The effects of consumer prior knowledge and processing strategies on judgments

Jiewen Hong*, Brian Sternthal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

92 Scopus citations

Abstract

Four studies examine how consumers' prior knowledge of a product category and the way they process product information affect evaluation. Consumers with extensive prior knowledge of a category evaluate the brand more favorably when the presentation of the product information prompts a sense of progress rather than facilitating a detailed assessment (Studies 1 and 2 as well as when the information presentation involves a high level of construal rather than a low level (Studies 3 and 4). Consumers with limited domain knowledge exhibit opposite outcomes. The subjective experience of processing fluency mediates these effects. The findings suggest that evaluations are more favorable when there is a fit between prior knowledge and message processing than when fit is absent.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)301-311
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Marketing Research
Volume47
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2010

Keywords

  • Construal level
  • Expertise
  • Fluency
  • Prior knowledge
  • Processing mode

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Marketing

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