Leveraging Behavioral Interventions to Change Consumers' Preferences to Wait

• Applicant: Dr. Maximilian Gärth
• Subject Area: Management and Marketing
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496624745

People are busier than ever. It is therefore not surprising that they have a high preference for quick options (e.g., results, experiences, information, etc.). However, unlike options that people have access to if they wait, these so-called “quick and dirty” options are often inferior. But what do people miss out on, and what value to society is being lost because people are averse to waiting? The existing literature has already explored the reasons for consumers’ aversion to waiting in relative detail. Thus, some strategies to combat boredom that occurs while waiting have already been derived. However, the existing research literature is limited only to situations in which consumers have already chosen to wait. In contrast, the present research project investigates what can motivate people to wait for superior options. To answer this question, the described project examines three behavioral science-inspired approaches to changing consumer preferences. Study 1 investigates the influence of changes in the context of waiting time without changing the actual waiting task. Specifically, it seeks to investigate the extent to which comparison activities can be used to describe waiting times in order to increase the likelihood that consumers will wait. Study 2 focuses on the influence of verbal framing - i.e., phrasing a message differently without changing its content - on consumers' willingness to wait. Specifically, it will examine the extent to which people are willing to wait longer or shorter as well as the underlying psychological mechanisms. Study 3 examines under what circumstances consumers interpret the expected waiting time for products and services from companies as a quality signal. While long queues may represent a quality signal, they are also associated with negative emotions such as boredom and cost. Furthermore, this study systematically investigates when long queues are interpreted as a sign of incompetence and inefficiency.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dr. Catherine Lamberton