Desserts, Pretty Women and Consumption Impulsivity

1
Desserts, Pretty Women and Consumption
Impulsivity
Xiuping Li Rotman School of Management University
of Toronto
2
Research Interest

• Out-of-Domain Impact of
• Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
• -- Time Preference Perspective
  

3
Agenda

• Concepts and Motivation
• Literature Review
• Hypotheses and Experiments
• Conclusion
• Other Research Projects

4
Key Concepts

• Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli

• Time Preference (Frederick et al 2003)
• Preference for immediate values over
  delayed values

5
Motivation

• Consumers Side
• Intertemporal Dilemma of
  Consumers
• Marketers Side
• How to Use Temptations to Create
  and Maintain
• the Urge to Consume Other
  Products

6
Literature Review
Specific Motivational Impact
Desire for Food
Sexual Desire
Overeating
Sexual Behavior

• Hoch Loewenstein (1991)
• Loewenstein (1996)
• Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999)
• Mischel and Baker (1975)

7
Theoretical Framework -- Dual
Process Metaphors

Consumption Impulsivity
Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
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Main Hypothesis
Impact on Motivational State
Consequences
Antecedent
Exp. 12
Exp. 34
Increased Consumption Impulsivity Across
Behavior Domains
Current Focus Myopic Present Oriented
Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
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Research Overview

• Proposed Studies (2)
• Moderators of the Main Effect
• Delay of the Subsequent Decision
• Long Delay Weakens Effect
• Consumption
• Consumption Weakens Effect

• Completed Studies (4)
• Demonstration the Main Effect
• Two Kinds of Manipulations
• Pictures
• Aromas
• Consequences
• Exp.1 Smaller Sooner Vs. Larger Later Cash
  Rewards
• Exp. 2 Matching Task to Determine Discount Rate
• Exp. 3 Unplanned Purchase
• Exp. 4 Vice vs. Virtue
• Other Details
• Mood Measure

10
Experiment 1Increased Immediate Gratification
Tendency

• Exposure to Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli

More Choice of
Smaller Sooner Money Rewards (vs. Larger Later
Rewards)
11
Experiment 1 Design
Conditions (between-subjects) and Procedure
Group1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Pretty Women
Dessert
Control (No Picture)
Nature
Task 1 Rate 6 Pictures of the Same Category
Task 2 Choose between Smaller Sooner vs.
Larger Later Rewards
12
Experiment 1 Dependent Variable
Choice Between
13
Experiment 1 Results
CHOICE OF SMALLER SOONER REWARDS
14
Experiment 2Effect of Temptation on Discount
Factor (K)
Exposure to Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
Future Cash Values are Discounted at a Greater
Rate (Greater Discounting Factor K)
15
Discounting Factor K
K .10
K .20
d 12 months
Future t 12 months
Now t 0
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Experiment 2 Design

• Conditions (between-subjects)

• Dependent Variable

Getting ? Today (in 1 month, 3 months, 6
months) Getting 100 in a Year

• Measured and Controlled for
• Mood
• Dispositional Impulsivity

17
Experiment 2 Results
DISCOUNTED VALUES OF 100, 1 YEAR AT SHORTER
TIME DELAYS
Control
Popcorn Scented
Popcorn Scented
Popcorn Scented
Popcorn Scented
18
Experiment 2 Results (cont.)
IMPUTED DISCOUNTING FACTOR (K)
19
Experiment 3 Effect of Temptation On Purchasing
Decision

• Exposure to Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli

3a. Less happy with Delayed Values
3b. More Unplanned Irrelevant Purchases
20
Experiment 3 Design

• Conditions (between-subjects)

Control No Scent
Cookie Scent

• Dependent Variable

a. Happiness Ratings of Values at
Different Times
b. Decision to buy an unplanned product or
not (Rook and Fisher 1995)
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Experiment 3a Results
HAPPINESS RATINGS OF GETTING 100 AT DIFFERENT
TIMES
Control
Cookie Scented
22
Experiment 3b Results
PERCENT BUYING AN UNPLANNED PRODUCT
Chi-Squares 17.337, P lt .01
23
Experiment 4 General Immediate Gratification
Tendency

• Exposure to Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli

More Choice of
Vices (versus Virtues)
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Vices and Virtues

• VICE (relatively speaking)
• Provides more instant gratification
• Fewer long run benefits

• VIRTUE (relatively speaking)
• Less instant gratification
• More long run benefits

Klaus Wertenbroch (1998)
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Experiment 4 Design
Conditions (between-subjects) and Procedure
Group1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Pretty Women
Dessert
Control (No Picture)
Nature
Task 1 Rating 6 Pictures of the Same Category
Task 2 Choice Task Between Vices and Virtues
26
Experiment 4 Dependent Variables

• Choice Between

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Experiment 4 Results
CHOICE OF VICE OPTIONS
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Future Studies
Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
Time Preference Change
Increase Consumption Impulsivity Across of
Behavior Domain

• Factors that cool down the Hot System
• Consumption of Motivationally Appetitive Stimuli
• Time Delay

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Experiment 5 Prediction
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Experiment 6 Prediction
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Contributions

• Theoretical Appetitive stimuli can induce
  general impatience, resulting in out of domain
  impact.
• Methodological Many trivial contextual factors
  might impact laboratory studies.

32
Practical Implications

• The Retailing Environment Impacts
• Whether to buy
• When to buy
• What to buy
• Advertisement Design
• Induce the urge to buy

33
Other Projects

• Wei, Liyuan, Xiuping Li and Dilip Soman (2005),
  Get It Off the Desk The Motivation to Attain
  Closure on Tasks, to be revised and submitted to
  Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (revision
  requested)
• Li, Xiuping, Mengze Shi and Dilip Soman (2005),
  Multi-Medium Reward Program, to be revised and
  resubmitted to Journal of Marketing (revision
  requested).
• Culture, Temporal Construal, and Intertemporal
  Choice (with Dilip Soman and Catherine Yeung).
  Data collection in progress, first two studies
  completed.
• Temporal Pricing Strategies for Effort
  Disadvantaged Products. One study completed.

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Thank You!
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Dual Process Metaphors

• Doer and Planner Model
• Thaler and Shefrin (1981)
• Hot and Cool System
• Metcalfe and Mischel (1999)
• Limbic and Prefrontal Cortex
• Brain Function (McClure et al.
  2004)