Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
The effects of imagined versus actual ease of self-generating product-related information were investigated. An ad invited recipients to name either one reason or 10 reasons for (against) choosing a BMW over a Mercedes. Participants who complied with the task experienced the retrieval of one reason as easier than the retrieval of 10 reasons. Participants who did not comply nevertheless imagined the former as easier than the latter. Independent of whether ease was actually experienced or merely imagined participants evaluated BMW more (less) favorably and Mercedes less (more) favorably when the retrieval was easy rather than difficult. Copyright 1997 by the University of Chicago.
Wänke et al. (Mon,) studied this question.