This research examines when and how ambient scents (i.e., scents that are present in the environment and do not emanate from a specific product) affect product evaluations. Consistent with theory in environmental psychology, the author predicts that such ambient scents can elicit emotional responses that can influence subsequent judgments, but only when specific conditions are met. Three factors are hypothesized to moderate the effects of pleasant ambient scents on evaluations: (1) the congruence of the scent with the product, (2) the salience of the scent, and (3) consumers' motivation to correct for extraneous influences. The findings of three experiments suggest that as long as ambient scents are congruent with the product, they continue to affect consumers' evaluations, even when their influence becomes salient or when consumers are sufficiently motivated to correct for extraneous influences. In addition, as long as the scent is not completely incongruent with the product, noncongruent scents are corrected for only when their influence becomes salient or when consumers are sufficiently motivated. These findings indicate that the impact of pleasant ambient scents on product evaluations may be stronger than that of other affective environmental cues.

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People need to allocate their limited cognitive resources to current and future tasks. We provide evidence that anticipating the resource demands of a future task creates a "get ready mind-set" that mobilizes these resources. However, the mobilized resources for the future task can carry over to unrelated current tasks. This implies the counterintuitive notion that anticipating difficult tasks in the future leads to greater effort expenditure on unrelated tasks in the present. We also demonstrate that resource carryover is particularly likely when consumers' ability to separate tasks is low, whereas resource conservation is more likely when ability to separate is high. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Food retailers can present specific products in a separate category (e.g., separate section for organic products) or integrated into the mainstream shelf. This study investigates how assortment organization influences consumers' variety perceptions and product choice. We argue and show that when an assortment is organized according to an individual's goal (e.g., organics), he or she is more likely to choose a product that is in line with his/her goal (e.g., choose an organic product), compared to when products are presented in a mixed display or when categories are unrelated to this goal. Moreover, the results of three experiments show that when assortments are organized according to a relevant goal, people perceive more variety in the category with goal-consistent products (an in-category heterogeneity effect), but tend to see less variety in the category with products that are not consistent with their goal (an out-category homogeneity effect). This implies that food retailers can direct consumers' choice, as well as consumers' perception of the assortment, through assortment organization. Size of the category is shown to be a boundary condition.