2006, p. 1054). I said to myself 'if I had a new car, I would have less car problems.' While my parents had always judged the value of a car based upon its price and resale value, my interpretation of my own memory and experiences was slightly different, which colored my decision-making about purchasing a new car: I recalled having to have my used car towed late at night, because it had broken down on a highway.
The more I thought about the subject, the more inductive rather than deductive reasoning came to dominate my decision-making. I used data from the immediate market environment and my personal experiences. 'Anchoring' is market phenomenon that describes the tendency to make the same or similar decisions, based upon previous decisions that yielded positive rewards, but in my case, the anchoring effect was relatively low regarding a used car (Hoeffler et al. 2006, p.216).
Personality is also an influence: my parents tend to be very number-driven regarding the purchase of cars. I am more interested in other components, like quality and design. However, while my evidence began to tip towards buying a new car, after contemplating this evidence, when the concrete decision came to be made, I began to feel a bit 'gun shy' about the prospect of spending a very large amount of money on a new car. While emotional sensory components of driving a new car, such as its appearance might have held sway during the beginning parts of my research, the desire for an attractive and perfectly reliable car began to be outweighed by the reality of expensive car payments.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I decided to wait a bit longer before buying a new car, despite some tempting offers on the market. Regarding the 'reliability' factor, I reminded myself that even a relatively new car is not problem-free. I also might find myself more stressed...
"Consumers conceive of their shopping goals in different stages… they think about their goals initially in more general and abstract terms and later in more specific and concrete terms" (Lee & Ariely 2006, p.202).
At first, my approach to car buying was deductive -- simply following the principle, 'never buy a new car.' Then I adopted a more inductive approach. However, once I had a complete array of factual information at my disposal, I finally arrived at the same conclusion I had begun with deductively. But overall, I am glad I proceeded through these decision-making steps, as I feel more certain of my decision, even though I arrived at the same conclusion.
References
Amir, on & Dan Ariely (2007) Decisions by rules: The case of unwillingness to pay for beneficial delays. Journal of Marketing Research, XLIV, 142-152.
Retrieved April 30, 2010 at http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/Rules.pdf
Hoeffler, Steve Dan Ariely, & Pat West (2006) Path dependent preferences.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101(2) 215 -- 229.
Retrieved April 30, 2010 at http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/path.pdf
Lee, Leonard & Dan Ariely (2006) Shopping goals, goal concreteness, and conditional promotions. Journal of Consumer Research, 33, 60-70. Retrieved April 30, 2010 at http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/ShopGoals.pdf
Lee, Leonard, Shane Frederick & Dan Ariely (2006) "Try it, you'll like it: The influence of expectation, consumption, and revelation on preferences for beer." Psychological
Science, 17. (12) 1054-1058. Retrieved April 30, 2010 at http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/Beer.pdf
