Unpacking Effects in Consumer Judgments: An Abstract

Abstract

Category description (packed vs. unpacked) can influence a variety of judgments, such as subjective assessments of probability. Judgments can also depend on the number of unpacked elements, how good or bad examples these elements are of the target category, and how they score on the attribute in question (Hadjichristidis et al. 2001). We compared unpacked descriptions whose elements were matched in all these respects and tested the novel hypothesis that the dissimilarity/similarity between the unpacked elements also matters in consumer judgment. We predicted that unpacking dissimilar elements would increase judgments by facilitating access to more subcategories. We examined two types of consumer judgments: spending predictions on groceries (Study 1) and willingness to pay for an insurance policy (Study 2). In Study 1, as predicted, spending predictions were higher when dissimilar elements were unpacked. We attribute this finding to memory retrieval. When the unpacked elements belong to the same subcategory (e.g., meat), they are likely to aid retrieval mostly from that subcategory. When they belong to different subcategories (e.g., meat, vegetables, household products), they are likely to cue more subcategories. Study 2 extended this diversity effect to willingness-to-pay judgments. In Study 2 we also addressed the possibility that the diversity effect is driven by the subjective ease of recall of other elements (Biswas et al., 2012). The results extended the diversity effect to willingness-to-pay judgments for an insurance policy. Moreover, it showed that this effect is not associated with ease of retrieval. The studies provide strong evidence that consumer judgments depend on the extent to which a description’s elements cover the target category. The present findings carry implications for public policy and marketing strategies. To promote desirable behaviors, such as a healthy lifestyle, messages should highlight diverse benefits (health, social, psychological), whereas to dissuade citizens from damaging behaviors, such as smoking, messages should emphasize diverse drawbacks (physical, psychological, financial).