Memory-Based Inferences during Consumer Choice

Abstract

This study explores consumers' inference strategies in a mixed choice task involving memory, external information, and missing information on attribute values for some brands. Accessibility of relevant information was manipulated, and both instructed and uninstructed or natural inferences were studied. Instructed inferences by low accessibility subjects conformed more with prior overall evaluations of the brands, displaying evaluative consistency. Instructed inferences by high accessibility subjects tended to follow a correlational rule linking missing information to other attribute information in memory, displaying probabilistic consistency. Choices conformed to inferences, and both were more variable when inferences were uninstructed.S ometimes only partial product information is available during choice, and consumers may have to infer how brands perform on specific features. For example, on an initial shopping trip, a consumer examines and evaluates some cameras based upon a then salient set of attributes. Later, at another store, the consumer examines more cameras. However, this store does not carry some of the previously examined brands, and a salesman now tells the consumer about an important feature not previously considered. The consumer has complete, externally available information on all cameras in the second store, but for brands examined earlier, some information (prior evaluations and brand features) must be retrieved and may not be readily accessible in memory. Moreover, for these brands, the new attribute information was never collected and, therefore, is missing.This scenario represents a "mixed" choice task with memory and external information Chakravarti 1983, 1986;Lynch, Marmorstein, and Weigold 1988; Lynch and Srull 1982). Moreover, missing information for some brands complicates choice of the best brand. The consumer may handle this situation in different ways. Sometimes, the missing information can be collected with minimal cost or effort, and the risks of a bad decision may make

Exploratory Analysis of the Factors Affecting Consumer Choice in E-Commerce: Conjoint Analysis

“…The perception of a colour by people changes depending on the associations related to the colour. According to previous studies, there is a general description of the emotions and associations that different colours evoke (Dick, 1990, Lüscher, 1969.…”

“…For example, in their work Dick (1990) state that the importance of the brand on consumer perception increases during online shopping due to the limited number of other attributes of the product, which the consumer can examine, such as taste, smell, texture or a complete list of ingredients. As a result, the consumer primarily relies on the brand image and reputation.…”

Known Unknowns in Judgment and Choice

“…First, in a process known as evaluative consistency, consumers examine known attributes to infer an overall impression of a product or brand and assume that missing attributes adhere to this impression (Beckwith and Lehmann 1975;Broniarczyk and Alba 1994;Cooper 1981;Dick, Chakravarti, and Biehal 1990;Nisbett and Wilson 1977). Second, in a similar but more complex process, known as probabilistic consistency, consumers examine a known attribute and infer a missing attribute level based on prior beliefs about the correlation between attributes (Downing, Sternberg, and Ross 1985;Ford and Smith 1987;Hoch 1984;Huber and McCann 1982;John, Scott, and Bettman 1986;Kardes and Sanbonmatsu 1993;Meyer 1981;Ross and Creyer 1992).…”

“…Substantial past research has found that consumers often prefer a fully described product over an equivalent product from memory (Biehal and Chakravarti 1982, 1983Lynch and Srull 1982) or a product that is only partially described (Kivetz and Simonson 2000). This research has attributed this advantage to consumers choosing the option about which they have greater confidence and less uncertainty (Dick, Chakravarti, and Biehal 1990), consistent with the uncertainty effect (Gneezy, List, and Wu 2006). However, other research has found preferences for products from memory is very context dependent (Alba, Marmorstein, and Chattopadhyay 1992), and consumers tend to choose products with incomplete information when the information that is available is positive (Sanbonmatsu et al 2003).…”

“…However, none of this research has focused on how inferences about features that have been learned, and then forgotten impact choice. Past work has primarily suggested that consumers focus on information that they remember, and treat forgotten information as a source of uncertainty (e.g., Dick, Chakravarti, and Biehal 1990). When making choices between products from memory, this tendency has been shown to lead consumers to make comparisons between remembered attributes (Biehal and Chakravarti 1983), and to prefer to include a more completely remembered product in a choice set (Nedungadi 1990).…”