Toronto
- Sitting in a higher chair could improve your long-term financial planning.You might be more likely to buy serious tomes on the second floor of a bookstore, and to pick up lighter reading from the ground floor or basement. The top level
of a shopping mall is where customers might consider acquiring a
buyer-assembled, multi-functional piece of furniture, while the lower levels
are better for simple, pre-fab products.
These
are some of the implications of new research, which reveals how height – even
perceived height – can affect mental processes and decision-making.
The
study, conducted by Pankaj Aggarwal, an associate professor of marketing at the
University of Toronto Scarborough who is cross-appointed to the University’s
Rotman School of Management his colleague Min Zhao, an associate professor of
marketing at the Rotman School, reveals that when test subjects believe they
are physically higher up – on a tall stool or a top floor – they are more
likely to consider a “big-picture” approach to a decision.
“It
may be more effective for stores located on a higher level of a mall to promote
rich features, superior functions, or performance of their products,” says
Prof. Aggarwal. “It may be more effective for stores on a lower level to promote
feasibility aspects such as high convenience or ease of usage for their
products.”
It
all has to do with a phenomenon known as “mental construal,” which basically
refers to “where one’s head is at” when making a decision. A person in a
higher-level state of mental construal makes decisions based on questions of
“Why?” while lower-level mental construal focuses on the immediate logistics of
“How?” It’s the difference between “Why do I need a new desk?” and “How am I
going to get this thing set up in my office?”
Over
the course of six studies – including subjects sitting at different heights,
being told were on different floors of a building, and even doing a word search
containing either the word “high” or “low” – Profs. Aggarwal and Zhao found
that perceived physical height directly affected whether test subjects took a
metaphorical “50,000-foot view” or “street level” approach to decisions.
Their
results tally with a wide body of research that demonstrates correlations
between physical distance and mental distance, and even physical warmth and
mental warmth.
“Physical
concepts get translated into more high-level mental concepts. Our studies have
so far been more conceptual and theoretical in the lab,” says Prof. Aggarwal.
But he already sees very practical possibilities for this research. “Maybe at
the grocery store the chocolates and the candies
should be on the lower floor, but all the healthy green veggies should be on
the higher.”
The study is available online and will appear in the upcoming edition of the Journal of Marketing
Research.
For
the latest thinking on business, management and economics from the Rotman
School of Management, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/NewThinking.aspx.
The
Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning
business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative
Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a
new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions.
For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.
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Ken McGuffin
Manager, Media Relations
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
Voice 416.946.3818
E-mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
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