Generalizing From Negative Experiences

Consumers often form firm beliefs about the future performance of a vendor based on an initial interaction with that vendor. Research in decision science suggests that generalizing from small samples is ill-advised but nonetheless common. A smaller stream of research indicates sensitivity to the representativeness of a small sample. We argue that perceived representativeness depends on the causal inferences prompted by the nature of the consumption experience. Moreover, such inferences may be so specific to the consumption experience that broad statements about consumers\u27 propensity to generalize from one experience to others may themselves be ill-advised. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Consumer perceptions of free will

The topic of free will has a long and distinguished history in philosophy and psychology. Consumer research has implicitly confronted the issue through empirical investigation of psychological processes that speak to the existence of free will; more recently, consumer psychologists have explicitly debated the question and its implications for decision making. The present research takes a different approach by investigating consumers’ perceptions of their free will. Our results suggest that consumers do not take an extreme position with regard to their agency but that they do assume an ample amount of volition.status: publishe