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Virginia Tech

Intuitive Numerical Information Processes in Consumer Judgment

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Numerical information is ubiquitous in modern life. The prevalence of numerical information in the marketplace necessitates understanding how consumers handle and interpret that information, for both theoretical and practical reasons. Past research has largely focused on consumers’ encoding of numbers, calculative limitations, and usage of heuristics. This dissertation will contribute to this burgeoning literature in several ways. First, I identify a general tendency in how consumers calculate ratios based on an intuitive model of division. Specifically, consumers tend to divide larger numbers by smaller numbers. The intuitive model of division has marketing implications for both consumers’ evaluations of quantity offers and sensitivities to promotions. Next, I examine how consumers draw inferences from distributional information. In contrast to the assumption that consumers utilize means to assess central tendency, I demonstrate that consumers use the modal response to judge what is typical, with implications for consumers’ inferences about product ratings and other social distributions.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
PHD
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Business, Marketing
Department dc:contributor.department
Marketing
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Villanova, Daniel Joseph Bodin
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Bagchi, Rajesh
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Herr, Paul Michael
  • Kardes, Frank R.
  • Ince, Elise C.
  • Pandelaere, Mario
  • Chaxel, Anne-Sophie

Subjects

dc:subject × 11

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:14490
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/94318

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Villanova, Daniel Joseph Bodin. Intuitive Numerical Information Processes in Consumer Judgment. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/94318