THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE AFFECT ON VARIETY SEEKING AMONG SAFE, ENJOYABLE PRODUCTS

In three brand-choice experiments executed on personal computers, a si gnificant interaction was found regarding the influence of positive af fect, induced by the gift of a small bag of candy or sugarless gum, on variety-seeking behavior. In three food categories (crackers, soup, a nd snack foods), a positive-affect manipulation increased variety-seek ing behavior relative to that in the control conditions, when circumst ances did not make unpleasant or negative features of the items in the choice task salient. However, when a negative feature, such as the po ssibility that a product would taste bad, was made more salient, there was no difference in variety-seeking behavior between the subjects wh o had received the small gift and the control subjects. Positive affec t was also found (1) to increase the tendency of subjects to categoriz e nontypical items as belonging to a predefined product category, (2) to increase credibility that a product designed to reduce negative hea lth effects would be successful, and (3) to increase variety-seeking b ehavior in choice sets containing the latter two types of items.