• Sela, Aner, Jonah Berger and Wendy Liu (2008), "Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice," Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

  Abstract: Research has demonstrated that assortment size can influence whether consumers make a choice, but could it also influence what they choose? Five studies demonstrate that because choosing from larger assortments is often more difficult, it leads people to select options that are easier to justify. Utilitarian necessities are generally easier to justify than indulgences, and consequently, choosing from larger assortments often shifts choice towards shoulds over wants. These effects can be reversed, however, when situational factors provide accessible reasons to indulge, underscoring the role of justification. Implications for choice difficulty, justification processes, and decision making more broadly are discussed.

• Sela, Aner and Baba Shiv (2008), "The Activation-Striving Model: Predicting Goal vs. Trait Activation," invited revision, Journal of Consumer Research.

  Abstract: Despite the growing recognition that subtle situational cues can have significant nonconscious effects on consumers’ behavior and choice, little is known about when exactly exposure to primes leads to trait activation, which is associated with temporally-diminishing behavioral effects, and when the same prime leads to goal activation, which is associated with temporally-escalating behavioral effects. An Activation-Striving model is proposed, which highlights the key role of discrepancies between the prime and the self-concept. Three studies suggest that self-consistent primes are more likely to affect consumer choice via the trait activation route, whereas self-discrepant primes are more likely to affect consumer choice via the goal activation route.

• Sela, Aner and Itamar Simonson (2008), "Perceptions of Value: The Effect of Context, Mindset, and Deliberation," under review.

  Abstract: Building on the accepted definition of value as the ratio of perceived benefits to perceived cost, this research proposes that the degree to which consumers emphasize the denominator (i.e., focus on low price as the indicator of value), as opposed to the overall benefit-to-cost ratio, depends on the interaction between consumers’ mindset, the choice context, and the tendency to deliberate. Three studies suggest that a frugal mindset can lead consumers to perceive either the low-price option or the high-price option as offering better value, depending on the choice context. Further, the moderating role of context has different implications for high- versus low-need for cognition consumers.

• "The Effect of Product Attributes on Option Choice", with Jonah Berger - In preparation for the Journal of Marketing Research

• "You and Us: Causal Effects of Language Use and Relationship Status on Consumers’ Perceptions",
  with S. Christian Wheeler - - In preparation for the Journal of Consumer Research

• "Crossing the Efficiency Frontier: Opportunity Compulsion and Misfortune Reversal", with Itamar Simonson and Ran Kivetz - Work in progress

• "Elaboration as Information: Metacognitive Evaluation of Thought Magnitude and Depth",
  with S. Christian Wheeler - Work in progress

        Email: asela@stanford.edu

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        Phone: (650) 724-4765

          Mailing address
        PhD Office,
        Stanford Graduate School of Business
        518 Memorial Way
        Stanford, CA 94305-5015