Robert Latimer
Research
The Best and the Bizarre: Judging Past Experiences Based on General Impressions and Specific Memories
with Priya Raghubir
Consumers may judge past experiences based on either a unified, abstracted representation of an experience (prototype) or their recall of individual components of an experience (exemplars). Unusual or distinctive components of experiences form strong exemplars, but are weak inputs into prototypes. Four studies examine how distinctive and highly enjoyable components of experiences influence overall evaluations. When exemplars are contextually accessible, distinctive components dominate overall evaluations. Increasing the distinctiveness of highly enjoyable components improves overall evaluations after a delay in contexts suited to exemplar formation, but reduces overall evaluations in contexts well suited to prototype formation. Targeted for Journal of Consumer Research
The Peculiarly Persistent Pleasantness of Bizarre Experiences
Six studies examine retrospective enjoyment of mundane and bizarre experiences.
Mundane experiences were less enjoyable in retrospect than they were initially, while bizarre experiences improved or remained equally enjoyable in retrospect. The pattern held when bizarre and mundane experiences were initially equally enjoyable and when bizarre experiences were initially less enjoyable than the mundane experience. My results suggest that firms and party planners alike should make consumers’ lives a bit more peculiar. Targeted for Journal of Consumer Research
Experience Heterogeneity Moderates the Peak Effect in Retrospective Evaluations
We demonstrate that increasing the heterogeneity of an experience reduces the impact of the most intense moment of an experience on retrospective evaluations (peak effect). In Studies 1-3 we manipulate the heterogeneity in style of a set of paintings while controlling the heterogeneity in valence and the presence of highly enjoyable peaks. In Study 4 we manipulate the perceived heterogeneity of a set of paintings by inducing different processing styles. Our model offers an explanation for why peak effects are more robust for simple experiences like colonoscopies than for complex experiences like vacations. Consumers and managers alike should consider the heterogeneity of an experience before devoting all their efforts to making the peak of an experience more pleasurable.