Title: Is “Medium” Better than “50”? How Numeric and Descriptive Feedback Formats Influence Consumer Judgments and Behavior

题目:“中等”是否优于“50”？数值与描述性反馈形式如何影响消费者判断与行为

时间: 2026年3月13日上午8:30-9:30

地点:  管理科研楼第二教室

主讲人: Lu Fang, Ph.D. candidate in Marketing, School of Business and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Bio:

Lu Fang is a Ph.D. candidate in Marketing at the School of Business and Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She was a visiting scholar at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. Her research focuses on consumer behavior in emerging technology platforms, including how consumers interpret quantification feedback from digital devices such as smartwatches, as well as how they infer the motivations of older individuals in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces and decide whether to engage with them commercially. Lu adopts a multi-method approach in her research, including lab experiments, machine learning, and eye-tracking. She has presented her work at leading conferences such as ACR, SCP, and SJDM. She is an AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow (The Ohio State University, 2025).

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Abstract: 

Modern technological interfaces frequently offer feedback and forecasts expressed in terms of magnitudes on scales. For example, your smartwatch might rate your sleep quality as “90,” or a dating app might rate your prospective match as “excellent.” Bridging research on information interpretation and scale design, this research examines how different formats of magnitude communication—numeric versus descriptive—elicit distinct responses to objectively identical feedback. Across six pre-registered studies, we demonstrate that numeric (vs. descriptive) feedback prompts higher comparisons with the right (vs. left) end of the scale, leading to behavioral intentions that reflect more cautious considerations. This feedback format effect is robust across different feedback designs and decision-making contexts. As hypothesized, numeric (vs. descriptive) feedback leads to higher intentions to sleep earlier for an upcoming meeting, lower willingness to book a sea-view hotel in case of rain, reduced willingness to befriend people online, and lower stock price predictions—all reflecting more negative evaluations of the focal feedback and more cautious behavior.