Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill: Default Contrast and Mood-Based Assimilation in Judgments of Predicted Happiness with a Target Product

14 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2009

See all articles by Rajagopal Raghunathan

Rajagopal Raghunathan

University of Texas at Austin - Red McCombs School of Business

Julie R. Irwin

University of Texas - McCombs School of Business

Date Written: February 9, 2009

Abstract

Consumers often browse through many products (a product context) before evaluating a particular target product. We examine the influence of four product context characteristics on happiness with a target product: pleasantness, sequence, domain match with target (i.e., whether products in the context set belong to the same category as the target), and context set size. When context and target match, pleasant and improving (compared to less pleasant and worsening) contexts induce less happiness with the target product. When there is domain mismatch, however, the results are reversed. Furthermore, the assimilation effects are significantly influenced by set size, but the contrast effects are not. While the contrast effects appear to occur by default and appear to be driven by a process of comparison, the assimilation effects appear to be driven by mood. These effects hold even when perception of domain match is manipulated via instructional framing.

Keywords: context effects, assimilation, contrast effects, sequential decision making, framing

JEL Classification: C91, D12

Suggested Citation

Raghunathan, Rajagopal and Irwin, Julie R., Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill: Default Contrast and Mood-Based Assimilation in Judgments of Predicted Happiness with a Target Product (February 9, 2009). Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28, 2001, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1340142

Rajagopal Raghunathan

University of Texas at Austin - Red McCombs School of Business ( email )

Austin, TX 78712
United States

Julie R. Irwin (Contact Author)

University of Texas - McCombs School of Business ( email )

Business,Government and Society Department
Austin, TX 78712
United States

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