Perspective in Statements of Quantity, with Implications for Consumer Psychology

Abstract

We demonstrate that presentation of information about quantities, whether expressed in natural language or by using numbers, induces a perspective that influences subsequent processing. Experiment 1 shows this to be true for natural language quantifiers, with negative and positive expressions inducing different perspectives. In Experiment 2, we examined the application of this idea to the specific case of perspectives induced by describing products as containing x% fat or as being x% fat free. We found that the percentage-fat description appears to induce a perspective that is sensitive to the level offat being depicted, with products being judged as less healthy at higher amounts of fat. However, this effect was lessened (Experiment 2) or eliminated (Experiment 3) with the percentage-fat-free description. The experiments suggest the fat-free perspective blocks access to assumptions about healthy fat levels.

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