Exam #2 Review Sheet
MAR 3503
Consumer Behavior
Spring 2010
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 is 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 high-level 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? Give some examples. c.
What is variety seeking? How does it influences choices when we make them simultaneously versus sequentially? How does confinement influence variety seeking? 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.
How do people lock-in luxuries? Why might this be irrational? 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 do 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 peak-end 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? How does this influence consumption of old food? 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? j.
What is motivation? What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? What are two broad categories of needs? What are McClelland’s four learned needs? k.
What is the most basic way to think of motives? Describe the ways in which these basic motives can conflict. l.
What is extrinsic motivation? What is intrinsic motivation? How does self-perception theory help explain the effects of these motivations?
How does overjustification demonstrate the effects of these motives on future behavior?
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”? 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?