The role of implicit lay belief, SEC attributes and temporal orientation in consumer decision making

The current research extends the application of implicit theories to consumer behavior. We engage the search, experience, credence (SEC) framework to study the impact of consumer lay belief on attribute types and time orientation on the choice of a product/service. We conduct one pre-test, and three experiments to explore the key hypotheses. Our findings show that incremental (vs. entity) theorists prefer a product/service when it is positioned in terms of experience (vs. credence) over credence (vs. experience) attributes. This effect is mediated by attribute importance. The preference of entity and incremental theorists is maintained under present-time orientation. Under future-time orientation, incremental theorists still maintain their preference, but entity theorists demonstrate a preference reversal and favour the experience over credence attributes. The findings contribute to theoretical and managerial extensions of the existing literature on consumer behaviour.