Geeta Menon

• Ellie Kyung, Geeta Menon, Yaacov Trope (2009), Reconstruction of Things Past: Why do Some Memories Feel so Close and Others so Far Away?, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Abstract

  The vast majority of work in construal level theory focuses prospectively on the future. Through a series of studies controlling for knowledge about an event, we look retrospectively at the past and demonstrate that construal mindsets can materially influence how a past event is reconstructed in memory. Specifically, an event recalled in a more concrete mindset feels subjectively closer than when recalled in an abstract mindset (Studies 1–3). We present evidence suggesting this is because a concrete mindset actually makes people feel as though they know more, even if they were initially exposed to the same set of information—perceived information accessibility mediates the effect of construal level on temporal distance (Study 2). The effect of construal level on memory reconstruction extends to judgments of blame, where judgments of greater temporal distance drive a greater propensity to blame parties for negative events and temporal distance mediates these judgments (Study 3). Together, these studies are the first to demonstrate that the mindset employed when recalling an event shapes its remembrance.

• Geeta Menon, Ellie Kyung, Nidhi Agrawal (2009), Biases in Social Comparisons: Optimism or Pessimism?, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 39-52. Abstract

  Social comparisons typically lead to two kinds of biases: A comparative optimism bias (i.e., a tendency for people to view themselves as more likely than others to be the beneficiaries of positive outcomes) or a comparative pessimism bias (i.e., a tendency for people to view themselves as less likely than others to be such beneficiaries); rarely are people fully calibrated in terms of how they compare to others. However, there is little systematic research on the factors that determine when a comparative optimism versus pessimism bias will occur, how they can be attenuated and whether such attenuation is always desirable. In this paper, we report four studies which demonstrate the following key results: First, we show that perceived level of control over the outcome drives whether a comparative optimism or pessimism bias will occur (Study 1). Second, an increase in perceived similarity between self and a comparison target person attenuates the comparative optimism bias in domains that people view as highly controllable
  (Study 2a) and attenuates the comparative pessimism bias in domains that people view as less controllable (Study 2b). Finally, we show that people are willing to work harder when they experience more comparative optimism in higher control scenarios and when they experience less comparative pessimism in lower control scenarios, illustrating that motivating people to strive harder for positive outcomes can result from exacerbated or attenuated bias, depending on the context (Study 3).

• Manoj Thomas and Geeta Menon (2007), When Internal Reference Prices and Price Expectations Diverge: The Role of Confidence, Journal of Marketing Research, 401-409. Abstract

  When do internal reference prices differ from articulated price expectations? The authors propose that the internal reference price depends not only on the magnitude of the expected price but also on the confidence associated with this expectation. Four experiments delineate the effects of price expectation and confidence on the internal reference price. In Experiments 1 and 2, the authors manipulate repetition and examine the effects of repetition-induced confidence on price judgments. In Experiments 3 and 4, they manipulate confidence directly to investigate its effects on judgments. The results from all four experiments suggest that consumers with less confidence have higher internal reference prices than more confident consumers, even when they do not differ in their articulated price expectations. The authors discuss the implications of these results for pricing theory.

• Nidhi Agrawal, Geeta Menon, Jennifer Aaker (2007), Getting Emotional about Health, Journal of Marketing Research, 100-113. Abstract

  The consequences of illness have two crucial types of stakes: for the self and for the family. Therefore, this research examines the effectiveness of health messages that present consequences for the self or for the family, focusing specifically on the dual role of emotions in serving these stakes as a provider of resources and information. The authors theorize that (1) the valence dimension of discrete emotions influences resources, thus fostering or hindering the processing of aversive health information, whereas (2) the self-/other-relatedness dimension of discrete emotions provides information that interacts with the focal referent in the message (self or family) to determine compatibility. In Experiments 1–3, the authors demonstrate that when people are primed with a positive emotion (e.g., happiness, peacefulness), the compatibility between the referent and the discrete emotion fosters the processing of health information. When the primed emotion is negative (e.g., sadness, agitation), however, compatibility hinders processing of the message. In Experiment 4, the authors track emotions before and after exposure to a health message to demonstrate that the observed effect occurs because of an increase in the negative emotional state in compatible situations when people process disease-related information. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for increasing the effectiveness of health-related messages.

• Suresh Ramanathan and Geeta Menon (2006), Time-Varying Effects of Chronic Hedonic Goals on Impulsive Behavior, Journal of Marketing Research, 628-641. Abstract

  Marketers and academics have long been interested in understanding what drives impulsive behavior and have focused on what causes a person to indulge. The three experiments reported in this article examine reasons that underlie urges that strengthen over time and cause people to overindulge from a goal-theoretic view of impulsiveness. The authors demonstrate that impulsivity is characterized by generalized reward sensitivity and by an activation of chronic goals to seek pleasure in various domains (Experiment 1). Furthermore, through a moment-to-moment tracking of desires, the authors demonstrate that such chronic goals, particularly in conjunction with temporarily primed goals, provide the momentum for impulsive people to override their self-control goals, leading to a strengthening of desires over time (Experiment 2). In turn, this causes impulsive people to behave even more impulsively when their activated hedonic goals are not satiated (Experiment 3). The findings suggest that contextual cues have powerful influences on impulsive behavior over time when acting in conjunction with chronic hedonic goals. The results have public policy implications for behaviors such as binge drinking and unrestrained eating.

• Priya Raghubir and Geeta Menon (2005), Depressed or Just Blue? The Persuasive Effects of a Self-Diagnosis Inventory, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2535-2559. Abstract

  A self-diagnosis inventory is both a response instrument and a tool for an individual to assess his or her risk. Three experiments show that the manner in which a depression self-diagnosis inventory is administered and constructed affects the manner in which a respondent interprets behavioral symptoms. This in turn affects (a) self-reports of whether the symptoms apply to the respondent; (b) the respondent’s perceived risk of depression; (c) the perceived controllability of the behavioral symptoms; and (d) the respondent’s likelihood of seeking treatment. Theoretical implications of the content and format of self-diagnosis inventories are discussed, as are implications for how to persuade people to seek assistance when they are at risk.

• Priya Raghubir and Geeta Menon (2005), When and Why is Ease of Retrieval Informative?, Memory & Cognition, 821-832. Abstract

  In two experiments, we examined when and why ease of retrieval of information from memory affects behavioral frequency and attitudinal judgments. Overall, the results suggest that when the subjective experience of ease of retrieval is consistent with the expected ease of retrieval, the content of the information retrieved is used to make judgments. However, when there is a discrepancy between experienced and expected ease of retrieval, the subjective experience of ease of retrieval is used to make judgments. Ease of retrieval is more informative when the discrepancy between experienced and expected ease of retrieval cannot be attributed to task contingencies; when it can, ease of retrieval ceases to be informative.

• Suchartia Chandran and Geeta Menon (2004), When a Day Means More Than a Year: Effects of Temporal Framing on Judgments of Health Rish, Journal of Consumer Research. Abstract

  We demonstrate the differential effects of framing health hazards as occurring every day versus every year, two reference periods that objectively refer to the present but subjectively seem different. Through three studies, we show that every day framing makes risks appear more proximal and concrete than every year framing, resulting in increased self-risk perceptions, intentions to exercise precautionary behavior, concern and anxiety about the hazard, and effectiveness of risk communication. Across different health domains, we show that, while temporal frames moderate self-positivity biases (study 1), difficulty of preventive behaviors (study 2) and outcome valence (study 3) moderate temporal framing effects.

• Eric Yorkston and Geeta Menon (2004), A Sound Idea: Phonetic Effects of Brand Names on Consumer Judgments, Journal of Consumer Research, 43-51. Abstract

  In this article we examine a phenomenon known as sound symbolism, where the sound of a word conveys meanings. Specifically, brand names are composed of individual sounds called phonemes and we investigate how this phonetic structure of brand names affects a consumer’s evaluation of products and their underlying attributes. We demonstrate that consumers use information they gather from phonemes in brand names to infer product attributes and to evaluate brands. We also demonstrate that the manner in which phonetic effects of brand names manifest is automatic in as much as it is uncontrollable, outside awareness and effortless.

• Geeta Menon and Priya Raghubir (2003), Ease-of-Retrieval as an Automatic Input in Judgments: A Mere-Accessibility Framework?”, Journal of Consumer Research, 230-243. Abstract

  The ease-of-retrieval hypothesis suggests that people use the ease with which information comes to mind as a heuristic in forming judgments (Schwarz et al. 1991). We examine the automaticity of the use of ease-of-retrieval as an input in judgments. We demonstrate that the ease-of-retrieval is used unintentionally, outside of awareness, and effortlessly, along with other consciously applied inputs, to make related judgments. Once experienced, its impact follows through to judgments, even when it is discredited as a source of information. Results across four studies suggest that an automatic source of information (viz., the ease-of-retrieval) may merely have to be accessible to be used in a judgment. We propose a mere-accessibility framework as a variant of Feldman and Lynch’s (1988) accessibility-diagnosticity framework to explain these results.

• President, Association for Consumer Research, 2010

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