for their feedback at different stages of the project and Bridget Kemps for her help in administering the experiments. They also thank the participants of the University of Florida Winter Research Retreat ( 2006) and the two anonymous JMR reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Russ Winer served as guest editor for this article.

This research proposes that because rounded numbers are more fluently processed, rounded prices (e.g., $200.00) encourage reliance on feelings. In contrast, because nonrounded numbers are disfluently processed, nonrounded prices (e.g., $198.76) encourage reliance on cognition. Thus, rounded (nonrounded) prices lead to a subjective experience of "feeling right" when the purchase decision is driven by feelings (cognition). Further, this sense of feeling right resulting from the fit between the roundedness of the price number and the nature of decision context can make positive reactions toward the target product more positive and negative reactions more negative, a phenomenon referred to as the rounded price effect in the current research. Results from five studies provide converging evidence for the rounded price effect. Findings from the current research further show that merely priming participants with rounded (nonrounded) numbers in an unrelated context could also lead to the rounded price effect. Finally, this research provides process support by showing that the rounded price effect is mediated by a sense of feeling right. This is the first research examining the differential impact of roundedness of prices on product purchase decisions, based on whether the purchase decision is driven by feelings versus cognition. C onsider two consumers who are on the market to buy a camera for an upcoming family vacation. While one of them comes across a camera priced at $200.00, the other comes across the same camera at another store but priced at $198.76. Given that the camera has all the features required by these two consumers, how would the mere roundedness of the price number (200.00 vs. 198.76) affect their preference for the camera? Further, could the price number (200.00 vs. 198.76

An increasing number of consumers, in recent times, have reported feeling busier than ever. The current research examines how the subjective perception of busyness-which is referred to as a busy mindset in the current research-impacts consumers' decision-making. Building on different streams of research in sociology and self-view, the current research proposes that a busy mindset bolsters people's sense of self-importance, which, in turn, can increase self-control. Thus, a busy mindset is predicted to facilitate people's ability to exert self-control. Seven studies, including a field study, provide support for this busy mindset hypothesis across various self-control domains. Findings from these studies provide support for the underlying process related to self-importance in multiple ways, while also addressing alternative accounts related to stress and the desire for productivity. Finally, findings from the current research delineate important managerially relevant boundary conditions for the proposed busy mindset effect.

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Common intuition and research suggest that winning is more motivating than losing. However, we propose that just failing to obtain a reward (i.e., nearly winning it) in one task leads to broader, positive motivational effects on subsequent unrelated tasks relative to clearly losing or actually obtaining the reward. We manipulated a near-win experience using a game app in Experiments 1 through 3 and a lottery in Experiment 4. Our findings showed that nearly winning in one task subsequently led participants to walk faster to get to a chocolate bar (Experiment 1), salivate more for money (Experiment 2), and increase their effort to earn money in a card-sorting task (Experiment 3). A field study (Experiment 4) demonstrated that nearly winning led people to subsequently spend more money on desirable consumer products. Finally, our findings showed that when the activated motivational state was dampened in an intervening task, the nearly-winning effect was attenuated.