Affect referral: More than a choice heuristic.

This thesis focuses on consumer choice based on affect referral. Under affect referral, consumers tend to make choices based on recalled affect towards brands in memory, bypassing reevaluation of the brands and comparison processes. The traditional concept of affect referral is an effort-minimizing choice heuristic, thus limiting to a rare phenomenon wherein recalled affect solely guides choice behavior. On the contrary, this thesis emphasizes that affect referral is the rule rather than the exception. Affect referral reflects human rational mechanism that governs the processes of internal information utilization for choice situations involving brands in memory. The focus is on the prior retrieval and utilization of affect, whenever affect is available in memory, and its consequences on choice processes and outcomes. The model of affect referral developed in this thesis posits that the retrieval and utilization priority of affect over attributes increases the possibility of the choice by affect referral. It is hypothesized that higher attribute accessibility will weaken the retrieval priority of affect, but have no influence on the utilization priority of affect. The written protocol analysis showed that the utilization priority of affect is less influenced by attribute accessibility than the retrieval priority of affect. The model also limits the extent to which affect referral is viable as a choice heuristic. It hypothesizes that when affect towards a brand is weak and the competitive strength of stimuli is strong, referred affect no longer works as a diagnostic input to decision making. The results revealed only the role of the strength of affect. Unexpectedly, the strength of affect was found to positively influence the retrieval and utilization priority of affect. This thesis presents a new conceptualization of the affect referral phenomenon. Based on the contingent outlook on the role of affect in choice, the model partly answers basic theoretical questions as to when decisions are likely to be affective, what is likely to be the strong point of affect, and what happens when affect and cognitions are in conflict. Practical implications of the model are also noted, particularly with regard to the presentation of information and persuasive communication.PhDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103659/1/9332152.pdfDescription of 9332152.pdf : Restricted to UM users only