Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
Spring 3-18-2021
Abstract
Marketplaces and media sources frequently present consumers with information or measurements that involve “extreme” quantities (e.g., the size of the national debt or the number of pounds of plastic in the Earth’s oceans). Often, communicators express these quantities in spatial terms in an effort to influence the perceptual impact of the information (e.g., expressing the national debt in terms of the number of miles it would extend if laid out in paper currency form). Across three experiments, we find evidence that perceptual impact diminishes with spatial dimensionality (e.g., expressing a quantity as a length makes it seem larger than expressing it as a volume).
Recommended Citation
Swain, Scott D. and Weathers, Danny, "Spatial Expressions and Consumer Perceptions of Quantity" (2021). Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2021. 25.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/amtp-proceedings_2021/25
