Consumer experiments: An embodied approach to lay-rational decision-making

A growing body of consumer research suggests that consumers seek to become (more) rational in their decision-making by basing their decisions on reasons rather than feelings. However, other than in economics and decision theory, mostly consumers are not purely rational in their decision-making. To capture the notion of seeming rationality that is tempered by subjectivity, Hsee et al. and Hsee et al. introduced the construct of lay rationalism. To understand lay-rational decision-making, prior studies primarily focus on consumers' cognitive processes. By uncovering consumers' embodied lay-rational decision-making strategies we add to prior research on lay-rational decision-making. We show that sometimes consumers do not only rely on a cognitive-based approach (abstract reasoning, such as interpreting and assessing available market information on product attributes) to make lay-rational decisions but strive for rationality in their decision-making also through an embodied approach (working out seemingly objective factual information about products through systematical, analytical, and methodical engagement with products in consumers' individual contexts).