Means-End Analysis: Does the Affective State Influence Information Processing Style?
Journal
Psychology & Marketing
ISSN
0742-6046
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2004-09-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Means-end theory aims at explaining how consumers evaluate products by linking relevant attributes to perceived consequences to desired ends in a hierarchical way, based on core assumptions of cognitive psychology about human information processing. This study investigates the influence of affective states on information processing styles in a means-end measurement situation, thus taking into account an important antecedent and correlate of human decision making and behavior that has received scarce attention so far in the methodological literature on means-end chains. The results reveal that a person's affective state indeed influences the style of information processing. Respondents in a positive mood used more general knowledge structures and processed the laddering questionnaire faster than respondents in a negative or neutral mood. The laddering technique, which measures means-end chains, thus seems to be sensitive to situational effects, and this finding indicates that affective states then also might have an influence on product knowledge and the decision-making process in a purchase situation.
Language
English
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
No
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Publisher place
Hoboken, NJ
Volume
21
Number
9
Start page
715
End page
737
Pages
23
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
2908