The Devaluation Effect Activating a Need Devalues Unrelated Objects C MIGUEL BRENDL ARTHUR B MARKMAN CLAUDE MESSNER It is commonly assumed that an object capable of satisfying a need will be perceived as subjectively more valuable as the need for it intensifies For example the more active the need to eat the more valuable food will become This outcome could be called a valuation effect In this article we suggest a second basic influence of needs on evaluations that activating a focal need e g to eat makes objects unrelated to that need e g shampoo less valuable an outcome we refer to as the devaluation effect Two existing studies support the existence of a devaluation effect using manipulations of the need to eat and to smoke and measuring attractiveness of consumer products and willingness to purchase raffle tickets Furthermore the evidence suggests that consumers are not aware of the devaluation effect and its influence on their preferences I on more than just the valuation of goal relevant objects For example once selected the motivational system must protect the active goal from tempting alternatives One way to achieve this could be by reducing the attractiveness of potentially tempting objects that are not instrumental to satisfying the active goal For example a strong need to eat may make movie tickets less attractive This outcome would be a devaluation of objects unrelated to a focal goal The purpose of this article is to establish the existence of the devaluation effect and its influence on preference formation Although we will not directly investigate those mechanisms driving the devaluation effect we discuss a range of possible causes at a later stage n research on decision making one of the core theoretical constructs relating to preference is utility Models based on utility assume that people s preferences for an object or its properties depend on the degree to which the object or property can satisfy some active goal The utility of an object will vary as people s goals relating to that object change in intensity Thus utility as well as common sense is consistent with a valuation relation between goals and choice whereby an object is valued according to the extent that it is perceived as instrumental to satisfying an active goal For example food should be perceived as more valuable when people need to eat than when they do not see Markman and Brendl 2000 for further discussion In order to select a goal and to maintain goal directed behavior however the motivational system may have to rely Valuation and Devaluation Lewin 1935 established the relationship between the evaluation of objects and goals by suggesting that objects are perceived as positive or negative i e they have a valence to the extent that they support or hinder active goals The capacity of an object to satisfy goals or needs is also called instrumentality Rosenberg 1956 see also Lynch Marmorstein and Weigold 1988 from a perspective of diagnosticity Models of goals and consumer choice have focused on the influence of activating goals on the attractiveness of objects related to these goals Brendl and Higgins 1996 Ratneshwar Mick and Huffman 2000 By devaluation of unrelated objects we mean objects that are neither perceived as instrumental nor as disinstrumental i e counterproductive to the focal need or goal By need we mean a state associated with a physiologically based C Miguel Brendl is assistant professor of marketing at INSEAD Fontainebleau Boulevard de Constance 77305 Fontainebleau Cedex France miguel brendl insead edu Arthur B Markman is associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas Austin 78712 markman psyvax psy utexas edu Claude Messner is doctoral student in psychology Institut fu r Psychologie Universita t Basel Bernoullistr 16 4056 Basel Switzerland claude messner unibas ch Messner conducted study 1 for his diploma thesis submitted to the University of Konstanz We thank Jim Bettman Amitava Chattopadhyay Peter Gollwitzer Ryan Gossen Julie Irwin Itamar Simonson Hunt Stilwell the editor the associate editor and three reviewers for comments on these studies and previous drafts of this article We are also grateful to Danny Chung Billy Dilly Monika Heller Mareike Messner and Joachim Vosgerau who served as experimenters This research was supported by German Science Foundation grant DFG BR1722 1 2 given to Brendl by National Science Foundation grant SBR9905013 given to Markman and by a Transcoop Award from the German American Academic Council to Brendl and Markman 463 2003 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH Inc Vol 29 March 2003 All rights reserved 0093 5301 2003 2904 0001 10 00 464 outcome whereas a goal is a state associated with a psychological outcome Lewin also introduced the idea that psychological goals cause needlike states or quasi needs that can differ in activation In support of the notion of quasi needs subjects who were interrupted before they could complete a task were more likely to spontaneously take up the task again than were subjects who had not been interrupted Presumably a task goal is active until it is reached making any activity that can help reach that goal momentarily more desirable While this article focuses on needs Lewin s work suggests that goals share important properties with needs Although valuation follows directly from the assumption that preference for an object is related to its utility there have been surprisingly few demonstrations that activation of a focal goal increases the attractiveness of goal related objects There is clear evidence for valuation effects for some perceptual experiences such as smell taste and thermal perception For example fasting subjects rated the pleasantness of tasting a sweet solution more highly than nonfasting subjects Sniffing orange syrup was pleasant for fasting subjects but unpleasant after having ingested a glucose load Subjects immersed in a warm bath found dipping their hand into cold and warm water respectively pleasant and unpleasant whereas the reverse was true for subjects sitting in a cold bath Cabanac 1971 While the research of the Lewin group on quasi needs is consistent with valuation effects it is equally consistent with devaluation effects As an example consider subjects whose goal is to finish a puzzle Goal related activities solving a puzzle are strongly preferred to goal unrelated activities e g magazine browsing daydreaming when the goal is active rather than passive If the attractiveness of goal
View Full Document
Unlocking...