Self‐regulation of consumer decision making and behavior: The role of implementation intentions

Abstract

People may use the self-regulatory strategy of forming implementation intentions (i.e., if-then plans) to make better consumer decisions and facilitate the translation of those decisions into action. First, research on the mechanisms and effects of implementation intentions is reviewed. Second, we discuss how implementation intentions can be used to improve consumer decision making by promoting attention control and information elaboration, and overcoming disruptive influences. Third, we consider the various problems that militate against the enactment of one's decisions, and evidence is presented to show that implementation intentions are still effective even when goal attainment does not seem to be amenable to self-regulation. Finally, potential moderators of implementation intention effects are discussed.Research on consumer decision making and behavior focuses on what determines a person's decisions and whether such decisions are translated into action. Accumulated evidence suggests that consumers' decisions are strongly affected by the information presented and how willing and able perceivers are to process that information. For instance, it matters whether information about a given product uses images or words, general versus detailed statements, or emotional versus factual content (e.g., Kramer & Yoon, 2007;Wyer, Hung, Jiang, 2008;Yoon, Cole, & Lee, 2007). Whether one or the other type of information has greater impact on people's decisions is influenced by features of the recipients such as their cognitive capacity, motivation, mood, age, inter alia. The enactment of consumer decisions, on the other hand, has been found to depend on features of the situational context in which action is initiated (e.g., the presence of barriers, distractions, bad habits, and social support), the strength of the person's commitment to purchasing the item (e.g., persistence in obtaining the product), and available resources (e.g., credit rating or negotiation skills). This paper proposes that people can control the influence of such determinants on consumer decision making and decision realization by adopting a self-regulatory strategy called implementation intentions (i.e., if-then plans). Using this strategy, people plan out in advance exactly how they will respond in situ. In the case of decision making, such plans may pertain to how deeply presented information is processed (e.g., in a systematic rather than a heuristic fashion) or how much weight should be attached to different types of information (e.g., affective versus cognitive). In the case of decision realization, such plans may specify how to get started with enacting the consumer decision (e.g., planning the time and place of purchase) or how to shield decision enactment from disruptive influences (e.g., dealing with a domineering salesperson). In other words, we will suggest that if-then plans that specify do's and don'ts of effective decision making and decision implementation can facilitate good consumer decisions and behavioral enactment. By using if-then p...

Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals

“…Electronically published January 26, 2012 Fishbein and Ajzen 1975) and the strategies that facilitate goal success (Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2009;Myrseth and Fishbach 2009). One program of research shows that people are more likely to follow through with a goal if they form implementation intentions: plans that specify the procedures by which a goal will be attained and the circumstances under which specific behaviors will be enacted (Gollwitzer 1999).…”

“…To elaborate, several prominent models of goal pursuit posit that a strong commitment to a goal leads to planning (Gollwitzer 1990;Locke and Latham 1990;Orbell and Sheeran 2000). On the basis of those models, empirical studies measure commitment to show that prior commitment moderates planning effects and/or that planning does not strengthen commitment (Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006;Parks-Stamm and Gollwitzer 2009). In comparison, our argument suggests that an ironic effect of implemental planning is its potential to undermine the very commitment that prompts people to plan in the first place.…”

Feeling and Thinking about the Future: Offline Metacognition in Decision-Making

“…They showed that implementation intentions facilitate regulation of future inner disruptive states, such as longing, obtrusive thoughts, feelings, and physiological states. Moreover, in their review article Gollwitzer and Sheeran [29] show that implementation intentions facilitate self-regulation in the context of consumer decision-making. They, for instance, report that implementation intentions improve consumer decisions by promoting control of attention and by overcoming various disruptive influences and factors on decisions (such as emotions, ego depletion, etc.).…”

What Influences Implementation Intentions in an Academic Learning Context – The roles of Goal Intentions, Procrastination, and Experience

“…However, the effects of implementation intentions in the context of TPB can be weakened by other constructs. Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2009) outlined that "when one doubts the appropriateness of forming implementation intentions, no implementation intention effects can be expected" (Gollwitzer&Sheeran, 2009, p. 603). This may also be the case when strong habits are given -the automaticity associated with them may override the automatic effect of implementation intentions (Verplanken&Faes, 1999).…”