IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v42y2014icp41-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Showing a tree to sell the forest: The impact of attribute- and alternative-based information presentation on consumers’ choices

Author

Listed:
  • Pizzi, Gabriele
  • Scarpi, Daniele
  • Marzocchi, Gian Luca

Abstract

Consumers can be provided with information in either an attribute- or an alternative-based way. We consider the literature on information presentation through the theoretical lenses of the Construal Level Theory. We propose and find that providing product-related information in an attribute- rather than an alternative-based way shifts choices. The attribute-based pattern leads to high construal levels and choices driven by desirability-related, high-level attributes (e.g., design). But when the same information is acquired following the alternative-based pattern, it leads to low construal levels and choices driven by feasibility-related, low-level attributes (e.g., price). As a consequence, choice shares for products whose strength lies in convenience and other feasibility-related features are boosted by the presentation of alternative-based information. Conversely, choice shares for products whose strength lies in design and other desirability-related features are increased by the presentation of attribute-based information. We further find that consumers acquiring information in an alternative-based way envision consumption much closer in the future than those acquiring information in an attribute-based way. Finally, we find that attribute-based information leads to more clicking.

Suggested Citation

  • Pizzi, Gabriele & Scarpi, Daniele & Marzocchi, Gian Luca, 2014. "Showing a tree to sell the forest: The impact of attribute- and alternative-based information presentation on consumers’ choices," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 41-51.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:41-51
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2013.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487013001372
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joep.2013.12.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    2. Strahilevitz, Michal & Myers, John G, 1998. "Donations to Charity as Purchase Incentives: How Well They Work May Depend on What You Are Trying to Sell," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(4), pages 434-446, March.
    3. Soman, Dilip, 2004. "The effect of time delay on multi-attribute choice," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 153-175, April.
    4. Bettman, James R & Luce, Mary Frances & Payne, John W, 1998. "Constructive Consumer Choice Processes," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 187-217, December.
    5. Yeung-Jo Kim & Jongwon Park & Robert S. Wyer Jr., 2009. "Effects of Temporal Distance and Memory on Consumer Judgments," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 634-645, December.
    6. Leiser, David & Azar, Ofer H. & Hadar, Liat, 2008. "Psychological construal of economic behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 762-776, November.
    7. Susan Jung Grant & Alice M. Tybout, 2008. "The Effect of Temporal Frame on Information Considered in New Product Evaluation: The Role of Uncertainty," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(6), pages 897-913, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scheibehenne, Benjamin & von Helversen, Bettina & Rieskamp, Jörg, 2015. "Different strategies for evaluating consumer products: Attribute- and exemplar-based approaches compared," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 39-50.
    2. Scarpi, Daniele & Confente, Ilenia & Russo, Ivan, 2022. "The impact of tourism on residents' intention to stay. A qualitative comparative analysis," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Tan, Wee-Kheng & Wang, Wei-Jie, 2021. "The application of information values and construal level theory for examining low cost carrier advertisements," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios & Stylos, Nikolaos & Kamenidou, Irene (Eirini), 2020. "City image, city brand personality and generation Z residents' life satisfaction under economic crisis: Predictors of city-related social media engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 453-463.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martinovici, A., 2019. "Revealing attention - how eye movements predict brand choice and moment of choice," Other publications TiSEM 7dca38a5-9f78-4aee-bd81-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Ary José A. de Souza-Jr. & Flávio Terto, 2021. "The propensity to adaptation under the new era of climate changes," Working Papers REM 2021/0167, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    3. Michael G. Luchs & Minu Kumar, 2017. "“Yes, but this Other One Looks Better/Works Better”: How do Consumers Respond to Trade-offs Between Sustainability and Other Valued Attributes?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 567-584, February.
    4. Shao, Wei & Lye, Ashley & Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn, 2009. "Different strokes for different folks: A method to accommodate decision -making heterogeneity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 495-501.
    5. Song Lin & Juanjuan Zhang & John R. Hauser, 2015. "Learning from Experience, Simply," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 1-19, January.
    6. 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.
    7. Katharina Dowling & Daniel Guhl & Daniel Klapper & Martin Spann & Lucas Stich & Narine Yegoryan, 2020. "Behavioral biases in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 449-477, May.
    8. Joonwook Park & Wayne DeSarbo & John Liechty, 2008. "A Hierarchical Bayesian Multidimensional Scaling Methodology for Accommodating Both Structural and Preference Heterogeneity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 451-472, September.
    9. Samuel D. Bond & Kurt A. Carlson & Ralph L. Keeney, 2008. "Generating Objectives: Can Decision Makers Articulate What They Want?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 56-70, January.
    10. Mandy Ryan & Mabelle Amaya‐Amaya, 2005. "‘Threats’ to and hopes for estimating benefits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 609-619, June.
    11. Heiman, Amir & Lowengart, Oded, 2011. "The effects of information about health hazards in food on consumers' choice process," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 162(1), pages 140-147, May.
    12. Zuschke, Nick, 2020. "The impact of task complexity and task motivation on in-store marketing effectiveness: An eye tracking analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 337-350.
    13. Mark Heitmann & Andreas Herrmann & Christian Kaiser, 2007. "The effect of product variety on purchase probability," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 111-131, August.
    14. Stefano Ficco & Vladimir Karamychev & Peran van Reeven, 2006. "A Theory of Procedurally Rational Choice: Optimization without Evaluation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-001/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Carolina Castaldi, 2008. "Perceived technology clusters and ownership of related technologies: the case of consumer electronics," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 08-17, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Jun 2008.
    16. Leung, Ming D., 2015. "Failed Searches: How the choice set of job applicants affects an employer’s likelihood of making an offer," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt89r4h7d9, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    17. Christina Schamp & Mark Heitmann & Robin Katzenstein, 2019. "Consideration of ethical attributes along the consumer decision-making journey," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 328-348, March.
    18. Woo, JongRoul & Shin, Jungwoo & Kim, Hongbum & Moon, HyungBin, 2022. "Which consumers are willing to pay for smart car healthcare services? A discrete choice experiment approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    19. Mueller, Michel G. & de Haan, Peter, 2009. "How much do incentives affect car purchase? Agent-based microsimulation of consumer choice of new cars--Part I: Model structure, simulation of bounded rationality, and model validation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1072-1082, March.
    20. Sebastian Lehmann, 2014. "Toward an Understanding of the BDM: Predictive Validity, Gambling Effects, and Risk Attitude," FEMM Working Papers 150001, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information presentation; Construal-level; Consumer choice; Attribute-based information; Alternative-based information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:41-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.