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Positive Moods Can Encourage Inertial Decision Making: Evidence from Eye-Tracking Data

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Information Systems and Neuroscience

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 32))

Abstract

We examine whether emotion can encourage inertial decision making, which is an emergent research topic in online shopping. Based on the information processing view, inertia is conceptualized as a decision process that involves repeated usage of a similar effortless information search pattern across multiple problems, and we propose that this conceptualization can be quantified using an eye-movement index based on the string-editing algorithm. We then examine whether positive moods, which have been shown to increase impulsive shopping, may promote inertia. Subjects, who either received positive moods priming or calculation (mood-suppressing) priming, participated in an eye-tracking experiment with multi-attribute decision tasks presented in a web map format like the Google Maps. The results showed that positive moods increased process inertia. We conclude that inertia can be quantified according to the information processing view, and that happy consumers tend to repeatedly use an effortless information search pattern to evaluate multiple products.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Yu-feng Huang & Feng-yang Kuo

Authors
  1. Yu-feng Huang
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  2. Feng-yang Kuo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu-feng Huang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences (ISQS), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Fred D. Davis

  2. University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Oberösterreich, Austria

    René Riedl

  3. Department of Information Systems, University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Jan vom Brocke

  4. Department of Information Technology, HEC Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Pierre-Majorique Léger

  5. Department of Information Systems, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA

    Adriane Randolph

  6. Department for Digital Business, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Oberösterreich, Austria

    Thomas Fischer

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Huang, Yf., Kuo, Fy. (2020). Positive Moods Can Encourage Inertial Decision Making: Evidence from Eye-Tracking Data. In: Davis, F., Riedl, R., vom Brocke, J., Léger, PM., Randolph, A., Fischer, T. (eds) Information Systems and Neuroscience. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28144-1_25

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