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Now or Never: Effects of Limited Purchase Opportunities on Patterns of Regret over Time

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  • Lisa J. Abendroth
  • Kristin Diehl

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated that actions are regretted more than inactions in the short term. We show that, in limited purchase opportunities-situations where the purchase decision cannot be reversed-not purchasing (inaction) is seen as a loss and is associated with greater short-term regret than purchasing, reversing the omission bias. With respect to long-term regret, we use coping and availability mechanisms to suggest that, contrary to prior findings, inaction (nonpurchase) regrets decrease over time. We also argue that action (purchase) regrets should increase over time, but only when long-term utility is low. We support our predictions with a field study and two laboratory experiments. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

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  • Lisa J. Abendroth & Kristin Diehl, 2006. "Now or Never: Effects of Limited Purchase Opportunities on Patterns of Regret over Time," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(3), pages 342-351, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:33:y:2006:i:3:p:342-351
    DOI: 10.1086/508438
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    Cited by:

    1. Gabler, Colin B. & Myles Landers, V. & Reynolds, Kristy E., 2017. "Purchase decision regret: Negative consequences of the Steadily Increasing Discount strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 201-208.
    2. Mohammed Abdullah Ammer & Theyazn H. H. Aldhyani, 2022. "An Investigation into the Determinants of Investment Awareness: Evidence from the Young Saudi Generation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Grewal, Dhruv, 2011. "Temporal Reframing of Prices: When Is It Beneficial?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 156-165.
    4. Yeu-Shiang Huang & Tzu-Yi Wu & Chih-Chiang Fang & Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng, 2021. "Decisions on Probabilistic Selling for Consumers with Different Risk Attitudes," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 121-138, June.
    5. Stephanie M Tully & Eesha Sharma & Darren DahlEditor & Paul HerrAssociate Editor, 2018. "Context-Dependent Drivers of Discretionary Debt Decisions: Explaining Willingness to Borrow for Experiential Purchases," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 960-973.
    6. Xie, Guangming & Lü, Kevin & Gupta, Suraksha & Jiang, Yushi & Shi, Li, 2021. "How Dispersive Opinions Affect Consumer Decisions: Endowment Effect Guides Attributional Inferences," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 621-638.
    7. Özalp Özer & Yanchong Zheng, 2016. "Markdown or Everyday Low Price? The Role of Behavioral Motives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 326-346, February.
    8. Jeanne Lallement, 2010. "L'impact de la pression temporelle sur le traitement des informations," Post-Print hal-01488477, HAL.
    9. Brent J. Davis, 2018. "Does financial well-being affect portfolio construction? Evidence from an online survey," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(1), pages 362-366.
    10. Javad Nasiry & Ioana Popescu, 2012. "Advance Selling When Consumers Regret," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1160-1177, June.
    11. Axel Sonntag, 2013. "Search Costs in Consumer Product Choice: Does Delaying the Provision of Information increase Choice Efficiency?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 13-05, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    12. Pornpitakpan, Chanthika, 2010. "The Effect of option choice framing on short-term regret from actions/inactions: Implications for marketing strategies," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 132-137.
    13. Mead, James A. & Richerson, Rob & Li, Wenjing, 2020. "Dynamic Right-Slanted Fonts Increase the Effectiveness of Promotional Retail Advertising," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 282-296.
    14. Florian Teleaba & Sorin Popescu & Marieta Olaru & Diana Pitic, 2021. "Risks of Observable and Unobservable Biases in Artificial Intelligence Predicting Consumer Choice," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(56), pages 102-102, February.
    15. Jeanne Lallement & Sarah Machat, 2011. "Au secours, tout va trop vite ! Nécessité d'une conceptualisation marketing de la pression temporelle chronique," Post-Print hal-01675338, HAL.
    16. Barton, Belinda & Zlatevska, Natalina & Oppewal, Harmen, 2022. "Scarcity tactics in marketing: A meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(4), pages 741-758.
    17. Karthikeyan Shanmugam & Vijayabanu Chidambaram & Satyanarayana Parayitam, 2023. "Relationship Between Big-Five Personality Traits, Financial Literacy and Risk Propensity: Evidence from India," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 12(1), pages 85-101, January.
    18. Nichols, Bridget Satinover, 2012. "The development, validation, and implications of a measure of consumer competitive arousal (CCAr)," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 192-205.
    19. Yang, Xiying & Hua, Guowei & Cheng, T.C.E. & Zhang, Li & Zhang, Yi & Xu, Yadong, 2022. "Buy two and get X% off: Quantity discount under consumers’ anticipated regret," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).

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