Purchases of food in youth. Influence of price and income

One way to increase choice of healthy over unhealthy behaviors is to increase the cost of less healthy alternatives or reduce the cost of healthier alternatives. The influence of price on purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods was evaluated in two laboratory experiments. In Experiment 1, thirty-two 10- to 12-year-old youth were given $5.00 and allowed to purchase multiple portions of a healthy food (fruit or vegetable) and a less healthy food (higher-fat snack). The price of one type of food varied from $0.50 to $2.50, while the price of the other type was held at $1.00. Increasing the price of a type of food reduced purchases of that type of food, but did not lead to substitution with the alternative type of food. In Experiment 2, twenty 10- to 14-year-old youth were given $1.00, $3.00, and $5.00 to purchase healthy and unhealthy foods. The price of each food was raised and lowered by 25% and 50%. Raising the price of healthy or unhealthy foods resulted in decreased purchases of those foods, and income available interacted with price to predict the pattern of substitution of alternative foods. These results show the potential for controlled laboratory studies of price and food purchases, and show that the substitution of healthier for unhealthy food is related to available money.     

Buyer's remorse or missed opportunity? Differential regrets for material and experiential purchases

Previous research has established that experiential purchases tend to yield greater enduring satisfaction than material purchases. The present work suggests that this difference in satisfaction is paralleled by a tendency for material and experiential purchases to differ in the types of regrets they elicit. In 5 studies, we find that people's material purchase decisions are more likely to generate regrets of action (buyer's remorse) and their experiential purchase decisions are more likely to lead to regrets of inaction (missed opportunities). These results were not attributable to differences in the desirability of or satisfaction provided by the two purchase types. Demonstrating the robustness of this effect, we found that focusing participants on the material versus experiential properties of the very same purchase was enough to shift its dominant type of regret. This pattern of regret is driven by the tendency for experiences to be seen as more singular--less interchangeable--than material purchases; interchangeable goods tend to yield regrets of action, whereas singular goods tend to yield regrets of inaction.     

Consumer affects when making undesirable purchases to meet the minimum purchase requirement: Decision‐related variables as moderators

One common type of sales promotion involves a minimum purchase requirement (MinPR), where customers must purchase at least a minimum number of products to enjoy a discount. In the process of making purchases to qualify for the discount, consumers may find their first‐choice product options or have to settle for products that they did not originally prefer. Three between‐subjects experiments examines whether, in various decision situations, counterfactual thinking (CFT) might bias individuals' emotions in response to desirable versus undesirable purchases. Study 1 demonstrates that participants who made undesirable purchases to meet the MinPR felt less satisfied with the purchase outcome precipitated by upward CFT, whereas downward CFT led to feelings of pleasure in participants who could find their first‐choice product options. Studies 2 and 3 find that counterfactual emotions of undesirable purchases were more pronounced when participants experienced a difficult decision process because of a narrow promotion scope or when time pressure, manipulated in terms of explicit deadlines, is heavy rather than light, respectively. On the contrary, participants' responses to desirable purchases did not vary as a function of decision difficulty or time pressure.     

社会排斥对消费选择偏向的影响：怀旧的调节作用及社会联结的中介作用

社会排斥会导致许多消极影响,人们会尝试通过各种策略对此进行缓解,而消费是其中重要的一种应对方式。本文通过3个实验考察了社会排斥和消费选择偏向（体验性消费vs.实物性消费）的关系,同时探讨了怀旧的调节作用和社会联结的中介作用。结果发现,社会排斥可以提高消费者对体验性消费的偏好,怀旧调节了社会排斥与体验性消费偏向的关系,并通过社会联结的中介作用进一步缓冲了社会排斥对消费选择偏向的影响。     

默认选项助推老年人意外伤害险在线购买

老年人意外伤害保险作为应对人口老龄化带来的意外风险的措施之一,能够有效缓解老年人意外伤害给其和家庭造成的经济负担。然而该险种购买不足的现状有可能影响其持续运营。本研究试图通过四个子研究探讨默认选项的助推方式是否能够促进老年人意外伤害险在线购买额。研究1通过实际销售数据分析,研究2~4通过实验发现:把默认选项设置在最高份数上能够有效地促进保险的购买份额。研究表明应用行为科学的发现可以有效促进公共政策的实施。     

Influences on the perceived risk of purchasing online

This paper examines whether the perceived risk of online purchasing by consumers varies with the frequency of previous purchases, satisfaction with previous purchase experiences, the good/service orientation of an intended purchase and the level of purchase decision involvement required. No association was found between the frequency of online purchasing and perceived risk, although satisfaction with prior internet purchases was negatively associated with the perceived risk of intended purchases, but only for low‐involvement products. Differences in perceived risk were associated with whether the intended purchase was a good or service and whether it was a high or low‐involvement product. Analysis of consumer perceived risks, disaggregated by type of risk and purchase situation, provides insight into impediments that may hinder the expansion of consumer purchasing using the internet. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Discretionary activity and happiness: The role of materialism

The current study examined the moderating impact of materialism on the relationship between discretionary activities (creative activities, experiential purchases, and material purchases) and happiness. It was hypothesized that materialistic persons would associate more happiness with discretionary material purchases and that persons lower in materialism would associate other types of discretionary activity (experiential purchases and creative activity) with happiness. Participants were randomly assigned to recall a recent material purchase, experiential purchase, or creative activity. Subsequently, participants reported the amount of happiness and self-relevance associated with the event and then completed a measure of materialism. As predicted, materialists associated happiness with material purchases and than non-materialists.     

Delay-discounting probabilistic rewards: Rates decrease as amounts increase

The independence of delay-discounting rate and monetary reward size was tested by offering subjects (N = 621) a series of choices between immediate rewards and larger, delayed rewards. In contrast to previous studies, in which hypothetical rewards have typically been employed, subjects in the present study were entered into a lottery in which they had a chance of actually receiving one of their choices. The delayed rewards were grouped into small ($30–$35), medium ($55–$65), and large amounts ($70–$85). Using a novel parameter estimation procedure, we estimated discounting rates for all three reward sizes for each subject on the basis of his/her pattern of choices. The data indicated that the discounting rate is a decreasing function of the size of the delayed reward (p < .0001), whether hyperbolic or exponential discounting functions are assumed. In addition, a reliable gender difference was found (p = .005), with males discounting at higher rates than females, on average.     

怎样花钱更幸福?购买类型对幸福感的影响

以往研究认为满足基本生活需求后, 消费者购买与幸福感不显著相关。近期研究发现, 购买是否能够提升幸福感, 取决于如何购买, 例如购买体验产品比物质产品更有利于提升幸福感, 但存在边界条件。文章从个人层面的享乐适应、预期利益、非对称后悔视角及社会层面的社会利益视角对这一结论进行解释, 并从个人因素、情境因素及幸福感的类型三个层面识别了物质购买在提升幸福感上表现更优异的边界条件, 同时对该领域未来可能的创新研究方向进行展望。     

The Heart and the Head: On Choosing Experiences Intuitively and Possessions Deliberatively

An enduring question in the field of judgment and decision making is when people are likely to choose on the basis of intuition and when they are likely to pursue a more deliberative decision strategy. Here, we attempt to shed light on that question by examining whether people tend to weight intuition more heavily when making experiential purchases, and to weight deliberation more heavily when making material purchases. Results from seven studies indicate that they do. In Study 1 (and a replication), participants expressed an explicit preference for choosing experiential purchases intuitively and material purchases analytically. In Study 2 (and a replication), participants anticipated experiencing more regret after going against reason for material purchases and going against intuition for experiential purchases. Participants in Study 3 who were asked to think about an experiential purchase wanted to see the relevant information presented by alternative, which facilitates intuitive/holistic processing, more than did those who were asked to consider a material purchase. In two additional studies, participants who were induced to think intuitively chose experiential purchases more often (Study 4) and reported a higher willingness to pay for them (Study 5) compared with participants induced to think analytically. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of retention intervals on self- and proxy reports of purchases

Two studies explored underlying differences between self- and proxy reports and determining whether proxy reporters process and retrieve information the same way self-reporters do. In both studies, participants recorded their own and a target person's incidental purchases for two weeks and then returned, either immediately or one-week after the diary-keeping period, for two recall tests. These tests pertained to self-and proxy purchases. The reported items were scored against the recorded ones. In Study 1, the data indicate that proxies tend to recall more typical events than do self-reporters immediately following the diary-keeping period. However, after a delay of one week, both proxy and self-reporters tended to report typical items. These findings suggest that, at least initially, self- and proxy reporters process the information differently but that after one week they process it similarly. Study 2 employed a method that was identical to that of Study 1 except that participants were given a recognition test. The verbal protocols from the recognition test indicate that participants used different strategies to determine who made the purchase. Whereas participants focused on perceptual details surrounding the event when identifying their own purchases, proxies engaged in various strategies to identify their spouses' purchases.     

Social Comparison and Consumer Behavior: When Feeling Richer or Poorer Than Others Is More Important Than Being So1

The present study investigates how households’ social comparisons of their economic situation affect purchase decisions. In structured telephone interviews, participants (n= 109) answered questions about purchases of durable goods and groceries. In line with the hypothesis, social comparisons had an effect on purchase decisions of durable goods when controlling for actual economic situation. Households that considered themselves to be worse off economically than others reported fewer purchases of durable goods, perceived the impact on their economy of their latest purchase to be greater, and planned purchases more carefully than did households that considered themselves better off economically than others. Also in line with the hypothesis, for purchases of groceries, households’ actual economic situation was more important than social comparisons.     

Unplanned grocery purchases: the influence of the shopping‐trip type revisited

• The share of unplanned purchases is an important measure for marketers. For instance, marketers need to know if purchases are planned or unplanned to allocate their marketing resources efficiently. Furthermore, the share of unplanned purchases could be seen as an indicator of how efficient marketers are in communicating with their customers in the stores (even if the in‐store marketer is not the only one influencing in‐store decision making.) A frequent assumption in the marketing literature is that the share of unplanned purchases increases with the size of the purchase. This paper questions this assumption by approaching the issue from a perspective that views the shopping trip as either a (more or less) contingency‐dependent construction or as the execution of a well‐defined behavior. Larger (major) trips are hypothesized and found to be more well defined, whereas smaller (fill‐in) trips are found to be largely contingency‐dependent constructions.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The asymmetric connection between money and material vs. experiential purchases

We examined the relationship between having a monetary mindset and the pursuit of material goods over experiences and found that people tend to think of their material purchases more in monetary terms than their experiential purchases. Purchase price correlated more highly with participants’ satisfaction with their material goods than their experiences (Study 1) and participants reported that the amount spent on significant components of a purchase (Study 2) would have more impact on their satisfaction with material goods than with experiences, as would a change in purchase price (Study 3). When the same purchase (a 3D TV) was framed in material terms (vs. experiential terms), participants reported that a price change would have a greater impact on their satisfaction. These findings suggest experiences suffer less than material possessions from the extrinsic psychology that comes with thinking about purchases in monetary terms.     

The effects of retention intervals on self- and proxy reports of purchases

Two studies explored underlying differences between self- and proxy reports and determining whether proxy reporters process and retrieve information the same way self-reporters do. In both studies, participants recorded their own and a target person's incidental purchases for two weeks and then returned, either immediately or one-week after the diary-keeping period, for two recall tests. These tests pertained to self- and proxy purchases. The reported items were scored against the recorded ones. In Study 1, the data indicate that proxies tend to recall more typical events than do self-reporters immediately following the diary-keeping period. However, after a delay of one week, both proxy and self-reporters tended to report typical items. These findings suggest that, at least initially, self- and proxy reporters process the information differently but that after one week they process it similarly. Study 2 employed a method that was identical to that of Study 1 except that participants were given a recognition test. The verbal protocols from the recognition test indicate that participants used different strategies to determine who made the purchase. Whereas participants focused on perceptual details surrounding the event when identifying their own purchases, proxies engaged in various strategies to identify their spouses' purchases.     

体验购买、实物购买与幸福感:关系需要满足的中介作用

基于自我决定理论,本研究考察了体验购买与实物购买这两种购买方式与个体享乐幸福感和意义幸福感的关系,并探索了个体的关系需要满足在其中的中介作用。采用回忆范式启动不同购买经历之后,被试依次完成关系需要满足问卷、享乐幸福感与意义幸福感量表。结果显示,体验购买组的享乐幸福感和意义幸福感都显著高于实物购买组;关系需要满足程度在购买类型与享乐幸福感、意义幸福感的关系间分别起到中介作用,这表明购买类型通过满足个体的关系需要进而提升其享乐幸福感和意义幸福感水平。     

The development of object-permanence: Some studies of existence constancy

Object permanence or existence constancy was one of the phenomena which greatly exercised the philosophical fathers of experimental psychology. The topic has been little studied since. Michotte has described the psychophysics of existence constancy, while Piaget has studied its development. Michotte’s work was restricted to adults while Piaget’s notably lacked careful psychophysical control. The aim of the present study was to bridge the gap between the two, to study the psychophysics of existence constancy in infants. Results showed that there is remarkably little difference between infant and adult as far as psychophysical control is concerned. The major difference seems to be a rate of processing difference. However, changes in processing rate will not account for the development of the concept of object permanence. What seems to be learned is a rule which can override perceptual constancy and nonconstancy in some situations.     

The Psychology of Waste

In order to avoid the appearance of wastefulness people may be motivated to make choices that compromise their own self-interest. In Experiment 1 subjects learned that Mr Munn didn't take advantage of a ‘three-pack’ which would have enabled him to see three movies for $12, the regular price being $5 per movie. Most subjects predicted that after having attended two movies at the regular price, Mr Munn would then be unwilling to purchase a ticket to attend a potentially enjoyable third movie, either because he would consider such a purchase to be wasteful or because he would be angry at having eschewed the ‘three-pack’. In Experiment 2 subjects who could use an obsolete product to ‘trade-up’ to a new model were more likely to buy the new model than were subjects who could purchase it at the identical low price. It was hypothesized that utilizing an obsolete product to obtain a new model would seem less wasteful than making an outright purchase of the new model. In Experiment 3 a large majority of subjects faced with a sunk cost situation persevered with the failing project if the alternative was selling the material ‘for its scrap value’. However, if the alternative consisted of selling the materials for an identical price to someone who could use them, then subjects were less likely to persevere with the failing project. Marketing implications and the propriety of retrospective evaluation of prior decisions were also discussed.     

Now or Never: Perceptions of Uniqueness Induce Acceptance of Price Increases for Experiences More Than for Objects

Seven studies test and support the prediction that consumers are more willing to accept a price increase for an experiential versus a material purchase; an effect explained by the greater uniqueness of experiences. Critically, the uniqueness model advanced here is found to be independent of the happiness consumers derive from the purchase. To gain a deeper understanding of the uniqueness mechanism, this investigation then advances and tests a four‐facet framework of uniqueness (unique opportunity, unique purchase, unique identity, and counterconformity). Together, the findings converge on the conclusion that consumers perceive the opportunity to have a particular experience (vs. object) as more unique, and this unique opportunity increases their willingness to accept a price increase. Overall, this work extends the experiential versus material purchases literature into a new domain—that of pricing; identifies the dimension—uniqueness—and its precise facet responsible for the effect—unique opportunity; and demonstrates that this model unfolds in a pattern distinct from the oft researched model centered on consumer happiness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Use it or lose it: purchase acceleration effects of time‐limited promotions

While researchers have examined the impact of retail promotions on purchase acceleration in the past, the distinction between time‐limited and time‐independent promotions has not been made in this context. In this paper, the authors report findings from two studies. In Study 1, it was found that promotions of short duration (time‐limited), such as store coupons, accelerate purchases, whereas promotions of longer duration (time‐independent), such as manufacturer's coupons, have no such impact. In Study 2, the impact of semantic cues was examined highlighting the time‐limited nature of promotions (such as ‘10 Hours Only Sale’), impact on purchase willingness, intent to search further for deals and attitudes towards the deal. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.