The Pleasure of Liking (or Disliking)

Although consumer-behavior theory has traditionally regarded evaluations as instrumental to consumer choice, in reality consumers frequently evaluate what they like and dislike even when there is no decision at stake. Why are consumers so eager to evaluate things when there is no ostensible purpose for doing so? In this research, we advance the thesis that this is because consumers derive an inherent pleasure from the evaluation of their likes and dislikes. In support of this thesis, we report eight studies (plus seven replications) showing that compared to a variety of simple control judgments, evaluating one’s likes and dislikes results in greater task enjoyment. Additional results show that two complementary processes contribute to this overall pleasure of evaluation. First, evaluating one’s likes and dislikes enables a form of self-expression that appears to be deep and global. Second, evaluating one’s likes and dislikes provides a sense of self-discovery. Implications for marketers and policymakers are discussed