The Effects of Time Constraints on Consumers' Judgments of Prices and Products

This article examines how time constraints influence consumers' product evaluations over different levels of price information. To understand the effects of time constraints (time pressure), a conceptual framework incorporating both the motivational and the resource effects of time constraints on consumers' information processing is developed. Using price as the attribute information to be evaluated, specific hypotheses about the effects of time constraints on the relationship between price and consumers' perceptions of quality and monetary sacrifice are proposed. The results of a replicated experiment show that perceptions of quality and monetary sacrifice exhibit different response patterns depending on the time constraints, price levels, and subjects' motivations to process information. Additional analyses provide insights into how these two perceptions are integrated to form perceptions of value. Copyright 2003 by the University of Chicago.