Exam #2 Review Sheet
MAR 3503
Consumer Behavior
Spring 2012
These questions should help you organize your thoughts and prepare for the exam. The
questions on these pages are, in general, much broader than the questions you’ll find on
the exam. This means that the questions on the exam will include details not listed here.
But, if you can give thorough, specific, and detailed answers to these questions, you’ll be
in good shape for the exam.
If you get “stuck” while you’re studying these questions, I would be more than happy to
point you in the right direction, at office hours, by appointment, or via email. But first, try
to answer the questions yourself, and then tell me what you think the right answer might
be. (So don’t just email me and say something like, “What’s the answer to #2b?”)
1. Heuristics and biases
a. What are the two systems of reasoning? What are the characteristics of
each?
b. What is a heuristic? What are the two types of heuristics? Give an example
of each.
c. What is the affect heuristic? How does it influence our use of numbers in
decisions? What is the identifiable victim effect? How can the influence of
the order of questions demonstrate the affect heuristic?
d. What is the availability heuristic? How does “overclaiming” reflect the
availability heuristic? Is the availability heuristic due to the amount of
information generated, or how easy it is to generate that information?
Describe a study that teased these two explanations apart.
e. What is the representativeness heuristic? What is the conjunction fallacy?
How does the Linda problem demonstrate it? How does it influence
purchase decisions? How does representativeness lead us to misperceive
randomness? What does this mean for the “hot hand” effect? What is
regression to the mean? How does it explain the Sports Illustrated jinx?
What are some other unfounded beliefs that it can help explain?
f. What are some causes of overconfidence in predictions? What is naïve
realism? Describe a study that demonstrates how people are naïve realists,
and how to decrease that tendency.
2. Construal
a. What is construal? How does the false consensus effect demonstrate the
power of construal? What are other examples of the influence of construal?
b. What are some determinants of construal? Give an example of each. How
do primacy effects influence judgment? How does portion size influence
willingness-to-pay? What is reactive devaluation? What is temporal
construal theory? What are the characteristics of high-level and low-level
construals? How does temporal construal influence how we categorize
items? How does it influence our predictions of future events? Which level
is associated with “how” and which is associated with “why” we perform
certain behaviors? How does our view of things with more positive highlevel construals than low-level construals change as they approach in time?
More negative high-level construals?
c. What does it mean to say that our preferences are constructed?
d. How can construal influence the inclination to save money? What are
framing effects? Give an example of a real-life framing effect. How does the
“Asian disease problem” demonstrate framing effects?
e. What is prospect theory? What is loss aversion?
f. What is mental accounting? Give an example. What are sunk costs? Give
an example.
g. How do construal and reason-based choice interact? How does the need
to have reasons for choosing influence what is chosen? What is unpacking?
h. How can construal impact health?
3. Predicting preferences and satisfaction
a. What is presentism?
b. What is a visceral state? How do visceral states influence predictions of
future preferences? Of other things? Give some examples.
c. What is variety seeking? How does it influence choices when we make
them simultaneously versus sequentially? How do groups seek variety?
How does variety seeking impact liking of chosen options?
d. What is evaluability? What kinds of things are only evaluable in joint
contexts? What types of things are evaluable separately? How
restaurateurs influence your menu choices using evaluability?
e. Why do people save pleasures for later? Give an example.
f. Give an example of how powerful defaults are. Why are they so effective?
g. What is focalism? How does it influence predictions? How can one reduce
its influence? What is the planning fallacy? Why is it stronger for the self
than for others? What is the holier-than-thou effect?
h. What is the psychological immune system? What is immune neglect?
What is the durability bias? Do people correctly anticipate their
adaptation to products? How do we know? What is the want vs. should
conflict? How does temporal construal interact with wants vs. shoulds?
Give an example. How does joint evaluation influence wants vs. shoulds?
i. What is the big picture lesson of this lecture?
4. The consumption experience
a. What is the paradox of choice? Why do people believe that more choice is
better? What is an implicit choice? How does the number of options
available influence satisfaction with choices? Why does number of options
have this effect?
b. How do commercials impact enjoyment of TV shows? Why do they have
this effect? How does recalling variety influence satiation in the present?
How does an explanation of an event impact our enjoyment of it?
c. How do expectations influence our experience? How does the timing of
information alter our experience of a product? Give an example of how a
label or name can alter our perception of an object. How does the price of
a product influence enjoyment? Describe a study that demonstrates that
our experience is changed, not just our reporting of the experience.
d. How do we expect comparison objects to influence our experience? How
do they actually influence our experience? Under what conditions are our
expectations correct?
e. What is the big picture lesson from this lecture?
5. Post-decision processes
a. What is the hindsight bias? How can it manifest in clinical settings? How
do our current states influence our memories of the past? How do implicit
theories of behavior influence recall?
b. How does the Day Reconstruction Method measure happiness? Why
might the things that lead to happiness under this method differ from
those that look at more global measures of happiness?
c. Does money buy happiness? What is some evidence to suggest that money
isn’t related to happiness? What is some evidence to suggest that it is?
What are some factors that qualify the relationship? What types of
purchases are more likely to increase happiness? Why? What is the peakend rule? Describe a study that demonstrates this effect. How do people
protect treasured memories?
d. What is the temporal pattern of regret? In other words, what types of
things do we regret in the short term, and what types of things do we
regret in the long term? What are some reasons why we regret different
things in the long- and short term? Describe a study that demonstrates
how forgetting circumstances influences regret over time.
e. What is the endowment effect?
f. How does rationalization create counterintuitive patterns of liking and
happiness? How does making a choice irrevocable influence satisfaction
with that choice?
g. What is the big picture lesson of this lecture?
6. Introduction to personality and motivation
a. What is the psychoanalytic approach to personality? What are the three
parts of personality, according to Freud? Define each. Why did this view
of personality fall out of favor?
b. What are the four humors? What are the Meyers-Briggs types? Why was
the Meyers-Briggs an improvement over past methods of measuring
personality? Why is it less than ideal?
c. What are the Big Five? Describe what someone who is high on each trait
would be like. What do high scorers in each like or tend to do? Why is the
Big Five a useful way to measure personality? What are some other
personal attributes that each trait predicts?
d. Describe a maximizer. Describe a satisficer. Which one makes better
objective decisions? Which one makes better subjective decisions?
e. Describe a tightwad. Describe a spendthrift. What are some moderators
of these traits? How should one market to each of these groups?
f. What are the three facets of materialism? How might socially desirability
influence how people report their standing on this trait? What are some
behaviors and traits that materialism predicts? How does materialism and
being a tightwad or spendthrift interact?
g. What is Mischel’s view of personality? How does Tim Wilson think of
personality? What are the two parts of personality he describes?
h. What is a “thin slice”? How useful is it in understanding someone’s
personality?
i. What are the five major traits of a brand’s personality? What are some of
the secondary traits that compose those traits?
7. Personality and product preferences
a. What are some look-alikes, between product and owner?
b. What is implicit egotism? What are some ways in which implicit egotism
occurs? What is the name letter effect? What is the two step process that
links implicit egotism with liking for brands?
c. What are the four types of music preferences? What kinds of music fall
under each? What traits describe people who like each of the four types?
Which stereotypes of music listeners are most accurate? Least accurate?
d. What traits are bedrooms best at revealing? What traits are offices best at
revealing? What are some valid indicators of each trait that one can look
for in bedrooms? In offices?
e. What are the three questions one must ask when examining whether
personality is revealed by a possession? What are the answers to each
question with regard to websites? Are Facebook profiles accurate? Which
regions of the country are especially high in each of the Big Five traits?
Especially low? What are some of the differences between cat people and
dog people?
f. What are the three categories of personality cues? Which work best for
truly determining what a person is like? Indicate where some of the
personality cues we have discussed in lecture fall in terms of controllability
and privacy.
8. Segmentation
a. What are four basic types of segments? Define/give examples of each.
b. What is class? What is the difference between achieved and ascribed
status? Are social class and income class the same thing? What does
“cultural capital” refer to? “Economic capital”? “Social capital”?Why is
occupation a good stand-in for class? What types of purchases does social
class predict? What types of purchases does income class predict? What do
both predict together?
c. Describe a study that demonstrates how Eastern cultures prize fitting in,
while Western cultures prize standing out. What views of the self underlie
these values? How does the Eastern interdependent self affect dissonance
reduction? How does it influence motivation and performance? How do
the differences between cultures reveal themselves in language? In
cognition? How do cultural superstitions influence products and
satisfaction?
d. What are agentic goals, and which gender do they typically belong to?
Communal goals? What are some gender differences in shopping habits?
e. What are three problems the two sexes must overcome with regard to
reproduction? What does the Social Structural Theory say about sex
differences? Are they intractable, or can they be changed? What is some
evidence for your answer?
f. What is a lek? What is some evidence that cellphones can serve as lekking
devices?
g. How does a mating orientation influence conspicuous and inconspicuous
consumption? How does it influence generosity and helping?
9. Why We Make Mistakes (Hallinan)
a. Chapter 4
i. What are some examples of how we wear “rose colored glasses”
when we think of the past? How did Fischoff demonstrate the
hindsight bias? How do gamblers maintain confidence in their
gambling? Do people recognize biases in themselves as readily as
in others? What is the effect of disclosure of biases and conflicts of
interest? What is moral licensing?
b. Chapter 6
i. How do NFL coaches demonstrate the conflict between System 1
and System 2? How can pictures change applications for loans?
How do anchors affect willingness to pay and shopping practices?
How do listing prices affect home sales? What suggestions do
Hallinan offer to reduce the effects of framing and anchors?
c. Chapter 7
i. When we skim when we read, what parts of words do we pay the
most attention to? Why is this usually an effective approach?
d. Chapter 9
i. Which gender tends to be more overconfident? Give an example.
Which gender is more risk seeking? What underlying reason does
Elke Weber believe explains this effect? How do men (versus
women) navigate their worlds? When do they learn this approach?
e. Chapter 10
i. What are some businesses that thrive because of people’s tendency
toward overconfidence? What is calibration, and how does it relate
to overconfidence? Why are weather forecasters so accurate
(relatively speaking)? Why is Berkshire Hathaway so successful?
What is the illusion of control? Give an example. What is the effect
of more information on accuracy? On confidence?
f. Chapter 13
i. How does focalism influence the predictions we make? Give an
example.
10. Mindless Eating (Wansink)
a. Chapter 6
i. How does the appearance of food influence its taste? Give an
example. How does method of serving influence willingness to
pay? Should you give products simple names, or more descriptive
names? What are four basic types of labels that marketers use to
increase interest in foods? How do brands influence willingness to
pay and enjoyment with products? Is this an accurate perception?
How can labeling improve perceptions of products over time? Give
an example.
b. Chapter 7
i. What are some popular comfort foods? What kinds of foods are
women more likely to list as favorite comfort foods? Why? What
kinds of food are men more likely to list as favorite comfort foods?
Why? When do people seek comfort foods? What is “laddering”?
ii. What soups match which personalities? Are comfort food
preferences permanent? What is the difference between physical
hunger and emotional hunger? What kind of person “saves the best
for last”? What kind of person “eats dessert first”?
c. Chapter 8
i. What is a “nutritional gatekeeper”? What are some differences
between vegetable lovers and fruit lovers? What are the five basic
types of cooks? What is the one type of cook that had the least
positive impact on healthful eating? What are some ways in which
parents influence the food preferences of their children? What are
the four unhealthy food-tool extremes?