Self-awareness, or an awareness of inner thoughts and feelings, rests at the core of a person’s sense of self. People usually are not self-aware, but certain situations can cause them to focus their attention inward, such as gazing into a mirror, standing in front of an audience, or seeing themselves in a photograph or videotape. According to original self-awareness theory, self-focused attention makes people more conscious of their attitudes and beliefs.
In this article, the authors focus on the influence of private self-awareness in the choice-making process and examine how this internal state affects two well-known choice phenomena: variety seeking and the selection of a compromise option. Variety seeking refers to the tendency of people to seek diversity in their choices. The compromise effect implies that an alternative tends to gain market share when it represents the compromise option (characterized by safe, intermediate values) in the set. Previous research demonstrates that both variety seeking and compromise options reflect the difficulty associated with trading off among specific aspects of provided options. In four studies, the authors show that with greater self-awareness, consumers are more willing and able to rely on their personal preferences. By this, privately self-aware consumers are less inclined to opt for a varied choice set and less likely to select compromise options.
On a more practical note, the findings reveal the substantive power of self-awareness. On the one hand, intentional manipulations of consumers’ self-awareness could prove beneficial; by increasing their self-awareness, marketers could enable consumers to make choices that match their personal preferences better, which might result in higher choice satisfaction. Conceivably, greater self-awareness could be achieved by, for example, strategically placing mirrors in a store, addressing the customer by name, or other means that prime a consumer’s self-awareness. On the other hand, marketers must understand that the general advantage of some selling strategies (e.g., presenting a product as a compromise option) can disappear for self-attentive consumers. In addition, some conditions make it more difficult to induce a consumer to choose a certain product. Thus, certain selling environments likely benefit from selling strategies that draw attention away from the self. In general, this research implies that marketers should consider the side effects of their store arrangements (e.g., mirrors) or sales interactions (e.g., small talk) on self-awareness, because any incidental cue that redirects the consumer’s focus inward will result in greater self-awareness and, consequently, increased reliance on personal preferences.
Biography
Caroline Goukens received her PhD from K.U.Leuven. She is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Maastricht University. Her current work focuses on the appetitive motivational system, self-awareness effects, decision making, choice, and consumption. Her work has been published in Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing Research.
Siegfried Dewitte is Associate Professor of Marketing at K.U.Leuven. His academic profile is interdisciplinary: He reads and writes in marketing, psychology, evolutionary (human) biology, and philosophy. He has two main research interests: consumer self-control and altruism. His articles have been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Proceedings of the Royal Society London: Biology, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and Journal of Research in Personality.
Luk Warlop is Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing and Organization at K.U.Leuven and Professor of Marketing at the Norwegian School of Management. His research focuses on consumer behavior, judgment and decision making, and social marketing. His work has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Accounting Research, Marketing Letters, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and Management Science.
Journal Marketing Research, Volume 46, Number 5, October 2009
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