Scholars@Duke
James R. Bettman

James R. Bettman

Burlington Industries Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
jrb12@duke.edu
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Fuqua Sch of Bus, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Product-facilitated conversations: When does starting a conversation by mentioning a product lead to better conversational outcomes?

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · April 1, 2024 This paper examines product-facilitated conversations. In three studies, we show that the products consumers publicly display influence how other consumers start conversations with them and how enjoyable and self-disclosing these conversations are. Study 1 ... Full text Cite

Celebrate Good Times: How Celebrations Increase Perceived Social Support

Journal Article Journal of Public Policy and Marketing · April 1, 2023 Despite the ubiquity of celebrations in everyday life, little is known about how celebrations may contribute to consumer well-being. In the current work, the authors propose that celebrations promote perceived social support, which prior work has conceptua ... Full text Cite

Boundaries of Constructive Choice: On the Accessibility of Maximize Accuracy and Minimize Effort Goals

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · April 1, 2021 The impact of decision difficulty on search behavior depends on the relative accessibility of maximize accuracy and minimize effort goals in memory. The default assumption, derived from constructive choice theory, is that maximize accuracy and minimize eff ... Full text Cite

The primacy of “what” over “how much”: How type and quantity shape healthiness perceptions of food portions

Journal Article Management Science · July 1, 2019 Healthy eating goals influence many consumer choices, such that evaluating the healthiness of food portions is important. Given that both the type and quantity of food jointly contribute to weight and overall health, evaluations of a food portion's healthi ... Full text Cite

Delicate Snowflakes and Broken Bonds: A Conceptualization of Consumption-Based Offense

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · April 1, 2019 When do consumers experience offense due to another individual's choice, use, display, gifting, sharing, or disposal of a product? Why do they experience offense, and does it matter if they do? In this article, we first draw from past work in multiple disc ... Full text Cite

Connecting With Celebrities: How Consumers Appropriate Celebrity Meanings for a Sense of Belonging

Journal Article Journal of Advertising · April 3, 2017 We propose that consumers appropriate brand symbolism that comes from celebrity endorsements to construct and communicate their self-concepts. We also argue that consumers with high need to belong (NTB) look to celebrities to a greater extent than those wh ... Full text Cite

"Paper or plastic?": How we pay influences post-transaction connection

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · February 1, 2016 Does the way that individuals pay for a good or service influence the amount of connection they feel after the purchase has occurred? Employing a multi-method approach across four studies, individuals who pay using a relatively more painful form of payment ... Full text Cite

Feeling love and doing more for distant others: Specific positive emotions differentially affect prosocial consumption

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · October 1, 2015 Marketers often employ a variety of positive emotions to encourage consumption or promote a particular behavior (e.g., buying, donating, recycling) to benefit an organization or cause. The authors show that specific positive emotions do not universally inc ... Full text Cite

'How many calories are in my burrito?' Improving consumers' understanding of energy (calorie) range information.

Journal Article Public health nutrition · January 2015 ObjectiveEnergy (calorie) ranges currently appear on menu boards for customized menu items and will likely appear throughout the USA when menu-labelling legislation is implemented. Consumer welfare advocates have questioned whether energy ranges e ... Full text Cite

Surcharges plus unhealthy labels reduce demand for unhealthy menu items

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · December 1, 2014 Three laboratory experiments and a field experiment in a restaurant demonstrate that neither a price surcharge nor an unhealthy label is enough on its own to curtail the demand for unhealthy food. However, when the two are combined as an unhealthy label su ... Full text Cite

Comparison selection: An approach to the study of consumer judgment and choice

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2013 We introduce an alternative perspective on the study of consumer judgment and decision making, which is based on the notion that judgment and choice problems consist of comparisons that decision makers might select. Our new perspective proposes that if we ... Full text Cite

Directions for judgment and decision making research based on comparison selection: Reply to Arkes, Johnson, and Kardes

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2013 Our target article proposed an alternative perspective for studying consumer judgment and decision making, focusing on the types and weights of comparisons consumers select. In this response we consider the major points made by each of the commentators and ... Full text Cite

Putting brands in their place: How a lack of control keeps brands contained

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · January 1, 2013 New brand extensions can push a brand outside its typical boundaries. In this artietingcle, the authors argue that people's acceptance of such extensions depends on their feelings of control. Across several studies, the authors demonstrate that when feelin ... Full text Cite

Space, time, and intertemporal preferences

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · November 27, 2012 Although subjective judgment of future time plays an important role in a variety of decisions, little is known about the factors that influence such judgments and their implications. Based on a time as distance metaphor and its associated conceptual mappin ... Full text Cite

Our possessions, our selves: Domains of self-worth and the possession-self link

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · April 1, 2011 The extent to which a possession is linked to self is a critical determinant of whether a possession elicits grief if lost. We propose a framework for understanding the formation of the possession-self link, arguing that a possession's ability to represent ... Full text Cite

Hope, pride, and processing during optimal and nonoptimal times of day.

Journal Article Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · February 2011 We examine the conditions under which the distinct positive emotions of hope versus pride facilitate more or less fluid cognitive processing. Using individuals' naturally occurring time of day preferences (i.e., morning vs. evening hours), we show that spe ... Full text Cite

Unstuck from the concrete: Carryover effects of abstract mindsets in intertemporal preferences

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · November 1, 2010 Prior research has demonstrated that individuals show decreasing levels of impatience as the delay of consumption gets longer (i.e., present-bias). We examine the psychological underpinnings of such present-biased preferences by conceptualizing timing deci ... Full text Cite

Separate neural mechanisms underlie choices and strategic preferences in risky decision making.

Journal Article Neuron · May 2009 Adaptive decision making in real-world contexts often relies on strategic simplifications of decision problems. Yet, the neural mechanisms that shape these strategies and their implementation remain largely unknown. Using an economic decision-making task, ... Full text Cite

The power of strangers: The effect of incidental consumer brand encounters on brand choice

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · February 1, 2009 In the course of daily encounters with other consumers, an individual may be incidentally exposed to various brands. We refer to these situations as incidental consumer brand encounters (ICBEs). This research examines how ICBEs influence brand choice. Four ... Full text Cite

Consumer judgment from a dual-systems perspective: Recent evidence and emerging issues

Journal Article Review of Marketing Research · January 1, 2009 Researchers across a variety of psychological disciplines have postulated the existence of two functional systems underlying human judgment and reasoning. One system is rapid, relatively unconscious, and based on associations; the other is slower, consciou ... Full text Cite

Integrating neural and decision sciences: Convergence and constraints

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · January 1, 2009 Full text Cite

Discounting time and time discounting: Subjective time perception and intertemporal preferences

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · January 1, 2009 Abstract Consumers often make decisions about outcomes and events that occur over time. This research examines consumers' sensitivity to the prospective duration relevant to their decisions and the implications of such sensitivity for intertemporal trade-o ... Full text Cite

Using fMRI to inform marketing research: Challenges and opportunities

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · January 1, 2009 Cite

Consumer Neuroscience: Current State of Knowledge and Future Research Directions

Journal Article ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, VOL XXXVI · January 1, 2009 Link to item Cite

"Celebrity Endorsement and Self-Brand Connections"

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, VOL XXXVI · January 1, 2009 Link to item Cite

Boundary conditions on unconscious thought in complex decision making.

Journal Article Psychological science · November 2008 Should individuals delegate thinking about complex choice problems to the unconscious? We tested two boundary conditions on this suggestion. First, we found that in a decision environment similar to those studied previously, self-paced conscious thought an ... Full text Cite

Biased but efficient: An investigation of coordination facilitated by asymmetric dominance

Journal Article Marketing Science · September 1, 2008 In several marketing contexts, strategic complementarity between the actions of individual players demands that players coordinate their decisions to reach efficient outcomes. Yet coordination failure is a common occurrence. We show that the well-establish ... Full text Cite

Preference construction and preference stability: Putting the pillow to rest

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · July 1, 2008 We advocate a different approach to the important questions that Simonson raises regarding preference construction. First, we argue that existing literature both acknowledges and addresses preference stability. In particular, we show that stable preference ... Full text Cite

Of chameleons and consumption: The impact of mimicry on choice and preferences

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · April 1, 2008 This article investigates the effect of mimicry on consumer product consumption and appraisal. We propose and test two paths via which mimicry may influence product preferences. In the mimicking consumer path, we suggest that individuals automatically mimi ... Full text Cite

"Evolving Health Guidelines: How Do Consumers Fare While Science Marches On?"

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, VOL 35 · January 1, 2008 Link to item Cite

The effects of nonconsciously priming emotion concepts on behavior.

Journal Article Journal of personality and social psychology · December 2007 Current empirical evidence regarding nonconsciously priming emotion concepts is limited to positively versus negatively valenced affect. This article demonstrates that specific, equally valenced emotion concepts can be nonconsciously activated, remain inac ... Full text Cite

Predicting happiness: How normative feeling rules influence (and even reverse) durability bias

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2007 Consumers' purchase decisions are often influenced by a simple assessment of how long they expect an anticipated purchase (e.g., buying a sports car or a new outfit) will make them happy. Unfortunately, affective forecasts are prone to durability bias (i.e ... Full text Cite

Appraising the appraisal-tendency framework

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2007 This article considers the consumer research implications of the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF; Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007). This article outlines how the ATF approach could be applied to sequential consumer choices (e.g., effects of emotional respon ... Full text Cite

"Effects of Specific, Nonconscious Emotion Primes on Behavior"

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH VOL XXXIV · January 1, 2007 Link to item Cite

"Gone, But Not Forgotten: The Role of Unacceptable Options in Decision Making"

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH VOL XXXIV · January 1, 2007 Link to item Cite

"Attachment Style, Psychological Security, and Consumer Response to Special Possession Loss"

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH VOL XXXIV · January 1, 2007 Link to item Cite

Research Dialogue

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2006 Full text Cite

Decision neuroscience

Journal Article Marketing Letters · December 1, 2005 This article presents an introduction to and analysis of an emerging area of research, namely decision neuroscience, whose goal is to integrate research in neuroscience and behavioral decision making. The article includes an exposition of (1) how the expon ... Full text Cite

Self-construal, reference groups, and brand meaning

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · December 1, 2005 We propose that consumers purchase brands in part to construct their self-concepts and, in so doing, form self-brand connections. We focus on reference groups as a source of brand meaning. Results from two studies show that brands with images consistent wi ... Full text Cite

Consumer expectations concerning timing and depth of the next deal

Journal Article Psychology and Marketing · June 1, 2005 In this article, deal expectation is defined as the expected length of time to the next deal that is similar to or better than the current deal (ETND). It is argued that ETND influences price evaluations in addition to any effect of the perceived differenc ... Full text Cite

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die: Effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on self-regulation in consumer choice

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · June 1, 2005 We examine how making mortality salient affects consumer choices. We develop a new theoretical framework predicting when consumer behaviors will be more (less) indulgent when mortality is salient, arguing that individuals focus more of their limited self-r ... Full text Cite

You Are What They Eat: The Influence of Reference Groups on Consumers' Connections to Brands

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 2003 The set of associations consumers have about a brand is an important component of brand equity. In this article, we focus on reference groups as a source of brand associations, which can be linked to one's mental representation of self to meet self-verific ... Full text Cite

Choice selection

Chapter · 2002 Cite

Coping with Unfavorable Attribute Values in Choice.

Journal Article Organizational behavior and human decision processes · March 2000 This paper examines how decision makers cope when faced with trade-offs between a higher quality alternative and a lower price alternative in situations where both alternatives involve relatively unfavorable versus relatively favorable values for quality. ... Full text Cite

Attribute Identities Matter: Subjective Perceptions of Attribute Characteristics

Journal Article Marketing Letters · January 1, 2000 Recent research indicates that attributes vary along multiple dimensions with implications for how trade-offs are resolved during choice. We present an exploratory study of the dimensionality underlying naïve subjects' ratings of attributes on the characte ... Full text Cite

Emotional Trade-Off Difficulty and Choice

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · May 1, 1999 In this article, the authors explore whether choice patterns are sensitive to the potential of relevant trade-offs to elicit negative emotion. Across three experiments, decision makers increasingly use a choice strategy that maximizes quality at the expens ... Full text Cite

Measuring Constructed Preferences: Towards a Building Code

Journal Article Journal of Risk and Uncertainty · January 1, 1999 A "building code" for preference measurement is needed in a world in which many expressions of preference are constructed when people are asked a valuation question. Construction of preferences means that preference measurement is best viewed as architectu ... Full text Cite

Emotional trade-off difficulty and choice

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · January 1, 1999 In this article, the authors explore whether choice patterns are sensitive to the potential of relevant trade-offs to elicit negative emotion. Across three experiments, decision makers increasingly use a choice strategy that maximizes quality at the expens ... Full text Cite

Constructive consumer choice processes

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · January 1, 1998 Consumer decision making has been a focal interest in consumer research, and consideration of current marketplace trends (e.g., technological change, an information explosion) indicates that this topic will continue to be critically important. We argue tha ... Full text Cite

Choice processing in emotionally difficult decisions.

Journal Article Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition · March 1997 Choice conflicts between one's important values may cause negative emotion. This article extends the standard effort-accuracy approach to explaining task influences on decision processing by arguing that coping goals will interact with effort minimization ... Full text Cite

When time is money: Decision behavior under opportunity-cost time pressure

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · January 1, 1996 Decison-making dilemmas can arise because errors may result either from deciding too soon or from delaying decisions too long. Delay can result in lost opportunities or reductions in payoffs from the most accurate decision. This paper investigates decision ... Full text Cite

An Information Processing Perspective on Choice

Journal Article Psychology of Learning and Motivation Advances in Research and Theory · January 1, 1995 This chapter discusses that people use a variety of strategies to solve decision problems, and it depends on the properties of the choice task as to which strategies they use. Selecting a particular strategy, or deciding how to decide, results from a trade ... Full text Cite

A perspective on using computers to monitor information acquisition

Conference ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, VOL XXII · January 1, 1995 Link to item Cite

Consumer information processing: What a long, strange trip it's been

Conference PROCEEDINGS OF THE 13TH PAUL D. CONVERSE SYMPOSIUM · January 1, 1995 Link to item Cite

The costs and benefits of alternative measures of search behavior: Comments on Böckenholt and Hynan

Journal Article Journal of Behavioral Decision Making · January 1, 1994 Full text Cite

The Adaptive Decision Maker

Book · May 28, 1993 Demonstrates how decision makers balance effort and accuracy considerations and predict the particular choice of strategy. ... Cite

Correlation, Conflict, and Choice

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · January 1, 1993 We examined the degree to which individuals adapt their decision processes to the degree of interattribute correlation and conflict characterizing a decision problem. On the basis of an effort-accuracy framework for adaptive decision making, we predicted t ... Full text Cite

THE DECISION-MAKER WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

Journal Article ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH · January 1, 1993 Link to item Cite

THE USE OF MULTIPLE STRATEGIES IN JUDGMENT AND CHOICE

Conference INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP DECISION MAKING · January 1, 1993 Link to item Cite

Autobiographical Memories, Affect, and Consumer Information Processing

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1992 Full text Cite

Autobiographical Memories, Affect, and Consumer Information Processing

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Psychology · January 1, 1992 The results of three experiments suggest that consumers' autobiographical memories involving products and product usage experiences are affectively charged. Furthermore, the three experiments demonstrate that the retrieval of autobiographical memories impa ... Full text Cite

Behavioral decision research: A constructive processing perspective

Journal Article Annual Review of Psychology · January 1, 1992 Full text Cite

A constructive process view of decision making: Multiple strategies in judgment and choice

Journal Article Acta Psychologica · January 1, 1992 A viewpoint that has recently emerged in decision research is that preferences for objects of any complexity are often constructed - not merely revealed - in generating a response to a judgement or choice task. This paper reviews a program of research that ... Full text Cite

The practical know-how of selling: Differences in knowledge content between more-effective and less-effective performers

Journal Article Marketing Letters · November 1, 1991 Results of both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of salespeople indicate that more effective and less effective salespeople differ systematically in their knowledge of sales strategies, and to a lesser extent in their knowledge of customer characte ... Full text Cite

The Impact of accuracy and effort feedback and goals on adaptive decision behavior

Journal Article Journal of Behavioral Decision Making · January 1, 1990 This paper examines the impact of accuracy feedback, effort feedback, and emphasis on either a goal of maximizing accuracy relative to effort or minimizing effort relative to accuracy on decision processes. Feedback on the accuracy of decisions leads to mo ... Full text Cite

Understanding Contingent Choice: A Computer Simulation Approach

Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics · January 1, 1990 When making choices, people use a variety of information processing strategies, contingent upon a number of task and context variables. An approach to investigating contingent decision behavior using an effort/accuracy framework, production system modeling ... Full text Cite

A componential analysis of cognitive effort in choice

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · January 1, 1990 We examine the effort required to execute decision strategies and propose a set of elementary information processes (EIPs) (e.g., reads, additions, comparisons) as a common language for describing these strategies. Based upon these component processes, a m ... Full text Cite

Knowledge Structure Differences between More Effective and Less Effective Salespeople

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · February 1988 Full text Cite

Covariation assessment in rank order data

Journal Article Journal of Behavioral Decision Making · January 1, 1988 Two experiments were conducted to investigate how individuals assess covariation with rank order data. In both studies, subjects were given sets of rank order data, each set consisting of ten items ranked on two characteristics, and were asked to estimate ... Full text Cite

Information displays and preference reversals

Journal Article Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · January 1, 1988 Preference reversals occur when a decision maker prefers one option to another in one response mode but reverses that ordering when preferences are elicited in another response mode. We report the results of two experiments which significantly impact the f ... Full text Cite

Adaptive Strategy Selection in Decision Making

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · January 1, 1988 The role of effort and accuracy in the adaptive use of decision processes is examined. A computer simulation using the concept of elementary information processes identified heuristic choice strategies that approximate the accuracy of normative procedures ... Full text Cite

Effects of Consumer Expectations on Information Processing in Selling Encounters

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · November 1986 Full text Cite

covariation assessment by consumers

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · 1986 Cite

COGNITIVE CONSIDERATIONS IN DESIGNING EFFECTIVE LABELS FOR PRESENTING RISK INFORMATION

Journal Article JOURNAL OF PUBLIC POLICY & MARKETING · January 1, 1986 Link to item Cite

CONSUMERS ASSESSMENT OF COVARIATION

Journal Article ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH · January 1, 1984 Link to item Cite

Attributions in the Board Room: Causal Reasoning in Corporate Annual Reports

Journal Article Administrative Science Quarterly · June 1983 Full text Cite

Information Format and Choice Task Effects in Decision Making

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · September 1979 Full text Cite

Affirmative Disclosure In Home Purchasing

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Affairs · January 1, 1979 This paper investigates significant gaps in the information available to prospective home buyers as perceived by recent purchasers. The gaps in available information perceived by recent purchasers included the fair value of the house, its structural condit ... Full text Cite

Memory Factors in Consumer Choice: A Review

Journal Article Journal of Marketing · 1979 Full text Cite

Constructive Processes in Consumer Choice

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · September 1977 Full text Cite

Issues in Designing Consumer Information Environments

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · December 1975 Full text Cite

Information integration in consumer risk perception: A comparison of two models of component conceptualization

Journal Article Journal of Applied Psychology · June 1, 1975 Rules used for integrating components of risk into an overall risk rating were examined for 60 undergraduates using N. H. Anderson's 1970 information integration methodology. 30 Ss received stimuli based on a model of risk components developed by J. R. Bet ... Full text Cite

Cognitive Algebra in Multi-Attribute Attitude Models

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · May 1975 Full text Cite

Information processing in attitude formation and change

Journal Article Communication Research · January 1, 1975 Full text Cite

Attitude Models Revisited: An Individual Level Analysis.

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · December 1974 Cite

Toward a Statistics for Consumer Decision Net Models.

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research · June 1974 Cite

Relationship of information-processing attitude structures to private brand purchasing behavior

Journal Article Journal of Applied Psychology · February 1, 1974 Used variables related to consumer information-processing models and consumer attitude structures to discriminate between private and nonprivate brand purchasers. Discriminant analysis was used to derive discriminant functions and to classify Ss (123 house ... Full text Cite

Perceived Price and Product Perceptual Variables

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · 1973 Cite

The Interrelationships Among Perceived Risk, Information, and the Acceptable Brand Set

Journal Article Journal of Business Administration · 1973 Cite

Formal Models of Consumer Behavior: A Conceptual Overview.

Journal Article Journal of Business · October 1972 Cite

Measuring individuals' priorities for national goals: A methodology and empirical example

Journal Article Policy Sciences · December 1, 1971 This study suggests a methodology for measuring individuals' priorities for national goals on an interval scale and multivariate procedures for interpreting such scale values. The scaling procedure used is a paired comparison paradigm developed by Bechtel. ... Full text Cite

A Graph Theory Approach to Comparing Consumer Information Processing Models

Journal Article Management Science · December 1971 This study argues the need for, and then develops, some graph theoretic approaches for comparing complex information processing models of individual decisions. Two similarity coefficients are proposed, and a coefficient based on path and reachability struc ... Cite

The Structure of Consumer Choice Processes

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · 1971 Cite

Information Processing Models of Consumer Behavior

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · 1970 Cite

A Threshold Model of Attribute Satisfaction Decisions.

Journal Article Journal of Consumer Research Cite