Jacob Jacoby

Brand Choice Behavior as a Function of Information Load: Replication and Extension

The hypothesis that finite limits exist to the amount of information consumers can effectively use was tested by operationalizing information load in terms of number of brands and amount of information per brand provided. The results of an experiment involving 192 housewives tend to confirm this hypothesis.

Information Acquisition Behavior in Brand Choice Situations

A behavioral process methodology was utilized to examine the amount and type of information acquired by consumers from package panels prior to making purchase decisions. Consumers selected few information dimensions from larger information arrays, with brand name and price most frequently selected. Less information was selected when brand name was available, perhaps because brand name serves as information “chunk” in consumer decision-making.

Is There an Optimal Number of Alternatives for Likert Scale Items? Study I: Reliability and Validity

GivEN that rating scales are so widely used in the social sciences, both as research tools and in practical applications, determination of the optimal number of rating categories becomes an important consideration in the construction of such scales. As Garner (1960) pointed out, the basic question is whether for any given rating instrument there is an optimum number of rating categories, or at least a number of rating categories beyond which there is no further improvement in discrimination of the rated items. Garner and Hake

Time and Consumer Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Overview

Despite the fact that time pervades every aspect of human behavior, consumer researchers have given it scant attention. Our objective is to stimulate much-needed conceptual and empirical attention regarding the relationships between time and consumer behavior. The approach adopted here is to review what has been published on the subject in the fields of economics, sociology, home economics, psychology, and marketing and to advance a rudimentary terminology appropriate for the exploration of these relationships.

Consumer Use and Comprehension of Nutrition Information

Survey data consistently find that the majority of consumers say they want and are willing to pay for nutrition information. The six studies described here suggest that most consumers neither acquire such information when making a purchase decision nor comprehend most nutrition information once they receive it.

New directions in behavioral process research: Implications for social psychology

Abstract Current theories of social judgment and social decision making emphasize dynamic process perspectives, but the methods used to investigate these processes have been relatively static and limited in scope. This paper describes a set of evolving procedures designed to capture process data and discusses how this approach may be used to study various psychological phenomena, including control schemata, attribution theory, attitude formation, impression formation, implicit personality theory, verbal report accuracy, postdecision dissonance reduction, attraction, choice behavior, time constraints, gender stereotypes, agenda effects, and task feedback effects.

Patterns of Information Acquisition in New Product Purchases

Using a process methodology to examine information acquisition behavior, it was found that significant differences existed between the amount of information requested from the “friend” source by innovators about new products. Additionally, personal information sources were consulted after impersonal sources.

The FDA Approach to Defining Misleading Advertising

The amount of time, effort, and money invested to promote prescription drugs in this country is staggering. It is estimated that over

Tracing the Impact of Item-by-Item Information Accessing on Uncertainty Reduction

1 billion are spent annually to disseminate information to the physician. This figure is more than three times the total annual budget of all U.S. medical schools, and it constitutes

Corrective Advertising and Affirmative Disclosure Statements: Their Potential for Confusing and Misleading the Consumer

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