Variety Amnesia: Recalling Past Variety Can Accelerate Recovery from Satiation

Jeff Galak, Joseph P. Redden and Justin Kruger

Journal of Consumer Research, 2009, vol. 36, issue 4, 575-584

Abstract: Consumers frequently consume items to the point where they no longer enjoy them. In a pilot study and two experiments spanning three distinct classes of stimuli, we find that people can recover from this satiation by simply recalling the variety of alternative items they have consumed in the past. And yet, people seem to exhibit "variety amnesia" in that they do not spontaneously recall this past variety despite the fact that it would result in a desirable decrease in satiation. Thus, rather than satiation being a fixed physiological process, it appears that it is at least partially constructed in the moment. We discuss some of the theoretical implications of these findings and provide some prescriptive measures for both marketers and consumers. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Date: 2009
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