When Choosing Makes a Good Thing Better: Temporal Variations in the Valuation of Hedonic Consumption

Abstract

This research investigates how the valuation of delayed consumption of hedonic products, such as concerts and chocolate, varies with the passage of time between choice and consumption. The authors find that when consumers make their own choices, they exhibit increases in evaluations of delayed consumption, but only if the interval between choice and consumption is relatively short. The effect attenuates over longer periods, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between evaluations and time. In contrast, when somebody else chooses the same option for the consumer, evaluations decrease with the passage of time. These effects depend on the extent of intrinsic motivation toward the object of consumption and occur only for consummatory consumption that is of inherent interest. Moreover, anticipatory increases in evaluations before consumption have ironic negative effects on post-consumption evaluations. The authors discuss implications and directions for further research.

Keywords: time preference, choice, discounting, anticipation, hedonic products