Hedonic Experiences and Consumer Judgment: Prediction Choice Memory Experience

1. Hedonic Experiences and Consumer Judgment: (Prediction = Choice = Memory) ? Experience Jing Xu Oct 23, 2006

4. Do We Know What�s �Enjoyable�? Economics Look at choices Psychology Ask people how much they enjoy it They may not be able to tell you Their theories and memories may be wrong And their choices based on these errors

5. Literature Social Psych Discrepancies in prediction, memory, and actual experience Vacation (Mitchell and colleagues 1997) Spring break (Wirtz and colleagues 2003) Consumer Domains Contrast effect (Novemsky and Ratner 2003) Variety seeking (Ratner, Kahn and Kahneman 1999)

6. Conceptual Framework of Affect Report (�Accessibility model�, Robinson & Clore 2002) Concurrent Retrospective Episodic Episodic memory Global memories Semantic knowledge (e.g., general beliefs) Prediction Semantic knowledge

7. Convergence & Divergence Predictions, global memories, and choice show good convergence All based on semantic knowledge (e.g., na�ve theories) 2. Episodic affect diverges from predictions, global memories and choice (unless they are driven by the same inputs) Choice may not reflect episodic experience!

8. Preview (four sets of studies) Car Indulgence 3. Thanksgiving dinner 4. Kids

9. How do you feel while driving you car? � depends on how you think about it (R & R with JCR) CAR

10. Undergrad�s prediction of driving experience STUDY 1

11. Study 1 (Prediction) 177 UM undergrads Reported on BMW, Honda Accord, or Ford Escort Feelings assessed on 20 affective items

12. Predictions of Affect

13. STUDY 2 Drivers� global and episodic memories of driving experience

14. Study 2 178 UM Business School faculty, staff, and PhD and MBA students Reports Conditions: Global Episodic Car�s Kelly Bluebook value served as a proxy for the value and quality of the car

15. Study 2 - Global Memories of Affect How do you generally feel when you drive your car?

16. Global Memories of Affect

17. Study 2 - Episodic Report of Affect Please take a minute to think about the most recent instance in which you used your car to commute to work (when, with whom etc). How did you feel during this instance of driving?

18. Global and Episodic Affect

19. Does It Feel Better to Drive a Luxury Car? Regression Analysis DV: positive feelings IVs: reporting condition, ln($value), interaction between condition and ln($value) Significant interaction term, = 2.43, p <.05

20. Study 3 � More Episodes Replication of Study 2 with wider ranges of episodes web survey respondents classify the episode (e.g., commute, errands, fun ride etc.)

21. Convergences and Divergences of Affect Reports

22. STUDY 4 What about fun rides?

23. Study 4 � Fun Rides Web survey Reports Conditions: Global Episodic Episodic condition � �Please take a minute to think about the most recent time you drove your car just for fun�

24. Study 4 � Fun Rides

25. Global memories seem to �confirm� predictions Episodic experiences diverge from predictions or global memories EXCEPT: When they focus on the same thing! (e.g., fun-rides) Global representations drive decision

26. INDULGENCE Do We Really Need A Reason To Indulge ?(R & R with JMR)

27. Hedonic indulgences wasteful evoke guilt justified after good reasons Donations (Strahilevitz and Myers, 1998) Earning the right to indulge (Kivetz and Simonson, 2002) Studies outline Study 1 (predictions, memories vs. episodic affect) Study 2 (predictions vs. experienced affect) Indulgences

28. STUDY 1 REASON OR NO REASON?

29. Study 1 Methods: 184 UM undergrads 3 (prediction, memory vs. episodic report) x 2 (reason vs. no reason) between subjects design Feelings assessed on 18 affective items (9 positive and 9 negative)

30. Enjoyment

31. Guilt

32. STUDY 2 REWARD OR CONSOLATION?

33. Study 2 (Reward vs. Consolation) Methods: 148 UM business undergrads 2 (prediction vs. experience) x 2 (reason: reward vs. consolation) between subjects design Tasks involve real choice and consumption experience

34. Procedures 10 Math problems (success vs. failure manipulation) Choice task (two chocolate truffles vs. toothpaste) Predict vs. experience

35. Truffles

36. Truffles

37. Conclusions Prediction and memory of indulging experience converge Episodic and concurrent measure of indulging experience diverge from prediction and memory However, prediction or memory drive behavior

38. THANKSGIVING What To Do Before Thanksgiving Dinner?

39. 147 UM undergrads Conducted in Oct 2005 Questions: Thanksgiving dinner experience in general What do you usually do before (after) Thanksgiving dinner? What makes a great Thanksgiving dinner experience? Global Reports

40. 135 UM undergrads Conducted early Dec 2005 Questions Details of this Thanksgiving dinner (where, whom, what) How did you feel during this Thanksgiving dinner? What did you do before (after) Thanksgiving dinner? Episodic Reports

41. Thanksgiving Dinner Global Ranking What makes an enjoyable thanksgiving dinner? � Hanging out with family 92% and friends Cooking (helping) 61% Football 6.1% Relaxing 1% Episodic Affect Who enjoyed thanksgiving dinner the most? Slept or relaxed 5.01 Cooked (helped) 4.77 Football 4.22 Hang out with family 4.08 and friends

42. How Much Do People Enjoy Spending Time With Their Kids?

43. Global Report of Enjoyment Juster and colleagues, 1975 survey: 28 activities rated from "dislike very much" (0) to "enjoy a great deal" (10). Activities with one's children top the list Grocery shopping and cleaning the house at the bottom Friends and job lower than children

44. Episodic Report of Enjoyment 1,018 employed women Self-administered questionnaire Construct a short diary of yesterday Report each episode Questions about each episode (when, what, where, with whom) How they felt during that episode (12 affect items on 0-6 rating scale)

45. Kids Global Ratings How much do you enjoy �(10 = pos) Socializing 8.9 Taking care of your children 8.6 Eating 8.3 Watching TV 7.8 Grocery Shopping 5.4 Housework 4.7 Episodic Affect Positive minus negative Note: Numbers not comparable! Socializing 3.6 Eating 3.3 Watching TV 3.2 Preparing food 2.9 Grocery shopping 2.8 Taking care of your children 2.6 Housework 2.5

46. Kids Global Ratings How much do you enjoy the presence of your� (10 = pos) Children 9.1 Spouse 8.9 Friends 8.1 Co-workers 7.4 Being alone 5.6 Parents/relatives 5.1 Boss 4.2 Episodic Affect Positive minus negative Friends 3.3 Parents/relatives 2.9 Spouse 2.8 Children 2.7 Co-workers 2.6 Being alone 2.2 Boss 2.0

47. Organization of Memory Activities are encoded and represented by their key goals and features Thanksgiving dinner is about family gathering and cooking (food) What�s recalled for �kids� are kid-focused activities Reading stories, watching movies� Activities that are not Thanksgiving-focused or kid-focused are missed

48. Conclusions of THANKSGIVING AND KIDS Global and episodic reports paint different pictures of enjoyment Kids are a more mixed pleasure than we think (episodic; marital satisfaction) Hanging out with folks before Thanksgiving dinner is probably fun but make sure you get a good rest first

49. Final recap Global memories apparently �confirm� predictions Based on same inputs: na�ve theories, not experience Global reports do not capture actual experience reflected in episodic reports And � decisions may have little to do with experience!

50. Other Research Projects: Constructing heuristics on the spot: theory driven inferences from difficulty of recall (w/ Norbert Schwarz, under review at Psych Science) The interplay of self-construal and social comparison in preference reversal (w/ Zeynep G�rhan-Canli, targeted to Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)