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Abstract
We present five studies supporting our strategic memory protection theory. When people make decisions about experiences to consume over time, they treat their memories of previous experiences as assets to be protected. The first two studies demonstrate that people tend to avoid situations that they believe will threaten their ability to retrieve special (rather than merely pleasant) memories. The next three studies demonstrate that people seek to obtain memory pointers to help them cue special memories at a later time when they anticipate interference from subsequent events. These preferences are driven by people's lay theories about the importance and difficulty of obtaining and retrieving special memories.

Abstract
Eight studies show that resource scarcity can influence consumers' preference for counterhedonic consumption and that the sense of control is an underlying driver of this effect. Using a large-scale field dataset covering 82 countries over a 10-year period, study 1 showed that individuals from countries with greater resources consumed horror movies to a greater extent, but this pattern was not found for other movie genres such as romance or documentary. The remaining studies used diverse experimental approaches and counterhedonic consumption contexts (e.g., movie, novel, haunted house attraction, game) to provide causal and process evidence. Specifically, inducing perceived resource scarcity lowered participants' preference for counterhedonic consumption (studies 2A–2C). Consistent with the sense-of-control-based mechanism, experimentally lowering participants' sense of control or boosting it moderated the effect of perceived resource scarcity on their preference for counterhedonic consumption (studies 3A and 3B). The degradation of the sense of control due to perceived resource scarcity mediated the effect (studies 4 and 5). These results add to the literature on conterhedonic consumption as well as resource scarcity and have important managerial implications.

Abstract
Previous research in consumer behavior and decision-making has explored many important aspects of social observation. However, the effect of social observation during the specific time wherein consumers construct their preferences remains relatively understudied. The present work seeks to fill this knowledge gap and adds to this literature by studying how consumers react to being observed during the preference-construction stage (i.e., prior to reaching their decision). While existing research on social observation focuses on accountability and self-presentation concerns, the present study uncovers an additional unique concern. Specifically, eight studies (three additional studies reported in the web appendix) find that being observed prior to reaching the decision threatens consumers' sense of autonomy in making the decision, resulting in an aversion to being observed. Furthermore, we find that such threats lead consumers to terminate their decision by avoiding purchase or by choosing default options. Given the extent to which consumers are observed in the marketplace by other individuals and by online platforms, and given the rise in consumers' privacy concerns associated with such practices, understanding consumer reactions to being observed in the pre-decisional stage is an important topic with practical implications.

Abstract
The consumer behavior literature extensively studied the impact of goal setting on behavior and performance. However, much less is known about the antecedents of goal-level setting—consumers' decision of whether to work out twice or three times per week. Consumers can decide how many goal-consistent activities to undertake ("goal-consistent decision frame"; such as exercising two days per week) or to forego ("goal-inconsistent decision frame"; such as not exercising five days per week). While objectively the same decision, we argue that these different frames impact consumers' ambition. Making a decision to forego goal-consistent activities triggers negative, self-evaluative emotions and to compensate for these unfavorable self-evaluations, consumers set more ambitious goal levels. Across a variety of contexts, consumers are more ambitious when their focal decision is inconsistent with goal achievement. For instance, they decide to work out more often when they decide how many work-out sessions they would skip (vs. attend). The impact of goal-inconsistent decision framing is mitigated when the activity is less instrumental toward goal achievement, and when negative self-evaluative emotions are alleviated through self-affirmation.

AbstractWhen a consumer realizes that information relevant to a consumption decision is missing, such uncertainty can be attributed to ignorance (i.e., the information has never been observed and is unknown) or to memory failure (i.e., the information has been observed and is forgotten). Although research has examined inferences about unknown attributes, no prior work has examined inferences about forgotten attributes. Across six experiments in the lab and in the field, we find that when uncertainty is attributed to ignorance, consumers often make inferences about unknown attributes based on existing correlational evidence (e.g., a brand comparison sheet that could indicate a positive or negative correlation between the unknown attribute and observable attributes). However, when uncertainty is attributed to memory failure, consumers tend to ignore such existing correlational evidence and instead make inferences about forgotten attributes that tend to be positively correlated with known attributes. This process occurs partly because when consumers believe that an attribute was forgotten, they falsely retrieve an impression about the attribute that tends to be consistent with their overall product evaluation. Overall, believing that an attribute is forgotten and believing that it is unknown can lead to opposite inferences and choices.

Abstract
How should consumers sequence the different stimuli they consume: cluster each stimulus together, or intermix them to break things up? Surprisingly, prior literature has provided little insight into this question, even though consumers face it on a regular basis. We propose that clustering each stimulus type together can prolong enjoyment (vs. intermixing the types). Six studies confirm that clustering slows hedonic decline, and process evidence shows this happens because clustering leads people to attend more to the different details offered by a stimulus during repeated exposures. We also establish two boundary conditions for this effect: clustering does not slow hedonic decline in the presence of regular intervening distractions, or for impoverished stimuli lacking rich details. The present work is among the first to examine the interplay of consumption sequence and hedonic decline, and the findings provide consumers and firms with practical guidance on how to consider sequencing experiences to enjoy them longer.

Abstract
Research on associative learning suggests that marketers can enhance consumer attitudes by repeatedly pairing their brands with pleasant or "positively-valenced" stimuli (e.g., attractive models, babies, cute animals) rather than unpleasant or "negatively-valenced" stimuli (e.g., garbage cans and disgusting insects)—an evaluative conditioning effect also known as affect transfer. In this research, we combine the associative learning and the goal pursuit literatures to show that the influence of affect transfer on brands depends on the mindset that is active at the time of judgment. Four experiments and one field study uniquely demonstrate that negatively-valenced brand pairings may become desirable when consumers have an instrumentality mindset, which increases attention to the instrumentality, or effectiveness, of a given consumption behavior. This pattern of results occurs due to a bidirectional association between unpleasantness and instrumentality, making a brand with negative associations seem more effective. Results are robust across contexts (health, entertainment, news) and persist regardless of whether the (un)pleasant images are within or adjacent to the advertisement. The effect attenuates when consumers have a weaker association between unpleasantness and instrumentality, and reverses when consumers are cued to focus on favorability (vs. instrumentality). Contributions and implications for associative learning and brand management are discussed.

Abstract
It is common that marketers design and position pretty products more to female consumers than to male consumers, suggesting that they generally believe that females have a stronger preference than males for product form over function and apply this belief to their marketing practices. However, this research demonstrates that this belief is often inconsistent with actual preferences. Across seven studies and four follow-up studies, involving both hypothetical and field settings, we demonstrate that both marketers and consumers hold such a belief about gender difference and overpredict females' preference for form-superior (vs. function-superior) products relative to males. Specifically, people tend to choose form-superior (vs. function-superior) products for female (vs. male) others, but female consumers do not choose form-superior (vs. function-superior) products for themselves more than male consumers do. We further provide convergent evidence for the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions by showing that (1) people's choices for others and themselves are more in line with the lay belief about gender difference when they hold a stronger belief and (2) people's choices for distant (vs. close) others are more in line with this lay belief. We further assess the effectiveness of several debiasing interventions and show that this lay belief is quite robust.