THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO DRIVE A BMW - DOES IMAGINED EASE OF ARGUMENT GENERATION INFLUENCE ATTITUDES

The effects of imagined versus actual ease of self-generating product- related information were investigated. An ad invited recipients to nam e either one reason or 10 reasons for (against) choosing a BMW over a Mercedes. Participants who complied with the task experienced the retr ieval of one reason as easier than the retrieval of 10 reasons. Partic ipants who did not comply nevertheless imagined the former as easier t han the latter. Independent of whether ease was actually experienced o r merely imagined, participants evaluated BMW more (less) favorably an d Mercedes less (more) favorably when the retrieval was easy rather th an difficult.