Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects

We examine how perceptions of a product are affected by the presence of extreme exemplars and find that ambiguity of the product is an important moderator. When the target is a novel one, perceptions assimilate to the context, whereas when it is highly familiar, perceptions are immune to the influen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: LEE, Michelle P., SUK, Kwanho
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/1289
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/2288/viewcontent/LeeMP2010Disamb.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
id sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-2288
record_format dspace
spelling sg-smu-ink.lkcsb_research-22882018-07-09T07:17:18Z Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects LEE, Michelle P. SUK, Kwanho We examine how perceptions of a product are affected by the presence of extreme exemplars and find that ambiguity of the product is an important moderator. When the target is a novel one, perceptions assimilate to the context, whereas when it is highly familiar, perceptions are immune to the influence of context. This is as predicted by the interpretation-comparison model. Contrary to this model, however, we find that effects on perceptions are not always assimilative in nature. When product ambiguity falls between the extremes of novel and highly familiar, a contrast effect in perception can occur. This is consistent with the selective accessibility model, which says that a perceptual contrast effect occurs when conditions orient respondents to dissimilarities rather than to similarities among context and target items. In the experiments conducted, context-induced response language effects were circumvented by employing forced-anchor scales. 2010-02-01T08:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/1289 info:doi/10.1086/605299 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/2288/viewcontent/LeeMP2010Disamb.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Assimilation/Contrast Categorization Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA) Situation/Context Issues Marketing Sales and Merchandising
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Assimilation/Contrast
Categorization
Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA)
Situation/Context Issues
Marketing
Sales and Merchandising
spellingShingle Assimilation/Contrast
Categorization
Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA)
Situation/Context Issues
Marketing
Sales and Merchandising
LEE, Michelle P.
SUK, Kwanho
Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
description We examine how perceptions of a product are affected by the presence of extreme exemplars and find that ambiguity of the product is an important moderator. When the target is a novel one, perceptions assimilate to the context, whereas when it is highly familiar, perceptions are immune to the influence of context. This is as predicted by the interpretation-comparison model. Contrary to this model, however, we find that effects on perceptions are not always assimilative in nature. When product ambiguity falls between the extremes of novel and highly familiar, a contrast effect in perception can occur. This is consistent with the selective accessibility model, which says that a perceptual contrast effect occurs when conditions orient respondents to dissimilarities rather than to similarities among context and target items. In the experiments conducted, context-induced response language effects were circumvented by employing forced-anchor scales.
format text
author LEE, Michelle P.
SUK, Kwanho
author_facet LEE, Michelle P.
SUK, Kwanho
author_sort LEE, Michelle P.
title Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
title_short Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
title_full Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
title_fullStr Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
title_full_unstemmed Disambiguating the Role of Ambiguity in Perceptual Assimilation and Contrast Effects
title_sort disambiguating the role of ambiguity in perceptual assimilation and contrast effects
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2010
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/1289
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/2288/viewcontent/LeeMP2010Disamb.pdf
_version_ 1770569861246746624