Is It Still Working? Task Difficulty Promotes a Rapid Wear-Off Bias in Judgments of Pharmacological Products

Ilyuk, Veronika; Block, Lauren; Faro, David

doi:10.1086/677562

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…In addition, lay theories can lead to warranted or unwarranted inferences about a medication's efficacy (Ilyuk, Block, & Faro, 2014; Ilyuk, Irmak, et al, 2014). These inferences, however, may lead to suboptimal decisions.…”

Section: External Cues and Consumer Medication Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Older is better: Consumers prefer older drugs

Yun

2020

Psychology and Marketing

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Despite increasing research attention to healthcare marketing in academia and the concerted effort of the pharmaceutical industry to market its latest products, limited research has explored the effect of launch time on individuals' drug choices. Building upon findings in medical literature that many newly launched drugs are indeed no better than existing ones, this study found that the majority of consumers consistently prefer older drugs when both options are claimed equally safe and/or effective. The reason is that consumers disregard declarative information and, instead, make their own inferences. Although there is a small segment that chooses the newer option for what they infer to be its higher efficacy, most consumers believe that an older drug is both safer and more efficacious. Further, promotion-focused consumers are more likely to choose newer drugs. The underlying mechanism for how promotion focus affects choice is identified. A sample of practicing doctors cross-validated our findings, which have implications for practitioners in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Section: External Cues and Consumer Medication Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Older is better: Consumers prefer older drugs

Yun

2020

Psychology and Marketing

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“…Second, and more importantly, we show the downstream consequences of this association on consumers' perception of products' lasting benefits. Although this dimension of product performance is highly predictive of purchases (Faro, 2010; Ilyuk, Block, & Faro, 2014), it has received relatively little research attention. Moreover, marketing messages often contain round numbers, but research on numerical cognition has focused primarily on documenting positive effects of precise numbers, including increases in perceived credibility (Schindler & Yalch, 2006), accuracy (Zhang & Schwarz, 2012), and competence (Xie & Kronrod, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lasting performance: Round numbers activate associations of stability and increase perceived length of product benefits

Pena‐Marin

Bhargave

2015

J Consum Psychol

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Consumers prefer products that deliver benefits for a longer time. For instance, caffeinated drinks are consumed for energy, but the key characteristic that performs this benefit—caffeine—tends to wear off in its effects. How can marketers communicate the lasting performance of product characteristics? This work proposes that numbers used in conveying product characteristics—round (200 mg) or precise (203 mg)—influence consumers' perception of lasting performance and product attitudes. More specifically, product characteristics described in round (vs. precise) numbers are perceived as performing for a longer time, and this effect is driven by a symbolic association between round numbers and stability. This finding is important because numbers are commonly used in conveying product benefits and past work has mainly documented the advantages of using precise numbers (e.g., higher competence), whereas less is known about when and why using round numbers boosts product attitudes. Three studies, including one with actual consumption, offer triangulating evidence for this prediction and its underlying psychological mechanism. Overall, this work contributes to research on product perception, numerical cognition, and persuasion

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“…This reasoning is in line with the limited yet growing body of research showing that efficacy perceptions and experiences are indeed highly malleable and often affected by product-, marketer-, and consumer-related factors that have little to do a product's actual efficacy. For example, prior research has shown that such factors may include price (Samper and Schwartz 2013), the product's origin (Wang et al 2010), the manufacturer's profitability information (Posavac et al 2010), the presence of negative product attributes (e.g., side effects; Kramer et al 2012), and consumers' concurrent activities (Ilyuk et al 2014a). Importantly, these factors have been shown to affect not only inferences about product efficacy, but also actual product experiences (e.g., increased mental acuity) in a placebo-like manner.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus in addition to adjusting their use of a target brand at their discretion or ceasing consumption of the product in general, consumers may also switch to competing brands. Third, consumers' inferences about-and actual experiences of-product efficacy are highly malleable and often biased by factors that have little to do with a product's actual efficacy (Chae, Li, and Zhu 2013;Faro 2010;Ilyuk, Block, and Faro 2014a;Kramer et al 2012;Posavac et al 2010;Samper and Schwartz 2013;Wang, Keh, and Bolton 2010;Wright et al 2013; for a review, see Ilyuk et al 2014b). As such, exploring the effects of marketing actions on consumers' efficacy perceptions is crucial.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Single-Serve Packaging on Consumption Closure and Judgments of Product Efficacy

Ilyuk¹,

Block²

2015

J Consum Res

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Despite the prevalence of single-serve and multi-serve package formats in the pharmaceutical and functional food and beverage industries, prior research has yet to explore the effects of such package formats on consumers' perceptions of product efficacy. Building on the resource availability, product packaging, and psychological closure literature, the authors demonstrate across seven studies that when processing capacity is low, consuming a particular serving/dosage of a product from a smaller resource inventory (i.e., the entirety of a single-serve package) may subjectively feel more adequate than consuming the same amount from a larger resource inventory (i.e., a multi-serve package, namely one in which additional servings/doses remain after consumption). Results indicate that differences in felt consumption closure underlie perceptions of product adequacy. Importantly, perceived product adequacy is shown to affect consumers' actual product efficacy experiences (i.e., task performance), expectancies, and judgments. The implications of this research for marketers, consumers, and the public health community are discussed.

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Is It Still Working? Task Difficulty Promotes a Rapid Wear-Off Bias in Judgments of Pharmacological Products

Cited by 8 publications

References 58 publications

Older is better: Consumers prefer older drugs

Older is better: Consumers prefer older drugs

Lasting performance: Round numbers activate associations of stability and increase perceived length of product benefits

The Effects of Single-Serve Packaging on Consumption Closure and Judgments of Product Efficacy

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