The authors propose that attempts to increase consumers' objective knowledge (OK) regarding financial instruments can deter willingness to invest when such attempts diminish consumers' subjective ...knowledge (SK). In four studies, the authors use different SK manipulations and investment products to show that investment decisions are influenced by SK, independent of OK. Specifically, they find that (1) willingness to pursue a risky investment increases when SK is high (vs. low) relative to a prior investment choice (Study 1); (2) willingness to enroll in a retirement saving program is enhanced by asking consumers an easy (vs. difficult) question about finance, thereby increasing SK (Study 2); (3) technically elaborating information about a mutual fund diminishes SK regarding that investment and decreases choice of that fund (Study 3); and (4) consumers invest less money in funds when missing information is made salient, holding the objective investment information constant (Study 4). Furthermore, the effects in Studies 2-4 are mediated by participants' self-rated SK. The authors propose that effective financial education must focus not only on imparting relevant information and enhancing OK but also on promoting higher levels of SK.
Age-related changes in decision making have been attributed to deterioration of cognitive skills, such as learning and memory. On the basis of past research showing age-related decreases in the ...ability to inhibit irrelevant information, we hypothesize that these changes occur, in part, because of older adults’ tendency to give more weight to low-level, subordinate, and goal-irrelevant information than younger adults do. Consistent with this hypothesis, our findings demonstrated that young adults are willing to pay more for a product with superior end attributes than a product with superior means attributes (Study 1, N = 200) and are more satisfied after an experience with superior end than means attributes (Study 2, N = 399). Young adults are also more satisfied with a goal-relevant than with a goal-irrelevant product (Study 3, N = 201; Study 4, N = 200, preregistered). Importantly, these effects were attenuated with age. Implications for research on construal level and aging, as well as implications for policymakers, are discussed.
Abstract
Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological ...time series (15–91 years) collected across Europe, using a comprehensive dataset comprising ~6,200 marine, freshwater and terrestrial taxa. We test whether (i) local long-term biodiversity trends are consistent among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, and (ii) changes in biodiversity correlate with regional climate and local conditions. Our results reveal that local trends of abundance, richness and diversity differ among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, demonstrating that biodiversity changes at local scale are often complex and cannot be easily generalized. However, we find increases in richness and abundance with increasing temperature and naturalness as well as a clear spatial pattern in changes in community composition (i.e. temporal taxonomic turnover) in most biogeoregions of Northern and Eastern Europe.
Abstract The antimicrobial effect and biocompatibility of insoluble cross-linked quaternary ammonium polyethylenimine (PEI) nanoparticles incorporated at 1 or 2% w/w in a resin composite were ...assayed. The antimicrobial effect against Staphylococcus aureus , Staphylococcus epidermidis , Enterococcus faecalis , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli was tested using the direct contact test (DCT), agar diffusion test (ADT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Biocompatibility was tested by assessing macrophage viability, and TNFα secretion. Samples incorporating 2% w/w nanoparticles inhibited the growth of all bacterial strains tested. Reducing the amount of the added nanoparticles to 1% w/w resulted in complete inhibition of S. aureus and E. faecalis , and decreased growth of S. epidermidis , P. aeruginosa and E. coli ( p < 0.0001). The DCT results were confirmed by SEM. However, ADT showed no inhibition halo in all test bacteria, indicating the antimicrobial nanoparticles are not diffusing into the agar milieu . Biocompatibility tests revealed macrophage viability, and TNFα secretion was not altered by the presence of the nanoparticles in the resin. Incorporation of PEI nanoparticles in a resin composite had a long lasing antimicrobial effect against a wide range of bacteria with no measured effect on biocompatibility.
In this paper we investigate the claim that decisions from \textit{experience} (in which the features of lotteries are learned through a sampling process) differ from decisions from ...\textit{description} (in which features of lotteries are explicitly described). We find that the experience-description gap is not as robust as has been previously assumed. We argue that when this gap appears it is driven to a large extent by asymmetries in information concerning which events are possible and which are certain. First, we find that, when experience-based decision makers sample events without error and then are told what outcomes are associated with each possible event, they are risk seeking for low-probability gains and risk averse for high-probability gains, as in description-based decision making. Second, we find that the experience-description gap for low-probability outcomes appears when rare outcomes are never experienced but disappears when: 1) all distinct outcomes are experienced at least once or 2) never-experienced outcomes are described as possibilities. Third, we find that the experience-description gap for high-probability outcomes is pronounced when decision makers previously experience lotteries that both offered the possibility of a zero outcome (which presumably makes them doubt that an always-experienced outcome is certain), but disappears when they have not previously experienced such lotteries.
People find it appealing to have more options to choose from, but the provision of choice often leads to adverse consequences for decision makers' motivation, satisfaction, and willingness to act. We ...propose that the effect of the number of choice options on willingness to purchase is moderated by people's subjective knowledge (SK). The results of three studies provide converging evidence that, paradoxically, people who feel unknowledgeable (low-SK people) in a certain domain are especially willing to purchase when more choice options are available, which is consistent with the notion of "more is better." This pattern is reversed for people who feel knowledgeable (high-SK people), which is consistent with prior evidence for choice overload. We also show that this pattern is influenced by the informativeness of the features of the available choice options and that subjective knowledge mediates this effect.
Variety‐Seeking and Perceived Expertise Sela, Aner; Hadar, Liat; Morgan, Siân ...
Journal of consumer psychology,
October 2019, 2019-10-00, Letnik:
29, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
People often infer expertise from the choice of unique, rare, or sophisticated options. But might mere variety‐seeking also serve as a signal of expertise, and if so, how? Six studies show that the ...relationship between variety‐seeking and perceived expertise is not unidirectional and depends on the perceiver's own level of expertise. Category experts perceive lower variety‐seeking as indicative of discernment, which in turn increases perceived expertise in that category. Consequently, experts choose less variety to portray themselves as experts. In contrast, novices perceive high variety‐seeking as indicative of category breadth knowledge, which in turn increases their perception of category expertise. Consequently, novices choose more variety to portray themselves as experts. The findings make novel theoretical contributions to research on variety‐seeking, consumer expertise, and social perception, as well as practical contributions for marketers of product assortments and bundles.
Choice bracketing and experience‐based choice Hadar, Liat; Danziger, Shai; Morwitz, Vicki G.
Journal of behavioral decision making,
July 2021, Letnik:
34, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We examine how choice bracketing affects expected value maximization in experience‐based choice. Experience‐based choices are a series of individual choices made sequentially, for which feedback ...follows each choice, and are thus naturally bracketed narrowly. Previous research broadly bracketed multiple experience‐based choices for decision makers by aggregating the choices (such that each choice pertained to multiple individual choices) or by reducing feedback frequency. We find that decision makers prompted to actively broad‐bracket experience‐based choices in the presence of immediate feedback on individual choices (which prompts narrow bracketing) are more likely to choose expected value maximizing options than decision makers prompted to narrow‐bracket these choices. This pattern replicated across four studies, using different manipulations of choice bracketing, forms of feedback (partial or full), payoffs (hypothetical or incentive‐compatible payoff), subject populations, and when the choices and outcome distribution involved prices or time. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
This research examines how consumers choose retailers when they are uncertain about store prices prior to shopping. Simulating everyday choice, participants made successive retailer choices where on ...each occasion they chose a retailer and only then learned product prices. The results of a series of studies demonstrated that participants were more likely to choose a retailer that offered an everyday low pricing strategy (EDLP) or that offered frequent small discounts over a retailer that offered infrequent large discounts. This choice advantage for the retailer that was cheaper more often manifested even when its average price was judged to be higher. The same results were obtained when choices were made a day apart, when price feedback was only given for the chosen retailer, and when price feedback was given for both retailers. Participant’s expectations of future prices but not their judgments of retailer’s past average prices predicted their subsequent retailer choice.
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