Antecedents and Consequences of Creativity and Beauty Judgements in Consumer Products

The literature in consumer psychology has tended to lack a clear separation between theoretical models of creativity and beauty evaluations of products. The present study examined whether creativity and beauty affected willingness to pay jointly or separately. In three experiments using paintings, wrist watches and designer lamps as stimuli, the present study shows how creativity and beauty both positively influence consumer willingness-to-pay for the product, but each explains different parts of the variance. Further, product complexity differentially affects consumer judgments of creativity and beauty. The results show that it is essential to develop separate models of creativity and beauty evaluations in consumer psychology, in that they seem to be distinct factors, explaining different parts of the variance in their consequences on willingness to pay, and are affected differentially by antecedent factors, such as complexity.