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In a world that offers children abundant activities from which to choose, understanding how to motivate children to engage longer in productive activities is crucial. This paper examines how the offered assortment size affects children’s engagement with their chosen option. In the first study, I show children prefer to choose from a larger set even though they think doing so is more difficult. Then, in Studies 2 and 3, four- to five-year-old children choose from either a small set (two options) or a large set (six or seven options). In study 2, children choose a book to look at and I measure how long they look at it. In Study 3, children choose a game to play with and I measure how long they play. Children spend more time looking at the book and playing with the game they choose from the small versus the large set. By contrast, the size of the choice set does not affect food consumption. Such findings contribute to our understanding of young children’s decision-making and have important implications for determining the optimal assortment size to offer children to increase engagement with desirable activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the daily lives of individuals across the world as multiple variants continue introducing new complexities. In December 2021, which is when we conducted our study, pressure to resume the normalcy of daily life was mounting as a new variant, Omicron, was rapidly spreading. A variety of at-home tests detecting SARS-CoV-2, known to the general public as “COVID tests,” were available for consumers to purchase. In this study, we conducted conjoint analysis utilizing an internet-based survey by presenting consumers (n = 583) with 12 different hypothetical at-home COVID test concepts that varied on five attributes (price, accuracy, time, where-to-buy, and method). Price was identified as the most important attribute, because participants were very price sensitive. Quick turnaround time and high accuracy were also identified as important. Additionally, although 64% of respondents were willing to take an at-home COVID test, only 22% reported they had previously taken the test. On December 21, 2021, President Biden announced the U.S. government would purchase 500 million at-home rapid tests and distribute them for free to Americans. Given the importance of price to participants, this policy of providing free at-home COVID tests was directionally appropriate.

Three studies examine the effect of limited availability on the engagement, consumption, and choice behavior of four- to five-year old children. It is shown that children engage longer in an activity when the activity is presented as limited in time and consume more of a particular food when the food is presented as limited in quantity. It is also shown that the consumption ratio of a less preferred food to a more preferred one increases when the less preferred food is presented as limited in quantity. Finally, children are more likely to choose a less preferred option over a more preferred one when the less preferred option becomes less available.

Five experiments demonstrate that exposure to novel visual stimulus arrays of geometric shapes affects consumers' real choices among products. The authors first demonstrate that exposure to variety arrays (arrays of differing shapes) increases variety seeking (Study 1). They then show that exposure to uniqueness arrays (e.g., one circle among six squares) increases choice of unique over common objects (Studies 2 and 3) and interacts with chronic need for uniqueness (Study 3). In the final two studies, the authors show that variety and uniqueness arrays activate distinct constructs; specifically, they find no effect of exposure to uniqueness arrays on variety seeking (Study 4a) and no effect of exposure to variety arrays on uniqueness seeking (Study 4b). Taken together, these studies build on the existing literature about nonconscious effects on consumer behavior and choice behavior in particular by showing that consumers' real choices are affected by subtle exposure to novel stimuli that do not have any previous associations.

Marketers, educators, and caregivers often refer to instrumental benefits to convince preschoolers to eat (e.g., “This food will make you strong”). We propose that preschoolers infer that if food is instrumental to achieve a goal, it is less tasty, and therefore they consume less of it. Accordingly, we find that preschoolers (3–5.5 years old) rated crackers as less tasty and consumed fewer of them when the crackers were presented as instrumental to achieving a health goal (studies 1–2). In addition, preschoolers consumed fewer carrots and crackers when these were presented as instrumental to knowing how to read (study 3) and to count (studies 4–5). This research supports an inference account for the negative impact of certain persuasive messages on consumption: preschoolers who are exposed to one association (e.g., between eating carrots and intellectual performance) infer another association (e.g., between carrots and taste) must be weaker.

Individuals are generally reluctant to trade goods—a phenomenon identified as the endowment effect. This paper focuses on consumers’ puzzling reluctance to exchange gambles, and in particular lottery tickets with identical distribution (i.e., same odds of winning), and identifies the ticket’s vividness as an important moderator. Three studies demonstrate that individuals are more willing to exchange less vivid lottery tickets (e.g., tickets concealed in envelopes, or tickets with an unknown number) compared to more vivid tickets (e.g., tickets not concealed in envelopes, or tickets with a known number) when offered an incentive to exchange. Moreover, this effect is mediated by anticipated regret, such that less regret is anticipated when exchanging less vivid tickets, thus increasing individuals’ willingness to exchange tickets.

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.

Studies of consumer decision making often begin with the identification of a dimension on which options differ, followed by an analysis of the factors that influence preferences along that dimension. Building on a conceptual analysis of a diverse set of problems, the authors identify a class of related consumers choices (e.g., extreme vs. compromise, hedonic vs. utilitarian, risky vs. safe) that can all be classified according to their levels of self- versus other-expression (or [un]conventionality). As shown in four studies, these problem types respond similarly to manipulations that trigger or suppress self-expression. Specifically, priming self-expression systematically increases the share of the self-expressive options across choice problems. Conversely, expecting to be evaluated decreases the share of the self-expressive options across the various choice dilemmas. In addition, priming risk seeking increases only the choice of risky gambles but not of other self-expressive options. These findings highlight the importance of seeking underlying shared features across different consumer choice problems, instead of treating each type in isolation.

In a world that offers children abundant activities from which to choose, understanding how to motivate children to engage longer in productive activities is crucial. This paper examines how the offered assortment size affects children’s engagement with their chosen option. In the first study, I show children prefer to choose from a larger set even though they think doing so is more difficult. Then, in Studies 2 and 3, four- to five-year-old children choose from either a small set (two options) or a large set (six or seven options). In study 2, children choose a book to look at and I measure how long they look at it. In Study 3, children choose a game to play with and I measure how long they play. Children spend more time looking at the book and playing with the game they choose from the small versus the large set. By contrast, the size of the choice set does not affect food consumption. Such findings contribute to our understanding of young children’s decision-making and have important implications for determining the optimal assortment size to offer children to increase engagement with desirable activities.

Substantial research has documented the manner in which well-resourced adults make financial and health decisions. However, much remains unknown regarding unique consumer segments like children. This session responds to ACR 2019's mission of becoming wise through understanding the decision-making processes of under-heard and under-represented segments', specifically, we explore the affective processes and cognitive processes underlying children's financial behaviors and health decisions. Rather than preventing marketing to children altogether, we rind that using age-appropriate incentive messages can prompt children to make healthier choices. Of note, our interventions are more subtle than explicit persuasion attempts that can potentially backfire. Our findings have important theoretical implication for children's perception of value, and managerial implications to improve their health.