Variety-seeking and time of day: a replication

Abstract

Roehm and Roehm (2004, Marketing Letters, 15, 213–221) investigated the relationship between variety-seeking behavior and the time of day at which choices are made. Using two experimental studies in the USA, they found variety-seeking was lower in the afternoon than in the morning. However, Gullo, Berger, Etkin, and Bollinger (2019, Journal of Consumer Research, 46(1), 20–35) found a different effect. Using one empirical and three experimental studies in the USA, the authors showed that variety-seeking increased throughout the day. To shed light on the different findings, we carry out a replication using a unique dataset from the UK, which tracks individual purchases of food and drinks for out of home consumption over a period of three years. Similar to Gullo et al. (2019), we found variety-seeking increases from the morning to the afternoon. Additionally, we found a post-lunch dip. Our results as such lend further support to the matching mechanism between variety-seeking and diurnal level proposed by Gullo et al. (2019) rather than the compensating mechanism suggested by Roehm and Roehm (2004).