology

Miscellaneous research in JCR

Cultural/interpretive papers
Sherry (1983) 127, McCracken (1986) 230 , Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry (1989)
231 , Mick (1986) 152 , Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf (1988) 134 , Wallendorf and
Arnould (1988) 138 , McCracken (1989) 105 , Mick and Buhl (1992) 111 , Celsi,
Rose, and Leigh (1993) 130 , Schouten and McAlexander (1995) 122 , Firat and
Venkatesh (1995) 120 , Muniz and OGuinn (2001) 115

Methodological papers

Conjoint analysis: Green and Srinivasan (1978) 627 , Green (1974) 114
SEM: Gerbing and Anderson (1984) 109 , Steenkamp and Baumgartner
(1998) 307 , Jarvis, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff (2003) 141

Qualitative approaches: Kassarjian (1977) 297 , Thompson, Locander, and

Pollio (1989) 170 , Kolbe and Burnett (1991) 122 , Spiggle (1994) 107

Other papers: Calder, Phillips, and Tybout (1981) 243 , Blair and Burton
(1987) 121 , Peter, Churchill, and Brown (1993) 106 , Peterson (1994) 155

Consumer Psychology

Proportion of total citations accounted

for by different areas and journals
JCR

JMR

JM

All

Psychological Foundations

12

17

Prepurchase processes

15

19

Postpurchase processes

12

Environmental influences

Product programs

17

23

Price programs

Advertising programs

10

17

Distribution programs

48

21

31

100

Total

Consumer Psychology

Types of influential articles

Methodological articles:

New methodological techniques and procedures

(e.g., Fornell and Larcker 1981; Thompson, Locander, and Pollio
1989; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault 1990)

Guidelines on how to use particular techniques and

procedures
(e.g., Green and Srinivasan 1978; Kassarjian 1977; Steenkamp
and Baumgartner 1998; Calder, Phillips, and Tybout 1981)

Syntheses of research evidence on a particular technique

(e.g., Peterson 1994)

Consumer Psychology

Types of influential articles

(contd)

Conceptual articles:

New perspective/idea essays

(e.g., Lavidge and Steiner 1961; Holbrook and Hirschman 1982;
Zajonc and Markus 1982; Belk 1988; Friestad and Wright 1994)

Minitheories of particular substantive phenomena

(e.g., Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985; Zeithaml 1988; Keller
1993; Fornell et al. 1996)

Analytical frameworks
(e.g., Shugan 1980; Hauser and Wernerfelt 1990)

Propositional reviews of a research area

(e.g., Gatignon and Robertson 1985; Alba and Hutchinson 1987;
Bettman, Luce, and Payne 1998)

Quantitative and qualitative syntheses of research evidence

(e.g., Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw 1988; Gardner 1985; Wilkie
and Pessemier 1973)

Consumer Psychology

Types of influential articles

(contd)

Empirical articles:

Studies that introduce a new concept, effect, or model

Studies that test, extend, or challenge prior concepts, effects,

or models

Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann (1983)

Sujan (1985); Simonson and Tversky (1992)
Cronin and Taylor (1992)

Studies in popular research areas

Mitchell and Olson (1981); Winer (1986); Aaker and Keller (1990);
Fournier (1998)
Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982); Simonson (1989)
Oliver (1980); MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986)

Bettman and Park (1980); Brucks (1985); Edell and Burke (1987); Celsi
and Olson (1988)

Scale development studies

Zaichkowsky (1985); Richins and Dawson (1992)

Consumer Psychology

Consumer psychology in the

third millennium
Fragmentation of the field

Behavioral, managerial and quantitative

Positivistic vs. interpretive
BDT vs. information processing/social cognition

Many empirical findings few integrative theories

Some personal thoughts on needed research

What we dont need more of

What we need more of

Consumer Psychology

What we dont need more of

Phenomenon-, theory-, and method-of-the-month
papers
Preoccupation with esoteric phenomena, theories,
and methods
Counter-intuitive or theory-inconsistent findings that
are not germane to consumer behavior
Studies that are more relevant to a foundational
discipline than to consumer behavior and marketing

Consumer Psychology

What we need more of

CB-relevant substantive phenomena as the starting
point of research
Greater concern with ecologically valid manipulations,
measures, and research settings
Contextualized theories of the middle range that
integrate empirical findings

ELM
Extended ED model of consumer satisfaction
GAP model of service quality

Consumer Psychology

The purchase cube

Based on Baumgartner (2002, forthcoming)

Consumer Psychology

The purchase cube (contd)

Based on Baumgartner (2002, forthcoming)

Consumer Psychology

Recent research streams

Substantively-motivated research

Price fairness
The mere-measurement effect
Other examples

Conceptually-motivated research

Promotion and prevention focus

Other examples

Methodologically-motivated research

Consumer neuroscience
Implicit association test

Consumer Psychology

Price fairness as a prototype of recent

substantively-motivated research
Price fairness as a consumers assessment and associated emotions
of whether the difference (or lack of difference) between a sellers
price and the price of a comparative other party is reasonable,
acceptable, or justifiable (Xia, Monroe, and Cox 2004; see also
Bolton, Warlop, and Alba 2003)
Xia et al. (2004) list 21 studies relevant to price fairness (including
research outside marketing and non-price research);
Consumer perception of price fairness is a topic uniquely suited to
consumer research;
Rich literature base related to fairness in other areas;
Potential for theory building in the pricing area is huge;
Implications for pricing management are substantial;

Consumer Psychology

The mere-measurement effect as a prototype of

recent substantively-motivated research
Asking questions about future behavior can change the
behavior in question;
Morwitz, Johnson, and Schmittlein (1993) showed that asking
respondents once whether they planned to buy an automobile
(PC) in the next 6 months increased the incidence of
purchase by 37 (18) percent;
Similar results for voting, volunteering, recycling, etc.
Theoretical explanations include increased accessibility of
attitudes, avoidance of dissonance, etc.
Fitzsimons and Moore (2008) discuss the implications of this
research for screening adolescents for risky behaviors such
as drug and alcohol use or sexual behaviors;

Consumer Psychology

Other substantively-motivated
research developments

New marketing technologies (internet recommendation systems, online communities, design of web pages, virtual product experiences,
customization, self-service technologies)
Customer relationship management
Financial consequences of satisfaction
Cross-cultural consumer behavior
Really new products
Brand communities
Identity signaling
Sales promotion (loyalty and frequency programs)
Product assortments
Transformative consumer behavior and consumer welfare
Corporate social responsibility and consumer boycotts

Consumer Psychology

Regulatory focus theory as a prototype of

recent conceptually-motivated research
Two types of regulatory focus (Higgins 2002):

Promotion focus as self-regulation w/r/t the presence or

absence of positive outcomes; concern with ideals and
accomplishments; preferred means of goal attainment
is eagerness; emotional reactions of cheerfulness and
dejection;
Prevention focus as self-regulation w/r/t the presence or
absence of negative outcomes and a concern with
oughts and security; preferred means of goal
attainment is vigilance; emotional reactions of
quiescence and agitation;

Consumer Psychology

Other conceptually-motivated
research developments

The unconscious consumer and automaticity (Bargh

2002; Dijksterhuis et al. 2005)
Self-control and ego-depletion (Baumeister et al. 2008;
Vohs and Faber 2007);
Construal Level Theory (Trope, Liberman and Wakslak
2007)
Terror management (Arndt, Solomon, Kasser, and
Sheldon 2004)
Metacognitive experiences (Schwarz 2004)
Regret theory (Zeelenberg and Pieters 2007)

Consumer Psychology

Consumer neuroscience as a prototype of

recent methodologically-motivated research
In the brand personality literature, humanlike traits
are ascribed to brands;
Yoon et al. (2006) investigated, using fMRI, whether
trait judgments about people and products (both
self-relevant and nonself-relevant) are processed in
similar regions of the brain;
the findings indicated that brand personality was
processed differently from human personality;

Consumer Psychology

IAT as a prototype of recent

methodologically-motivated research
IAT as a measure of implicit consumer social
cognition (Brunel, Tietje, and Greenwald, 2004);
Useful when people are unable (e.g., because of
lack of conscious awareness) or unwilling (e.g.,
because of social desirability concerns) to reveal
their opinions;
Disguised, unstructured procedure for assessing the
strength of automatic associations between
concepts (e.g., brand attitudes, consumer-brand
relationships, attitudes toward ethnic spokespeople
in ads);

Consumer Psychology

JCP as the outlet for extraordinary

ideas about consumer psychology
CW Park suggests the following under-researched
areas:

The role of learning in consumer behavior

Aesthetic experience in consumption
Perspectives on consumers cognitive flexibility beyond the
cognitive miser view
Hedonic consumption
Consumers relationships with brands
Culture and consumer psychology
Neuroscience approaches
Temporal interdependencies between purchase and
consumption activities
Joint decision making of users, deciders, disposers, and
purchasers

Consumer Psychology

Additional readings
Haugtvedt, Curtis P., Paul M Herr, and Frank R.
Kardes, eds. (2008), Handbook of Consumer
Psychology, New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Loken Barbara (2006), Consumer Psychology:
Categorization, Inferences, Affect, and Persuasion,
Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 453-485.
Simonson, Itamar, Ziv Carmon, Ravi Dhar, Aimee
Drolet, and Stephen M. Nowlis (2001), Consumer
Research: In Search of Identity, Annual Review of
Psychology, 52, 249-275.

Consumer Psychology

The three domains of research

(Brinberg and McGrath 1985; Lutz
1989)
Substantive
domain

Conceptual
domain

Methodological
domain

Consumer Psychology

ELM as a prototype of conceptuallymotivated research

persuasive
communication

nature of cognitive processing ?

motivation
to process ?

yes

no

ability
to process ?
no

yes

favorable
thoughts
predominate
yes

peripheral
cue present ?

central positive
attitude change

neither or
neutral thoughts
predominate

unfavorable
thoughts
predominate
yes

central negative
attitude change

yes

peripheral
attitude shift

yes

Based on Petty and Cacioppo (1986)

Consumer Psychology

ELM (contd)
Conceptually sophisticated theory of the middle
range that integrates many disparate persuasion
findings;
Useful mental model for thinking about persuasion
problems in practice variables can influence the

extent and direction of attitude change by:

serving as persuasive arguments (e.g., weak vs. strong

arguments);
serving as peripheral cues (e.g., source expertise or
attractiveness, number of arguments);
affecting the extent and direction of message elaboration (e.g.,
involvement as a determinant of motivation to process and
distraction as a determinant of ability to process);

Consumer Psychology

American Customer Satisfaction

Index
(Fornell et al. 1996)
customer
expectations

customer
complaints
perceived
value

perceived
quality

customer
satisfaction
customer
loyalty

Consumer Psychology

The GAPS model

C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R
M
A
R
K
E
T
E
R

WOM
Personal Needs
Past Experience

Expected Service
GAP 5

Perceived Service

GAP 1

Service Delivery
GAP 3

GAP 4
Translation of Mgmt.
Perceptions into SQ specs

GAP 2
Management Perceptions
of Consumer Expectations

External
Communication
to Consumers

Consumer Psychology

Purchase motives underlying the

purchase cube
comparison

price
sale

logic

quality

value

problemsolving
utilitarian
variety
curiosity

senses
fashion
social
approval
status
image
style
reputation
emotion

performance

change
trial
fun

time pressure

convenience

feelgood

unplanned
impulse
random

replacement

brand name
w ant

preference
mindless
thoughtless

satisfaction
past purchase
routine

familiarity
loyalty
usual
habit

liking

personality
self-esteem

Consumer Psychology

Price fairness as a prototype of recent

substantively-motivated research
Bolton, Warlop, and Alba (2003) show that

Consumers underestimate the effects of inflation and attribute

rising prices to vendor price gouging;
Consumers attribute price differences across competitors more to
profit than cost; even when profits are equal, cost differences
matter (e.g., quality differences are considered fair, use of a
margin strategy as unfair);
Consumers have poor mental models of a firms cost structure;
less salient costs (with the exception of COGS) are often ignored
and perceptions of profit margins are too high; certain costs (e.g.,
promotional costs) are deemed unfair;

Consumer Psychology

Schematic representation of the

IAT
Man United or Pleasant

Chelsea or Unpleasant
Love

Vomit

Man United or Unpleasant

Chelsea or Pleasant

Freedom

Sickness