When is Consumer Desire Driven by Difficulty of Recall? The Effects of the Type of Information and Time Pressure

• Published in: Journal of marketing theory and practice Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 375 - 395
• Main Authors: Huaman-Ramirez, Richard, Merunka, Dwight
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02.10.2017; Taylor & Francis, Ltd; Assoc; Taylor & Francis Ltd; The Association of Marketing Theory and Practice
• Subjects: Boundary conditions; Business administration; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Consumption; Decision making; Emotions; Experimental psychology; Heuristic; Humanities and Social Sciences; Influence; Information processing; Memory; Physiology; Product recalls; Psychology of learning; Semantics; Social psychology; Studies
• ISSN: 1069-6679; 1944-7175
• DOI: 10.1080/10696679.2017.1345595

Past research demonstrates that the difficulty of recalling past consumption of a preferred product influences desire through the use of the difficulty-of-recall inference. However, the analysis of boundary conditions is neglected. Across three studies, we examine the role of the type of information (semantic or episodic) and time pressure. Study 1 demonstrates that the difficulty of recalling past consumption influences desire positively when consumers recall semantic information. However, Study 2 shows that this influence is not replicated when consumers recall episodic information. Finally, Study 3 demonstrates that under time pressure, this positive influence is reestablished. Our results expand current knowledge about the role of processing difficulty of recall in consumer behavior.