Essays on Information in Consumer Contexts

In this dissertation, Essay 1 explores whether the addition of information atypical to choice architecture can increase preference consistency and Essay 2 explores the possible influence of information about product updates on product choice. Essay 1 demonstrates, over three studies, that consumers can take up additional information when faced with a default, and that doing so improves preference consistency and the decision experience. Research on heuristic cues suggests that individuals will be attracted to larger values (Chinander and Schweitzer, 2003) —as may be seen in products that are the most updated--and work on product updates focuses on existing consumers rather than new users (Okada, 2006, Wood and Lynch, 2002; Jung, Peck, Palmeira, and Kim, 2022). Essay 2 is an exploration into the responses of new consumers over four studies and suggests that consumer evaluations of product updates are reference-dependent.