Order or disorder: The matching effect between display order and product attribute*

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.01448

Abstract

Abstract:

This study proposes the existence of two types of naive beliefs among humans: the “natural = disorder” and “artificial = order” beliefs. The former suggests that objects created by nature are inherently scattered and disorderly, while the latter proposes that objects created by humans are inherently neat and organized. An implicit attitude test provides evidence that natural attributes are associated with disorder, while artificial attributes are associated with order. Consequently, people tend to associate natural products with disorderly displays and artificial products with orderly displays. Furthermore, these beliefs have been found to significantly impact consumer product preferences, with consumers preferring natural products in a disorderly display and artificial products in an orderly display. The effect of these beliefs on consumer preferences was mediated by processing fluency. The study also identified that the presence or absence of value cues (positive or negative) can significantly alter consumer product preferences. This research contributes to the literature on natural products and product display by identifying and exploring a previously unidentified lay theory, the natural (vs. artificial) = disorder (order) intuition.

Key words: product attributes, display order, processing fluency, consumer naive belief, valence cue

LI Bin, JIN Lai, CHEN Xiaoxi, YU Weinan, LI Aimei, DAI Xianchi. (2024). Order or disorder: The matching effect between display order and product attribute^*. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 56(10), 1448-1461.

Figures/Tables 4

Figure 1. Theoretical model.

Table 1 Proportion of matching product attributes with display order selection

Product attributes	display order		χ²
Product attributes	disorderly display	orderly display	χ²
natural product	91.1% (255)	8.9% (25)	419.08^***
artificial product	4.6% (13)	95.4% (267)

Figure 2. Product materials for Study 3.

Figure 3. The moderating role of valence cues on product preferences.
Note. *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01; n.s. indicates no significant difference.

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