Brian Gibbs - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Brian Gibbs

Journal of Consumer Psychology, 1995

Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2003

We propose that the essence of consumption is the mental process of generating utility from produ... more We propose that the essence of consumption is the mental process of generating utility from products, that this process expends consumption effort, and that consumers take consumption effort into account in their decision making. In 2 studies, we tested the hypothesis that consumption preferences become more ambitious-individuals become more inclined to choose challenging-to-consume products-when consumer energy levels are elevated. In Study 1, energy induced by ingesting caffeine increased participants' tendency to choose subtitled foreign movies rather than domestic remakes of those same movies. Study 2 demonstrated the same effect with naturally occurring energy levels and with consumption experiences whose effortfulness and quality were varied independently. In choosing among sets of poems to read, participants with higher levels of energy exhibited less effort aversion but neither more nor less quality seeking. A reanalysis of Study 1 showed that the energy effect is not simply a case of consumers using more energy when they have more energy, because the energy effect disappeared when participants were made aware of the energy source, suggesting that a preference-correction process occurred. The energy dependence of consumer preferences affords tactical opportunities for marketers, but the welfare implications for consumers are intriguingly unclear, because in both studies we found that energy increased participants' choice of challenging consumption experiences without increasing their liking of those experiences.

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 1994

The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at... more The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at a task are greater than would be warranted by objective analysis. This article raises two questions. First, how robust is the illusion of control? Second, how might the illusion be 'shattered?' Previous experimental demonstrations involved situations that can be likened to unique or single-shot gambles. If, however, the phenomenon is robust, it should occur in repeated or multi-shot gambles in which the outcome depends on a series of gambles involving the same underlying random process. It should also appear in single-shot gambles that are framed so as to superficially resemble multi-shot gambles. We label this the strong illusion of control hypothesis. On the other hand, because people have a better appreciation of probabilistic concepts in tasks they are able to represent as relative frequencies, the introduction of a multi-shot or "pseudomulti-shot" context might cue people to the random nature of the task, thereby shattering the illusion. The i\-eak illusion of control hypothesis holds that the illusion of control will occur in single-shot but not in multi-shot or pseudo-multishot gambles. Two studies are reported that support the weak hypothesis. Alternative explanations are considered and implications are discussed.

Cognitive Psychology, 1992

A series of experiments explored a form of object-specific priming. In all experiments a preview ... more A series of experiments explored a form of object-specific priming. In all experiments a preview field containing two or more letters is followed by a target letter that is to be named. The displays are designed to produce a perceptual interpretation of the target as a new state of an object that previously contained one of the primes. The link is produced in different experiments by a shared location, by a shared relative position in a moving pattern, or by successive appearance in the same moving frame. An object-specific advantage is consistently observed: naming is facilitated by a preview of the target, if (and in some cases only if) the two appearances are linked to the same object. The amount and the object specificity of the preview benefit are not affected by extending the preview duration to 1 s, or by extending the temporal gap between fields to 590 ms. The results are interpreted in terms of a reviewing process, which is triggered by the appearance of the target and retrieves just one of the previewed items. In the absence of an object link, the reviewing item is selected at random. We develop the concept of an object file as a temporary episodic representation, within which successive states of an object are linked and integrated.

faculty.washington.edu

Page 1. INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE PRIMES TO MANIPULATE CONSUMERS' PROPENSITY ... more Page 1. INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE PRIMES TO MANIPULATE CONSUMERS' PROPENSITY TO WANT Brian J. Gibbs and Mark R. Forehand Page 2. 2 INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE ...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1991

In a series of five experiments, exactingness, or the extent to which deviations from optimal dec... more In a series of five experiments, exactingness, or the extent to which deviations from optimal decisions are punished, is studied within the context of learning a repetitive dec~on-making task together with the effects of incentives. Results include the findings that (a) performance is an inverted-U shaped function of exactingness, Co) performance is better under incentives when environments are lenient but not when they are exacting, (c) the interaction between exactingness and incentives does not obtain when an incentives function fails to discriminate sharply between good and bad performance, and (d) when the negative effects of exactingness on performance are eliminated, performance increases with exactingness.

Journal of Consumer Psychology, 1995

Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2003

We propose that the essence of consumption is the mental process of generating utility from produ... more We propose that the essence of consumption is the mental process of generating utility from products, that this process expends consumption effort, and that consumers take consumption effort into account in their decision making. In 2 studies, we tested the hypothesis that consumption preferences become more ambitious-individuals become more inclined to choose challenging-to-consume products-when consumer energy levels are elevated. In Study 1, energy induced by ingesting caffeine increased participants' tendency to choose subtitled foreign movies rather than domestic remakes of those same movies. Study 2 demonstrated the same effect with naturally occurring energy levels and with consumption experiences whose effortfulness and quality were varied independently. In choosing among sets of poems to read, participants with higher levels of energy exhibited less effort aversion but neither more nor less quality seeking. A reanalysis of Study 1 showed that the energy effect is not simply a case of consumers using more energy when they have more energy, because the energy effect disappeared when participants were made aware of the energy source, suggesting that a preference-correction process occurred. The energy dependence of consumer preferences affords tactical opportunities for marketers, but the welfare implications for consumers are intriguingly unclear, because in both studies we found that energy increased participants' choice of challenging consumption experiences without increasing their liking of those experiences.

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 1994

The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at... more The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at a task are greater than would be warranted by objective analysis. This article raises two questions. First, how robust is the illusion of control? Second, how might the illusion be 'shattered?' Previous experimental demonstrations involved situations that can be likened to unique or single-shot gambles. If, however, the phenomenon is robust, it should occur in repeated or multi-shot gambles in which the outcome depends on a series of gambles involving the same underlying random process. It should also appear in single-shot gambles that are framed so as to superficially resemble multi-shot gambles. We label this the strong illusion of control hypothesis. On the other hand, because people have a better appreciation of probabilistic concepts in tasks they are able to represent as relative frequencies, the introduction of a multi-shot or "pseudomulti-shot" context might cue people to the random nature of the task, thereby shattering the illusion. The i\-eak illusion of control hypothesis holds that the illusion of control will occur in single-shot but not in multi-shot or pseudo-multishot gambles. Two studies are reported that support the weak hypothesis. Alternative explanations are considered and implications are discussed.

Cognitive Psychology, 1992

A series of experiments explored a form of object-specific priming. In all experiments a preview ... more A series of experiments explored a form of object-specific priming. In all experiments a preview field containing two or more letters is followed by a target letter that is to be named. The displays are designed to produce a perceptual interpretation of the target as a new state of an object that previously contained one of the primes. The link is produced in different experiments by a shared location, by a shared relative position in a moving pattern, or by successive appearance in the same moving frame. An object-specific advantage is consistently observed: naming is facilitated by a preview of the target, if (and in some cases only if) the two appearances are linked to the same object. The amount and the object specificity of the preview benefit are not affected by extending the preview duration to 1 s, or by extending the temporal gap between fields to 590 ms. The results are interpreted in terms of a reviewing process, which is triggered by the appearance of the target and retrieves just one of the previewed items. In the absence of an object link, the reviewing item is selected at random. We develop the concept of an object file as a temporary episodic representation, within which successive states of an object are linked and integrated.

faculty.washington.edu

Page 1. INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE PRIMES TO MANIPULATE CONSUMERS' PROPENSITY ... more Page 1. INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE PRIMES TO MANIPULATE CONSUMERS' PROPENSITY TO WANT Brian J. Gibbs and Mark R. Forehand Page 2. 2 INFLAMING DESIRE-PRONENESS: USING DESIRE ...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1991

In a series of five experiments, exactingness, or the extent to which deviations from optimal dec... more In a series of five experiments, exactingness, or the extent to which deviations from optimal decisions are punished, is studied within the context of learning a repetitive dec~on-making task together with the effects of incentives. Results include the findings that (a) performance is an inverted-U shaped function of exactingness, Co) performance is better under incentives when environments are lenient but not when they are exacting, (c) the interaction between exactingness and incentives does not obtain when an incentives function fails to discriminate sharply between good and bad performance, and (d) when the negative effects of exactingness on performance are eliminated, performance increases with exactingness.