Consumers often behave differently than they would ideally like to behave. We propose that an anticipatory pain of paying drives "tightwads" to spend less than they would ideally like to spend. "Spendthrifts," by contrast, experience too little pain of paying and typically spend more than they...

People often estimate how they compare to other consumers when they make purchase decisions. Unfortunately, they tend to err in this task, and this can lead to negative consequences in their choices. Previous literature has largely argued that these errors in estimates of relative standing are...

Donations to large numbers of victims are typically muted relative to donations to a single identified victim. This article shows that people can donate more to large numbers of victims if these victims are perceived as entitative—comprising a single, coherent unit. For example, donations to...

Consumers infer their best product choice from comparative information about themselves and products (Prelec, Wernerfelt, and Zettelmeyer). Though common, this "matching" process leads to unstable preferences when perceived product ranks change due to product array manipulations. This article...