ABSTRACT
A major theme of research in psychology has been to identify the factors that in uence consumer choice, and it has long been recognized that the pursuit of choice is driven by the consideration of various underlying goals (e.g., Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2000; Carver & Scheier, 1998; Higgins, 1997; Kruglanski et al., 2002; Locke & Latham, 1990; Moskowitz, 2002). For example, consumers may wish to purchase a product that is reliable as well as inexpensive, to consume food that is tasty as well as healthy, and to attend a course that is interesting as well as useful; all of these are example of goals that might underlie the decision process (for review, see Baumgartner & Pieters, chapter 13, this volume). In contrast, much of behavioral decision research has looked at choice among a set of alternatives, regardless of underlying consumer motivation. A major nding from behavioral decision theory is that stated preferences are not stable but change with contextual factors that highlight di erent considerations and lead to potentially di erent preference assessments (see Bettman, Luce, & Payne, chapter 23, this volume, 1998; Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1992; Slovic, 1995). In traditional behavioral decision research, the focus is on the provided choice options and underlying goals are assumed but the manner in which they might in uence choice is relatively ignored.
