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Journal Article
Metacognition and Consumer Judgment: Fluency is Pleasant but Disfluency Ignites Interest
Current Opinion in Psychology
Author(s)
The ease of identifying a product or understanding the goals it serves is known to evoke a positive
affective response that increases the liking of that product and its advertising. However, recent findings also show processing disfluency can sometimes improve evaluation. In this review, we integrate these opposing findings by suggesting a novel approach based on the affective properties of processing experiences. Observing that affective experiences comprise two fundamental dimensions — pleasantness and arousal — we posit that fluency increases pleasantness by reducing uncertainty about products, but disfluency is arousing, and as a result, increases interest and engagement
with products. Product evaluation depends on whether the decision is associated more with uncertainty reduction and pleasantness or with arousal and engagement.
Date Published:
2016
Citations:
Labroo, Aparna, Anastasiya Pocheptsova. 2016. Metacognition and Consumer Judgment: Fluency is Pleasant but Disfluency Ignites Interest. Current Opinion in Psychology. 154-9.