Variety Counts: How Pursuing Self-Regulatory Goals Impacts Variety Seeking in Vice and Virtue Categories

My dissertation research explores how variety seeking tendencies differ when consumers are in pursuit of a self-regulatory goal. In general, variety is shown to increase consumption by reducing boredom and satiation. All else being equal, consumers demand and choose variety among their options to the extent that sometimes they let go of their favorite option only for the sake of having variety. In this research, I show how consumers’ perception of variety in consumption change when they are trying to achieve a goal for which they must regulate consumption. I specifically focus on two consumption domains: a) The vice domain that offers options that impede goal-progress. For a consumer who has a health goal such as weight loss, snacks that are high in sugar and fat content are examples of vice foods whose consumption is inconsistent with the goal. b) The virtue domain that offers options that facilitate goal progress. For the consumer mentioned above, vegetables high in nutritional value are examples of virtue foods whose consumption is consistent with the goal. I show that consumers primed with a health goal seek less variety when the options are goal-inconsistent (vice categories), and these choice patterns lead to lower anticipation of guilt. On the other hand, consumers primed with a health goal seek more variety when the choices are goal-consistent (virtue categories), which leads to higher anticipation of goal achievement and fulfillment. These effects emerge because a varied consumption set is perceived to contain more items than a non-varied one. When there is less variety in a consumption set, consumers tend to assimilate similar (or identical) items and perceive them as unified wholes. This will decrease the perceived quantity of the consumption set. As variety increases in a set, similarity among the items decreases, which makes it less likely for consumers to combine items. This makes a varied set of items seem to be more numerous than a non-varied one. Depending on what implications quantity of consumption has for consumer goal progress (consuming more fattening snacks is hindering goal progress but consuming more vegetables is helping it), consumers with a goal incorporate different levels of variety in their choice. I further show that these effects are stronger when consumers think about the choice prospectively than when they reflect on a past choice retrospectively.Ph.D., Marketing -- Drexel University, 201