Nonconscious and contaminative effects of hypothetical questions on subsequent decision making

In this article we examine the impact of asking hypothetical questions on r espondents' subsequent decision making. Across several experiments we find that even though such questions are purely hypothetical, respondents are un able to prevent a substantial biasing effect on their behavior. Further, we find that an increase in cognitive elaboration increases the contaminative effects of hypothetical questions and that this increase occurs primarily when the hypothetical information is relevant. In-depth poststudy interview s with a subset of the participants suggest that the effects of hypothetica l questions on choice occur beyond awareness and, as a result, are quite di fficult to counteract.