WHEN TO SAY WHEN - EFFECTS OF SUPPLY ON USAGE

A series of experiments manipulated product supply to investigate the effects on product usage. Subjects were presented with containers fill ed with various amounts of a product and asked to indicate how much of the product they would use. Consumers tended to conserve diminishing resources so that the amount they indicated they would use generally d ecreased as the supply decreased. Container size and the fill level of the container did not influence the amount used.