Framing Affects Post-Decision Preferences Through Self-Preference Inferences (and Probably not Dissonance)
Adelle X. Yang and Jasper Teow (2025)
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Abstract: Psychologists have long been intrigued by decision-induced changes in preferences, where making a decision strengthens one’s relative preference between more and less preferred options. This phenomenon has been explained through two prominent theories: a dissonance account, which suggests that it results from the decision-maker’s attempt to minimize an unpleasant emotional-motivational state of “dissonance,” and an inference account, which posits that it reflects a process of inferring and updating one’s “true” preferences. In the current research, we investigate whether, how, and why framing a decision as a choice or a rejection influences decision-induced preference modulation. Across thirteen pre-registered experiments including seven (N = 6,248 participants from North America and Asia) reported in the main text, we find that reject-framed decisions between attractive options induce greater post-decision preference modulation (i.e., a larger preference gap between options) than choose-framed decisions, all else equal. Supporting the inference account, the effect is moderated by attribute similarity and choice-set valence while mediated consistently by perceived action diagnosticity. In contrast, purported moderators and process measures of the dissonance account received no support when tested. Additionally, we systematically address potential confounds associated with varying levels of “noise” in preference expression through decisions, an issue that had encumbered previous paradigms on preference modulation. Our findings suggest that changes in preference induced by ordinary day-to-day decisions primarily stem from an ongoing process of information inference and updating, rather than dissonance reduction. This research also provides insights into the previously unforeseen consequences of framing interventions in policy and business.
Agent's Impatience: A Self-Other Decision Model of Intertemporal Choices
Adelle X. Yang and Oleg Urminsky (2023)
Journal of Marketing Research
Abstract: Intertemporal choices represent one of the most prevalent and fundamental tradeoffs in consumer decision-making. While prior research on intertemporal choices has focused on choices for oneself, intertemporal choices often involve one individual choosing on behalf of another. How do intertemporal choices made for another person differ from otherwise identical choices made for oneself? This research introduces a self-other decision model that distinguishes reaction utility (derived from interpersonal feedback) from vicarious utility (derived from imagining the recipient’s experience). We tested model-derived hypotheses in thirteen experiments (N = 4,799) involving decisions between peers. Consistent with the proposed role of reaction utility in the model, we find that intertemporal choices made for others are typically more “impatient” than choices for oneself. Moreover, this “agent’s impatience” is attenuated when contextual and individual differences weaken the anticipation of interpersonal feedback. Together, our theoretical model and experimental results highlight the rewarding value of interpersonal feedback in self-other decision-making, shedding new light on interpersonal consumer choices.
"Remember Me, Will You?": Overusing Material Gifts for Interpersonal Memory Management
Adelle X. Yang, Minjung Koo, and Jaewon Hwang (2021)
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Abstract: Six experiments (N = 2,350) uncover a prevalent giver-recipient preference discrepancy: gift-givers prefer giving material gifts (vs. experiential gifts) more than gift-recipients prefer to receive them. The experiments reveal congruent evidence that a mnemonic gifting strategy underlies this preference discrepancy. Givers are more likely than recipients to consider the memory consequences of gift options, as givers intuitively use material gifts as interpersonal mnemonic devices to facilitate the recipient’s retrieval of giver-related memories. As such, this preference discrepancy occurs in various stages of developing relationships but is mitigated in very close relationships. In addition, two theoretical moderators are identified: the preference discrepancy disappears when the gift would be associated with an unpleasant occasion (instead of a pleasant one), and when the giver and recipient expect an incidental increase in future interactions. This research reveals an interpersonal memory-management motive that underlies the miscalibrated gift choices, and bridges prior findings on material and experiential gifts. These findings also offer insights for consumers and marketers to mitigate miscalibrated choices and their perverse economic and relationship consequences.
Obligatory Publicity Increases Charitable Acts
Adelle X. Yang and Christopher K. Hsee (2021)
Journal of Consumer Research
Abstract: To entice new donors and spread awareness of the charitable cause, many charity campaigns encourage donors to broadcast their charitable acts with self-promotion devices such as donor pins, logoed apparel, and social media hashtags. However, this voluntary-publicity strategy may not be particularly attractive because potential donors may worry that observers will attribute their publicized charitable behavior to “impure” image motives rather than “pure” altruistic motives. We propose and test a counterintuitive campaign strategy—obligatory publicity, which requires prospective donors to use a self-promotion device as a prerequisite for contributing to the campaign. Five studies (N = 10,866) test the application and effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The first three studies, including two field experiments, find that obligatory-publicity campaigns recruit more contributions and campaign promoters than voluntary-publicity campaigns. The last two studies demonstrate that the obligatory-publicity strategy produces a greater effect among people with stronger image motives and that the effect is mitigated when the publicized charitable act signals a low level of altruism. Finally, we discuss the limitations and implications of this research.
Idleness versus Busyness
Adelle X. Yang and Christopher Hsee (2019)
Current Opinion in Psychology
Abstract: The elapse of time disregards the human will. Yet different uses of time result in distinct perceptions of time and psychological consequences. In this article, we synthesize the growing research in psychology on the actual and perceived consumption of time, with a focus on idleness and busyness. We propose that the desire to avoid an unproductive use of time and the ceaseless pursuit of meaning in life may underlie many human activities. In particular, while it has been long presumed that people engage in activities in order to pursue goals, we posit a reverse causality: people pursue goals in order to engage in activities.
The "Smile-Seeking" Hypothesis: Anticipated Affective Reaction Motivates and Rewards Gift Choices
Adelle X. Yang and Oleg Urminsky (2018)
Psychological Science
Abstract: People making decisions for others often do not choose what their recipients most want. Prior research has generally explained such preference mismatches as decision makers mispredicting recipients’ satisfaction. We proposed that a “smile-seeking” motive is a distinct cause for these mismatches in the context of gift giving. After examining common gift options for which gift givers expect a difference between the recipients’ affective reaction (e.g., a smile when receiving the gift) and overall satisfaction, we found that givers often chose to forgo satisfaction-maximizing gifts and instead favor reaction-maximizing gifts. This reaction-maximizing preference was mitigated when givers anticipated not giving the gift in person. Results from six studies suggest that anticipated affective reactions powerfully shape gift givers’ choices and giving experiences, independently of (and even in spite of) anticipated recipient satisfaction. These findings reveal a dominant yet overlooked role that the display of affective reactions plays in motivating and rewarding gift-giving behaviors and shed new light on interpersonal decision making.
The Foresight Effect: Local Optimism Motivates Consistency and Local Pessimism Motivates Variety
Adelle X. Yang and Oleg Urminsky (2015)
Journal of Consumer Research
Abstract: Consumers sometimes prefer to repeat their past choices, while other times the same consumer prefers to try something new. We propose that a consumers’ situational future outlook, that is, local optimism or pessimism about an imminent outcome, has unique effects on consumers’ spontaneous preference for self-continuity, which lead to differences in the sequential consistency of consumer choices. Six experimental studies demonstrate this “Foresight Effect”, that local optimism increases preference for self-continuity and yields more sequential choice consistency, whereas local pessimism decreases preference for self-continuity and yields more sequential variety seeking. The “Foresight Effect” cannot be attributed to differences in mood, causal attribution, or perceived control. These findings provide new insights for the relationship between future-oriented cognition and consumer behaviors, and hold broad managerial implications for when consumers will be more apt to repeat past purchases or more open to novel product adoption.
The AB identification Survey: A Practical Method to Distinguish between Absolute and Relative Determinants of Happiness
Adelle X. Yang, Chris K. Hsee, and Xingshan Zheng (2012)
Journal of Happiness Studies
Abstract: People obtain happiness from myriad variables in daily life. Some variables exert an absolute effect on happiness, and some affect happiness only through social context. This distinction is important because investing resources on the absolute determinants of happiness can effectively increase the aggregate welfare, whereas investing resources on the relative determinants of happiness will lead to a zero-sum game and little aggregate welfare improvement over time. We introduce a simple survey method to identify the absolute-relative nature of a variable. We first validated the survey method by comparing its results with a theoretically superior but less practical experimental method. Then we administered surveys with two distinct populations, and identified a variety of absolute and relative determinants of happiness for each population. While these results shed light on the specific components of happiness for these representative populations, our method suggests a new path to improve resource allocation from the perspective of sustainable welfare improvement.
The Supremacy of Singular Subjectivity: Improving Decision Quality by Removing Objective Specifications and Direct Comparisons
Adelle X. Yang, Chris K. Hsee, Yi Liu and Li Zhang (2011)
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Abstract: Consumers often seek objective product information and direct product comparison in order to make better purchase decisions. However, consumption is largely subjective and non-comparative. Results from four experimental studies suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, purchase decisions can often yield better consumption experiences if objective specifications are removed and direct comparison is inhibited at the time of purchase, because, purchase decisions based on subjective and non-comparative information are often more compatible with consumption. The supremacy of subjective and singular evaluation even held when consumers could not experience the target products themselves and relied on other consumers’ ratings – ratings generated from singular evaluation of products lead to purchase decisions that yielded better consumption experiences overall, compared with ratings generated from comparative evaluation. Our findings highlight a potential conflict between consumer satisfaction with purchase decisions and consumer satisfaction from consumption experience, and suggest a new way of marketing to improve long-term consumer welfare.
Idleness Aversion and the Need for Justifiable Busyness
Chris K. Hsee, Adelle X. Yang, and Liangyan Wang (2010)
Psychological Science
Abstract: There are many apparent reasons why people engage in activity, such as to earn money, to become famous, or to advance science. In this paper we suggest a potentially deeper reason: People dread idleness, yet they need a reason to be busy. In two experiments, we give people choices to either engage in a task that keeps them moderately busy, or engage in nothing but idleness. We find that, 1) people are happier when they are busy; 2) without a justification, people choose to be idle, despite being able to predict that being busy will make them happier; 3) with a justification, even a specious one, people choose to be busy; and 4) when deprived of the choice and forced to be busy by random assignment, being busy still makes people happier. Our research suggests that many purported goals that people pursue may be merely justifications to keep themselves busy. Yet it is probably beneficial for one’s wellbeing to have a sound, specious, or even a forced justification to engage in busyness.