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Option Attachment: When Deliberating Makes Choosing Feel Like Losing

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  • Carmon, Ziv
  • Wertenbroch, Klaus
  • Zeelenberg, Marcel
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    Abstract

    Common sense suggests that consumers make more satisfying decisions as they consider their options more closely. Yet we argue that such close consideration can have undesirable consequences because it may induce attachment to the options--a sense of prefactual ownership of the choice options. When consumers then select one option, they effectively lose this prefactual possession of the other, nonchosen options. This yields a feeling of discomfort ("choosing feels like losing") and an increase in the attractiveness of the forgone option, compared to its appeal before the choice. A series of nine experiments provides evidence of this phenomenon and support for our explanation. Copyright 2003 by the University of Chicago.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Consumer Research.

    Volume (Year): 30 (2003)
    Issue (Month): 1 (June)
    Pages: 15-29

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    Handle: RePEc:ucp:jconrs:v:30:y:2003:i:1:p:15-29

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    Web page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/

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    Cited by:
    1. Botti, Simona & Hsee, Christopher K., 2010. "Dazed and confused by choice: How the temporal costs of choice freedom lead to undesirable outcomes," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 161-171, July.
    2. James R. Wolf & Hal R. Arkes & Waleed A. Muhanna, 2008. "The power of touch: An examination of the effect of duration of physical contact on the valuation of objects," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 3(6), pages 476-482, August.
    3. Rebecca Ratner & Dilip Soman & Gal Zauberman & Dan Ariely & Ziv Carmon & Punam Keller & B. Kim & Fern Lin & Selin Malkoc & Deborah Small & Klaus Wertenbroch, 2008. "How behavioral decision research can enhance consumer welfare: From freedom of choice to paternalistic intervention," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 383-397, December.
    4. J. Graafland, 2010. "Do Markets Crowd Out Virtues? An Aristotelian Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Kogut, Tehila, 2011. "Choosing what I want or keeping what I should: The effect of decision strategy on choice consistency," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 129-139, September.
    6. Hilke Plassmann & Peter Kenning & Michael Deppe & Harald Kugel & Wolfram Schwindt, 2005. "Neural correlates of the affect heuristic during brand choice," Experimental 0509004, EconWPA.
    7. Martinez, Luis F. & Zeelenberg, Marcel & Rijsman, John B., 2011. "Regret, disappointment and the endowment effect," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 962-968.
    8. repec:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/346336 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jiaxi Peng & Danmin Miao & Wei Xiao, 2013. "Why are gainers more risk seeking," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 8(2), pages 150-160, March.
    10. Lens, Inge, 2012. "Materialism, conspicious consumption and the human nature," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/347147, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
    11. Binswanger, Mathias, 2006. "Why does income growth fail to make us happier?: Searching for the treadmills behind the paradox of happiness," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 366-381, April.
    12. I. Lens & M. Pandelaere & L. Warlop, 2009. "The Role of Materialism in the Endowment Effect," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 09/578, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    13. Simona Botti & Susan Broniarczyk & Gerald Häubl & Ron Hill & Yanliu Huang & Barbara Kahn & Praveen Kopalle & Donald Lehmann & Joe Urbany & Brian Wansink, 2008. "Choice under restrictions," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 183-199, December.
    14. Keaveney, Susan M. & Huber, Frank & Herrmann, Andreas, 2007. "A model of buyer regret: Selected prepurchase and postpurchase antecedents with consequences for the brand and the channel," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 1207-1215, December.

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