I Will Like It Later But Not Now: The Roles of Temporal Distance and Guilt in Hedonic Product Evaluation

Abstract

How and why does temporal distance influence consumers evaluation of future hedonic consumption? Drawing upon the construal level theory, we propose that guilt is a lower-level construal than hedonic pleasure and

becomes salient in the immediate versus distant consumption. As such, we hypothesize that consumers evaluate future hedonic consumption less positively as temporal distance becomes smaller. We find that temporal distance influences product evaluation when the product is framed as a hedonic option, but not when it is framed as a utilitarian one (study 1). The effect of

temporal distance is mediated by anticipated guilt (study 2).