If You Stand in the Checkout Line of Any Discount

question 169

Multiple Choice

If you stand in the checkout line of any discount store, you'll see a very odd assortment of items on display: disposable razors, batteries, ballpoint pens, playing cards, trail mix, USB drives, and so on. Retailers call these items "impulse buys," meaning that although people may not come to the store looking for cards, pens, or trail mix, when they see them near the checkout, they'll buy them. An attitude researcher might say that people buy these items because __________.

• A) consumers' attitudes toward such utilitarian items are emotionally based
• B) these items reflect people's social identity concerns, so they will deliberate quickly about whether to purchase them
• C) attitudes toward these items may be highly accessible
• D) intentions are relatively unimportant when people engage in deliberative behaviors like purchases

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Definitions:

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which the consequences of behavior are manipulated so as to increase or decrease the frequency of an existing response or to shape an entirely new response.

Dishonest Coworker

A colleague who lacks integrity and honesty, possibly engaging in deception or fraud in the workplace.

Cognitive Dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time.

World-Will-End

A concept often associated with apocalyptic beliefs regarding the ultimate fate of the world.