As the crow flies: bias in consumers' map-based distance judgments
Article Abstract:
Consumers make distance judgments when they decide which store to visit or which route to take. However, these judgments may be prone to various spatial perception biases. While there is a rich literature on spatial perceptions in urban planning and environmental and cognitive psychology, there is little in the field of consumer behavior. In this article we introduce the topic of spatial perceptions as an area of research in marketing. We extend the literature on spatial perceptions by proposing that consumers use the direct distance between the endpoints of a path, or the distance "as the crow flies," as a source of information while making distance judgments - the shorter the direct distance, the shorter the distance estimate. We study two spatial features that affect direct distance - path angularity (i.e., the size of the angle between path segments) and path direction (i.e., whether the path retraces back or not). We further propose and demonstrate that the direct-distance bias is due to the perceptual salience of direct distance and is used by consumers in an automatic manner. Theoretical implications for the manner in which consumers process spatial information and the use of cognitive heuristics while making spatial judgments are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
How do young children learn to be consumers? A script-processing approach
Article Abstract:
The experiments reported in this article examine young children's knowledge-acquisition abilities, relative to older children, with the goal of identifying how young children learn and then using this understanding to design situations in which age differences in learning are eliminated. The results indicate that young children are able to acquire knowledge equivalent to that of older children when the experimental materials and response formats are congruent with their encoding and retrieval abilities. Younger children's learning was enhanced by (1) the repetition of the same event in an audiovisual format, (2) the presentation of somewhat different events in which the goal of the event and the steps involved in enacting the event were made salient, and (3) contextual response formats that enhanced their retrieval skills. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Creating consumers in the 1930s: Irna Phillips and the radio soap opera
Article Abstract:
The 1930s marked an important stage in the evolution of a mass consumer society in the United States. The current article examines the roles that Irna Phillips and the early radio soap opera played in that process. Through the daytime serial, Phillips developed a program format that appealed to American housewives, who were the likely purchasers of most household products. She adjusted story lines to meet the selling needs of her sponsors; she used soap opera characters as effective product spokespersons; and she designed program promotions to stimulate product sales. However, at the same time that her programs sold products contributing to social change, they also reinforced traditional expectations about the roles of women as housewives and mothers. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Consumer Research
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0093-5301
Year: 1995
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: On the proper use of ordinal variables in labor market models. Further on ordinal variables in economic models
- Abstracts: Reflections on the Information Overload Paradigm in Consumer Decision-Making. Consumer responses to dissatisfaction in loose monopolies
- Abstracts: Purchasing computer systems: an executive's guide. Computer maintenance. Comprehensive maintenance systems
- Abstracts: The life history of the emergent organization in times of disaster. Social organization, profit cycles, and statewide land use controls: welcome to Oregon - enjoy your visit
- Abstracts: Jobs, housing, transportation: a balance through mediated fair shares