Nathan Novemsky
Biographic Data
| ID | 150470 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nathan Novemsky |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nathan |
| FAMILY NAME | Novemsky |
| SIGNATURE | NOVEMSKY N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 86 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Positive Contrast Scope Insensitivity
When consumers compare a worse product to a better product, negative contrast can make the worse product less attractive, and positive contrast can make the better product more attractive. We show that positive contrast is relatively scope insensitive: the size of the difference between products affects negative contrast but not positive contrast. Even when the difference between products is small enough to make negative contrast negligible, posi…
Proximity of snacks to beverages increases food consumption in the workplace: A field study
Why Feasibility Matters More to Gift Receivers than to Givers: A Construal-Level Approach to Gift Giving
This article looks at the trade-offs that gift givers and gift receivers make between desirability and feasibility using construal level theory as a framework. Focusing on the asymmetric distance from a gift that exists within giver-receiver dyads, the authors propose that, unlike receivers, givers construe gifts abstractly and therefore weight desirability attributes more than feasibility attributes. Support for this proposition emerges in studi…
When Do Incidental Mood Effects Last? Lay Beliefs versus Actual Effects
In a series of studies we examine how incidental mood present at the time of an experience affects judgments made long after the mood has dissipated and compare this to lay beliefs about how mood affects memory-based judgments. We find that memory-based judgments are affected by incidental mood only when there is an external prompt to evaluate the stimulus in real time. This is contrasted with lay beliefs about the effects of mood, which are not …
Opportunity Cost Neglect
To properly consider the opportunity costs of a purchase, consumers must actively generate the alternatives that it would displace. The current research suggests that consumers often fail to do so. Even under conditions promoting cognitive effort, various cues to consider opportunity costs reduce purchase rates and increase the choice share of more affordable options. Sensitivity to such cues varies with chronic dispositional differences in spend…
Anticipating Adaptation to Products
Many consumer products deliver their utility over time, and the decision to purchase such products often depends on predictions of future product enjoyment. The present research shows that consumers often fail to predict hedonic adaptation to products and explores the antecedents and consequences of this misprediction. We demonstrate that the failure to predict diminishing enjoyment with a product arises because of a failure to spontaneously cons…
Preference Fluency in Choice
The authors propose that consumer choices are often systematically influenced by preference fluency (i.e., the subjective feeling that forming a preference for a specific option is easy or difficult). Four studies manipulate the fluency of preference formation by presenting descriptions in an easy- or difficult-to-read font (Study 1) or by asking participants to think of few versus many reasons for their choice (Studies 2–4). As the authors predi…
The Boundaries of Loss Aversion
In this article, the authors propose some psychological principles to describe the boundaries of loss aversion. A key idea is that exchange goods that are given up “as intended” do not exhibit loss aversion. For example, the authors propose that money given up in purchases is not generally subject to loss aversion. The results of several experiments provide preliminary support for the hypotheses. The authors find that, consistent with prospect th…
Goal Fulfillment and Goal Targets in Sequential Choice
This article examines the effect of goal fulfillment on choices made in the context of an ongoing sequence of experiences. We find that a good first experience produces an upward shift in the target level of goal achievement. When a higher level of goal attainment is offered by a risky option, that option will be preferred more following a good experience than following a bad experience. Several studies show that this pattern applies only to risk…
The Time Course and Impact of Consumers' Erroneous Beliefs about Hedonic Contrast Effects: Figure 1
Results from four experiments indicate that people expect to enjoy an experience more when it will follow a worse experience. We find that consumers expect hedonic contrast effects even when they do not experience such effects. Whereas individuals remember the absence of contrast effects after a short delay (study 1), individuals reporting retrospective judgments after a long delay (study 2) recalled that they had experienced contrast effects. Th…
How are base-rates used, when they are used: A comparison of additive and Bayesian models of base-rate use
Previous research has uncovered many conditions that encourage base-rate use. The present research investigates how base-rates are used when conditions are manipulated to encourage their use in the lawyer/engineer paradigm. To examine the functional form of the response to base-rate, a factorial design was employed in which both base-rate and the individuating information were varied within-subject. We compared the performance of several models o…
Opportunity Cost Neglect
To properly consider the opportunity costs of a purchase, consumers must actively generate the alternatives that it would displace. The current research suggests that consumers often fail to do so. Even under conditions promoting cognitive effort, various cues to consider opportunity costs reduce purchase rates and increase the choice share of more affordable options. Sensitivity to such cues varies with chronic dispositional differences in spend…
The Time Course and Impact of Consumers' Erroneous Beliefs about Hedonic Contrast Effects: Figure 1
Results from four experiments indicate that people expect to enjoy an experience more when it will follow a worse experience. We find that consumers expect hedonic contrast effects even when they do not experience such effects. Whereas individuals remember the absence of contrast effects after a short delay (study 1), individuals reporting retrospective judgments after a long delay (study 2) recalled that they had experienced contrast effects. Th…
Why Feasibility Matters More to Gift Receivers than to Givers: A Construal-Level Approach to Gift Giving
This article looks at the trade-offs that gift givers and gift receivers make between desirability and feasibility using construal level theory as a framework. Focusing on the asymmetric distance from a gift that exists within giver-receiver dyads, the authors propose that, unlike receivers, givers construe gifts abstractly and therefore weight desirability attributes more than feasibility attributes. Support for this proposition emerges in studi…
Goal Fulfillment and Goal Targets in Sequential Choice
This article examines the effect of goal fulfillment on choices made in the context of an ongoing sequence of experiences. We find that a good first experience produces an upward shift in the target level of goal achievement. When a higher level of goal attainment is offered by a risky option, that option will be preferred more following a good experience than following a bad experience. Several studies show that this pattern applies only to risk…
Proximity of snacks to beverages increases food consumption in the workplace: A field study
Anticipating Adaptation to Products
Many consumer products deliver their utility over time, and the decision to purchase such products often depends on predictions of future product enjoyment. The present research shows that consumers often fail to predict hedonic adaptation to products and explores the antecedents and consequences of this misprediction. We demonstrate that the failure to predict diminishing enjoyment with a product arises because of a failure to spontaneously cons…
When Do Incidental Mood Effects Last? Lay Beliefs versus Actual Effects
In a series of studies we examine how incidental mood present at the time of an experience affects judgments made long after the mood has dissipated and compare this to lay beliefs about how mood affects memory-based judgments. We find that memory-based judgments are affected by incidental mood only when there is an external prompt to evaluate the stimulus in real time. This is contrasted with lay beliefs about the effects of mood, which are not …
How are base-rates used, when they are used: A comparison of additive and Bayesian models of base-rate use
Previous research has uncovered many conditions that encourage base-rate use. The present research investigates how base-rates are used when conditions are manipulated to encourage their use in the lawyer/engineer paradigm. To examine the functional form of the response to base-rate, a factorial design was employed in which both base-rate and the individuating information were varied within-subject. We compared the performance of several models o…
The Time Course and Impact of Consumers' Erroneous Beliefs about Hedonic Contrast Effects: Figure 1
Results from four experiments indicate that people expect to enjoy an experience more when it will follow a worse experience. We find that consumers expect hedonic contrast effects even when they do not experience such effects. Whereas individuals remember the absence of contrast effects after a short delay (study 1), individuals reporting retrospective judgments after a long delay (study 2) recalled that they had experienced contrast effects. Th…
The Boundaries of Loss Aversion
In this article, the authors propose some psychological principles to describe the boundaries of loss aversion. A key idea is that exchange goods that are given up “as intended” do not exhibit loss aversion. For example, the authors propose that money given up in purchases is not generally subject to loss aversion. The results of several experiments provide preliminary support for the hypotheses. The authors find that, consistent with prospect th…
Goal Fulfillment and Goal Targets in Sequential Choice
This article examines the effect of goal fulfillment on choices made in the context of an ongoing sequence of experiences. We find that a good first experience produces an upward shift in the target level of goal achievement. When a higher level of goal attainment is offered by a risky option, that option will be preferred more following a good experience than following a bad experience. Several studies show that this pattern applies only to risk…
Preference Fluency in Choice
The authors propose that consumer choices are often systematically influenced by preference fluency (i.e., the subjective feeling that forming a preference for a specific option is easy or difficult). Four studies manipulate the fluency of preference formation by presenting descriptions in an easy- or difficult-to-read font (Study 1) or by asking participants to think of few versus many reasons for their choice (Studies 2–4). As the authors predi…
Opportunity Cost Neglect
To properly consider the opportunity costs of a purchase, consumers must actively generate the alternatives that it would displace. The current research suggests that consumers often fail to do so. Even under conditions promoting cognitive effort, various cues to consider opportunity costs reduce purchase rates and increase the choice share of more affordable options. Sensitivity to such cues varies with chronic dispositional differences in spend…
Anticipating Adaptation to Products
Many consumer products deliver their utility over time, and the decision to purchase such products often depends on predictions of future product enjoyment. The present research shows that consumers often fail to predict hedonic adaptation to products and explores the antecedents and consequences of this misprediction. We demonstrate that the failure to predict diminishing enjoyment with a product arises because of a failure to spontaneously cons…
When Do Incidental Mood Effects Last? Lay Beliefs versus Actual Effects
In a series of studies we examine how incidental mood present at the time of an experience affects judgments made long after the mood has dissipated and compare this to lay beliefs about how mood affects memory-based judgments. We find that memory-based judgments are affected by incidental mood only when there is an external prompt to evaluate the stimulus in real time. This is contrasted with lay beliefs about the effects of mood, which are not …
Why Feasibility Matters More to Gift Receivers than to Givers: A Construal-Level Approach to Gift Giving
This article looks at the trade-offs that gift givers and gift receivers make between desirability and feasibility using construal level theory as a framework. Focusing on the asymmetric distance from a gift that exists within giver-receiver dyads, the authors propose that, unlike receivers, givers construe gifts abstractly and therefore weight desirability attributes more than feasibility attributes. Support for this proposition emerges in studi…
Proximity of snacks to beverages increases food consumption in the workplace: A field study
Positive Contrast Scope Insensitivity
When consumers compare a worse product to a better product, negative contrast can make the worse product less attractive, and positive contrast can make the better product more attractive. We show that positive contrast is relatively scope insensitive: the size of the difference between products affects negative contrast but not positive contrast. Even when the difference between products is small enough to make negative contrast negligible, posi…
Psychology (10 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (7 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (6 works) · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification (4 works) · Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Economics (3 works) · Microeconomics (3 works) · Sociology (3 works)