Researching a purchase ‘can help ease buyer’s remorse’
April 10th, 2011 - 6:10 pm ICT by ANI
Washington, Apr 10 (ANI): A new study has suggested that consumers often experience less post-purchase regret when they use more cognitive effort, which involves performing research, gathering opinions and exploring options before purchasing a product.
Jisook April Park, a Kansas State University doctoral candidate in psychology, Korea, has been working with Gary Brase, K-State associate professor of psychology, to study consumer decision-making strategies and understand the causes and remedies for post-purchase regret.
To explore post-purchase regret, Park performed two types of studies that involved more than 250 K-State students.
In the first study, Park gave participants two types of decision-making situations. One situation involved choosing between two laptops and the other situation involved choosing between two pairs of jeans.
Participants had to use different levels of cognitive effort — or different amounts of research — to choose between the two. Based on this study, Park found that participants experienced less regret when more cognitive effort was invested and when a pair of jeans was purchased rather than a laptop.
For the second study, Park again had participants choose between two laptops and two pairs of jeans.
She had participants put forth cognitive effort deemed “unjustified” — meaning they either spent a lot of time researching other products but ended up buying the original laptop or pair of jeans they wanted — or put forth cognitive effort deemed “under spent”– meaning they did not spend a lot of time researching even when they did not know much about the product.
Results showed that “unjustified” cognitive effort did not make much difference in post-purchase regret but “under spent” cognitive effort created more post-purchase regret.
“That means that high cognitive effort itself may be a way to justify the consumer’s decisions and the decision-making process,” said Park.
“While cognitive effort can help reduce regret, there is no one-size-fits-all amount of cognitive effort to practice in order to reduce post-purchase regret. It varies for each person and situation,” she added. (ANI)
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Tags: april park, associate professor, cognitive effort, consumer decision, consumers, decision making process, decision making strategies, decisions, doctoral candidate, gary brase, kansas state university, korea, laptop, laptops, pair of jeans, participants, psychology, remorse, state students, two pairs