PhD Conferral Mrs. Vera M. Bossel, MA

Keywords: processing fluency, product preference, consumption patterns

“The Fluent Story; A Multi Story; A Multi-Method Investigations of the Processing Fluency Effect”

The dissertation is focused on processing fluency, a subconscious phenomenon in perception psychology which states that when information is easy to process (e.g. a label on a bottle in a clear font) we like that product more (e.g. the drink), because it is so easy to process. Conducting a meta-analysis, the dissertation found that there are five distinct forms of processing fluency (e.g. perceptual fluency, motor fluency, etc.). By investigating consumption patterns of respondents in a laboratory experiment, the dissertation found that a fluent logo results in an increased consumption, whereas a disfluent logo reduces consumption. However, if the food item is luxurious the effect flips.