MANOJ THOMAS

Manoj Thomas

My research examines the psychological processes that underlie consumer behavior. Current research projects can be grouped under two streams:

Nonconscious Influences in Price Cognition How do we judge whether a price is low or high? To answer this question, my research examines how numbers are represented in the mind, what kinds of cognitive strategies are used to transcode these representations to analog magnitudes, and the implications of these representations and strategies for price cognition. Our mind relies on several heuristic processes in magnitude judgments, and these heuristics cause interesting anomalies such as the left-digit anchoring effect (Thomas & Morwitz 2005), the precision effect (Thomas, Simon & Kadiyali, in press), and the ease of computation effect (Thomas & Morwitz 2009). These nonconscious heuristics influence buyer behavior even in high involvement transactions such as real estate purchases.

Role of Metacognitive Inferences in Judgments Our judgments are influenced not only by our thoughts, but also by the ease or difficulty experienced during the process of thinking. For example, the cognitive difficulty experienced during retrieving a reference price from memory can influence price sensitivity, and this effect is independent of the magnitude of the reference price (Thomas & Menon 2007). Difficulty experienced while estimating a budget can influence accuracy of budget estimates (Ulkumen, Thomas & Morwitz 2008). These studies demonstrate the role of spontaneous metacognitive inferences in consumers’ judgments.

Journal Articles_____________________________________________________________

§ Thomas, Manoj, Daniel Simon and Vrinda Kadiyali (forthcoming), “The Price Precision Effect: Evidence from Laboratory and Market Data,” Marketing Science. [PDF] [Web appendix]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2009), “The Ease of Computation Effect: The Interplay of Metacognitive Experiences and Naïve Theories in Judgments of Price Difference.” Journal of Marketing Research, 46 (February), 81-91. [PDF]

§ Ülkümen, Gülden, Manoj Thomas and Vicki G. Morwitz (2008), “Will I Spend More in 12 Months or a Year? The Effect of Ease of Estimation and Confidence on Budget Estimates.” Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (August), 245-256. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Geeta Menon (2007), "When Internal Reference Prices and Price Expectations Diverge: The Role of Confidence," Journal of Marketing Research, 44 (August), 401-409. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2005), "Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: The Left Digit Effect in Price Cognition," Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (June), p.54-64. [PDF]

Book Chapter_______________________________________________________________

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2009), “Heuristics in Numerical Cognition: Implications for Pricing,” in Handbook of Research in Pricing, Vithala Rao, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 132-149.[PDF]

Other Publications___________________________________________________________

§ Thomas, Manoj (2008), “Encoding, Remembering, and Using Numeric Information: Implications for Pricing,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 36, 184-87. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj (2007), “The Role of Metacognition in Consumers’ Judgments,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 34, 28-30. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2005), “A Penny Saved,” Stern Business, Fall/Winter, 20-23.

§ Thomas, Manoj, Sucharita Chandran and Yaacov Trope (2005), “Distance Lends Structure to the View: Temporal Construal and Value Perceptions,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 32, 182-184. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Geeta Menon (2005), “Effects of Repetition on Price Comparison Process,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 32, 72-74. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2005), “Holistic Versus Digital Models of Multi-Digit Numerical Comparison,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 32, 445-448. [PDF]

§ Thomas, Manoj and Vicki G. Morwitz (2004), “Effects of Framing on Magnitude Perceptions of Prices,” Advances in Consumer Research, Vol 31, 454-456.