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Embodied constraints as elements in attitude construction
Author(s) -
Smith Eliot R.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2008.04.006
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , argument (complex analysis) , psychology , product (mathematics) , social psychology , cognitive psychology , epistemology , philosophy , chemistry , biochemistry , geometry , mathematics
Simonson holds that non‐constructed “inherent preferences” influence many expressed attitudes as well as behavioral choices. These inherent preferences are not mentally represented, but amount to embodied constraints that (for example) make a person like a new product on an initial encounter. This article situates Simonson's argument in the social–psychological literature on attitudes. Existing evidence does suggest that people sometimes are surprised by their evaluations of experiences (failures of affective forecasting). However, the problematic concept of non‐constructed inherent preferences need not be invoked to explain such effects; existing models of the role of direct experience in attitudes are adequate.