Effects of Temporal Distance and Memory on Consumer Judgments

Abstract

Once a product has been evaluated for use, the circumstances can change and it must be reevaluated for use at a different time. Four experiments investigated processes underlying these reevaluations. Participants received information about a product that had implications for both desirability and the feasibility of using it, while anticipating either its immediate or future use. They were later asked to reevaluate the product for use at either the same or a different point in time. Participants who reevaluated the product for future use based their judgments on desirability considerations regardless of when they had considered using it initially. However, participants who reevaluated the product for immediate use also based their judgments on desirability considerations unless they had initially considered immediate use as well. These results were consistent with a conceptualization of consumer judgment processes that incorporated implications of research on construal level theory and on person memory and judgments.