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Consumption Vocabulary and Preference Formation

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  • West, Patricia M
  • Brown, Christina L
  • Hoch, Stephen J

Abstract

Consumers' understanding of their own preferences can be aided by a "consumption vocabulary"--a taxonomy or framework that facilitates identifying the relation between a product's features and one's evaluation of the product. In the absence of such a vocabulary, consumers' understanding of their own preferences will require more extensive experience and may never fully develop. The effect of such a vocabulary is tested in two experiments in which subjects provided with a vocabulary (1) exhibit better-defined and more consistent preferences than control subjects, (2) show improved cue discovery, and (3) show learning (i.e., increases in consistency over time). All results hold regardless of the functional form of the model used to assess subjects' preference formation. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • West, Patricia M & Brown, Christina L & Hoch, Stephen J, 1996. "Consumption Vocabulary and Preference Formation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(2), pages 120-135, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:23:y:1996:i:2:p:120-35
    DOI: 10.1086/209471
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    Cited by:

    1. John C. Butler & James S. Dyer & Jianmin Jia, 2006. "Using Attributes to Predict Objectives in Preference Models," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 100-116, June.
    2. Carlson, Kurt A. & Pearo, Lisa Klein, 2004. "Limiting predecisional distortion by prior valuation of attribute components," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 48-59, May.
    3. Lapatinas, Athanasios & Garas, Antonios, 2016. "The role of networks in firms’ multi-characteristics competition and market-share inequality," MPRA Paper 68959, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Andrew Gershoff & Ashesh Mukherjee & Anirban Mukhopadhyay, 2006. "“I love it” or “I hate it”? The positivity effect in stated preferences for agent evaluation," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 103-117, April.
    5. Sridhar Narayanan & Kirthi Kalyanam, 2015. "Position Effects in Search Advertising and their Moderators: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 388-407, May.
    6. Cammy Crolic & Chris Janiszewski, 2016. "Hedonic Escalation: When Food Just Tastes Better and Better," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(3), pages 388-406.
    7. Bharadwaj, Neeraj & Naylor, Rebecca Walker & ter Hofstede, Frenkel, 2009. "Consumer response to and choice of customized versus standardized systems," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 216-227.
    8. Ozer, Muammer, 2011. "Understanding the impacts of product knowledge and product type on the accuracy of intentions-based new product predictions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 359-369, June.
    9. Erdem, Tulin & Broniarczyk, Susan & Charavarti, Dipankar & Kapferer, Jean-Noel & Keane, Michael & Roberts, John & Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict & Swait, Joffre & Zettelmeyer, Florian, 1999. "Brand Equity, Consumer Learning and Choice," MPRA Paper 53022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Piccoli, Gabriele & Lui, Tsz-Wai & Grün, Bettina, 2017. "The impact of IT-enabled customer service systems on service personalization, customer service perceptions, and hotel performance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 349-362.
    11. Garas, Antonios & Lapatinas, Athanasios, 2017. "The role of consumer networks in firmsÂ’ multi-characteristics competition and market share inequality," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 76-86, December.
    12. Greta Hsu & Peter W. Roberts & Anand Swaminathan, 2012. "Evaluative Schemas and the Mediating Role of Critics," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 83-97, February.
    13. Benedict G. C. Dellaert & Suzanne B. Shu & Theo A. Arentze & Tom Baker & Kristin Diehl & Bas Donkers & Nathanael J. Fast & Gerald Häubl & Heidi Johnson & Uma R. Karmarkar & Harmen Oppewal & Bernd H. S, 2020. "Consumer decisions with artificially intelligent voice assistants," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 335-347, December.
    14. Jihyeon Kim & Jeffrey Loewenstein, 2021. "Analogical Encoding Fosters Ethical Decision Making Because Improved Knowledge of Ethical Principles Increases Moral Awareness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 307-324, August.
    15. Schweidel, David A. & Fader, Peter S., 2009. "Dynamic changepoints revisited: An evolving process model of new product sales," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 119-124.
    16. Andreas Herrmann & René Befurt & Mark Heitmann & Hans Berger, 2007. "Alles für die Marke? Produktdesign im Konflikt zwischen einer markenkonformen und einer eigenständigen Produktliniengestaltung," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 59(8), pages 1055-1079, December.
    17. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.

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