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Linguistic Cues Can Affect Decision-Making in the Absence of Full Comprehension.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Linguistic Cues Can Affect Decision-Making in the Absence of Full Comprehension./
Author:	Banerjee, Akshina.
Description:	1 online resource (326 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-12, Section: B.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International84-12B.
Subject:	Language. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798379706111

Linguistic Cues Can Affect Decision-Making in the Absence of Full Comprehension.
Banerjee, Akshina.

Linguistic Cues Can Affect Decision-Making in the Absence of Full Comprehension. - 1 online resource (326 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-12, Section: B.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Chicago, 2023.

Includes bibliographical references

In my dissertation research, I explore how, even without full comprehension, linguistic cues can impact people's decision-making. People encounter language cues in most decision contexts. Ranging from product descriptions, advertisements, political messaging, and small text-based nudges, language is constantly being deployed to inform and influence consumers. A common view is that to be persuaded by these cues, people need to be able to deliberate about them (Petty & Cacioppo 1986). It is plausible to therefore assume that for a language-based cue to be effective, it needs to be comprehensible and diagnostic to the recipient. In fact, some theories of pragmatic linguistics contend that if people cannot understand the literal meaning of the cue, then its presence in a decision context might not seem relevant (Sperber & Wilson 2002; Grice 1975) and hence would be ignored.In my dissertation, however, I show that people even use language cues, without full comprehension, in their decisions. In the first essay, I depict an instance of how the presence of two ambiguous timing cues - which have similar meanings, and cannot be semantically differentiated from each other (hence being non-diagnostic) - still block the use of another linguistic cue of timing. In the second essay I take the non-diagnosticity of a cue further by showing that, in the context of ethnic dining, completely incomprehensible (foreign) language on menus positively impacts people's decisions, because its presence incites intangible benefits. In the third essay, I test a different type of incomprehensible language in consumer decisions - ingredient names - and suggest that people base their decisions about such language on the associations cued by morphological structures of the name, even if the resulting beliefs are incorrect.In Essay 1 (published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General), I study how people make inferences about timing from the verb tense, and the consequences of those inferences on people's intertemporal choices. This question, is broadly, an instance of how people spontaneously incorporate information at the time of decision-making. That is, do they systematically use all the cues given to them or do they only pick a few? Across nine studies, I show that people do make inferences about timing from verb tense and that they spontaneously use verb tense when making choices, but only when there is a complete absence of other potential timing cues in the decision environment. Specifically, in studies 4a-5b, I show that using the same ambiguous timing cue (e.g., "soon), or using word pairs pretested as indistinguishable (e.g., "quickly" vs. "swiftly") in the intertemporal choice options, blocks the impact of tense on choice. Thus, in those studies, I show that the presence of even non-diagnostic linguistic information can override other information and impact choices.In Essay 2 (invited revision at Journal of Consumer Psychology), I take the idea of inferences from non-diagnostic linguistic cues further and show that even fully incomprehensible language - like the presence of foreign language unreadable by the consumer - can enhance consumer perceptions and increase preference. I use both secondary data and experiments to document the main effect. I show that, across multiple cuisines, menus that add foreign language (unfamiliar to the participants) to the food names had a higher average willingness to pay, compared to the exact same menus without the foreign language, holding constant information about the country of origin of the cuisine. Similarly, when choosing between two similar menus, people significantly preferred the one with the foreign language more than the one without, including when making consequential choices. Mediation analyses supports our theory that foreign language is beneficial because it makes the menu seem more authentic (and unique) and therefore of higher quality. Furthermore, I confirm an important boundary condition, that the effect of foreign language is strongest among people who have overall positive country and cuisine perceptions. Thus, this paper suggests that even when language does not communicate literal information, the presence of incomprehensible (but potentially meaningful) language is not ignored, but instead prompts associations that impact consumer decisions.Finally, in Essay 3, I take the idea of incomprehensible language further by testing another common domain of such language - ingredient names in product information. Specifically, I focus on the associations people make when they encounter unknown ingredient names (including equivalent names for the same substance or completely made-up names) that structurally resemble chemical-seeming vs natural-seeming words, and how that affects their choices of products. Initial findings show that people choose products with chemical-seeming ingredients in their descriptions significantly less than products with natural-seeming ingredients, even when the ingredients have the same meaning. However, the effect is more nuanced - chemical-seeming ingredients are seen as more harmful, so in situations where perceived harm is tolerated because it implies higher perceived effectiveness, products with chemical-seeming ingredients are chosen more than when not. Using a generative algorithm to create stimuli names, I also find that there are morphological structures in generated chemical-seeming names that people can recognize as "chemical" but that is not the case for generated natural-seeming words, where there are no sufficiently identifying markers. Thus, I show that people make pragmatic inferences about meaningful incomprehensible cues, when semantic meaning is not accessible. Even when people have multiple associations with those inferences, only the most important association, in the context of the current decision, impacts choice.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2024

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798379706111Subjects--Topical Terms:

571568
Language.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Consumer behaviorIndex Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

Linguistic Cues Can Affect Decision-Making in the Absence of Full Comprehension.
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In fact, some theories of pragmatic linguistics contend that if people cannot understand the literal meaning of the cue, then its presence in a decision context might not seem relevant (Sperber & Wilson 2002; Grice 1975) and hence would be ignored.In my dissertation, however, I show that people even use language cues, without full comprehension, in their decisions. In the first essay, I depict an instance of how the presence of two ambiguous timing cues - which have similar meanings, and cannot be semantically differentiated from each other (hence being non-diagnostic) - still block the use of another linguistic cue of timing. In the second essay I take the non-diagnosticity of a cue further by showing that, in the context of ethnic dining, completely incomprehensible (foreign) language on menus positively impacts people's decisions, because its presence incites intangible benefits. In the third essay, I test a different type of incomprehensible language in consumer decisions - ingredient names - and suggest that people base their decisions about such language on the associations cued by morphological structures of the name, even if the resulting beliefs are incorrect.In Essay 1 (published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General), I study how people make inferences about timing from the verb tense, and the consequences of those inferences on people's intertemporal choices. This question, is broadly, an instance of how people spontaneously incorporate information at the time of decision-making. That is, do they systematically use all the cues given to them or do they only pick a few? Across nine studies, I show that people do make inferences about timing from verb tense and that they spontaneously use verb tense when making choices, but only when there is a complete absence of other potential timing cues in the decision environment. Specifically, in studies 4a-5b, I show that using the same ambiguous timing cue (e.g., "soon), or using word pairs pretested as indistinguishable (e.g., "quickly" vs. "swiftly") in the intertemporal choice options, blocks the impact of tense on choice. Thus, in those studies, I show that the presence of even non-diagnostic linguistic information can override other information and impact choices.In Essay 2 (invited revision at Journal of Consumer Psychology), I take the idea of inferences from non-diagnostic linguistic cues further and show that even fully incomprehensible language - like the presence of foreign language unreadable by the consumer - can enhance consumer perceptions and increase preference. I use both secondary data and experiments to document the main effect. I show that, across multiple cuisines, menus that add foreign language (unfamiliar to the participants) to the food names had a higher average willingness to pay, compared to the exact same menus without the foreign language, holding constant information about the country of origin of the cuisine. Similarly, when choosing between two similar menus, people significantly preferred the one with the foreign language more than the one without, including when making consequential choices. Mediation analyses supports our theory that foreign language is beneficial because it makes the menu seem more authentic (and unique) and therefore of higher quality. Furthermore, I confirm an important boundary condition, that the effect of foreign language is strongest among people who have overall positive country and cuisine perceptions. Thus, this paper suggests that even when language does not communicate literal information, the presence of incomprehensible (but potentially meaningful) language is not ignored, but instead prompts associations that impact consumer decisions.Finally, in Essay 3, I take the idea of incomprehensible language further by testing another common domain of such language - ingredient names in product information. Specifically, I focus on the associations people make when they encounter unknown ingredient names (including equivalent names for the same substance or completely made-up names) that structurally resemble chemical-seeming vs natural-seeming words, and how that affects their choices of products. Initial findings show that people choose products with chemical-seeming ingredients in their descriptions significantly less than products with natural-seeming ingredients, even when the ingredients have the same meaning. However, the effect is more nuanced - chemical-seeming ingredients are seen as more harmful, so in situations where perceived harm is tolerated because it implies higher perceived effectiveness, products with chemical-seeming ingredients are chosen more than when not. Using a generative algorithm to create stimuli names, I also find that there are morphological structures in generated chemical-seeming names that people can recognize as "chemical" but that is not the case for generated natural-seeming words, where there are no sufficiently identifying markers. Thus, I show that people make pragmatic inferences about meaningful incomprehensible cues, when semantic meaning is not accessible. Even when people have multiple associations with those inferences, only the most important association, in the context of the current decision, impacts choice.
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