The effect of past behavior on variety seeking: Automatic and deliberative influences

Consumers often make multiple purchases of products to use over a period of time. In doing so, they sometimes choose their most preferred option for use on each occasion. In other cases, however, they are likely to distribute their choices over several alternatives. These decision strategies could be applied either deliberately or spontaneously without awareness of the factors that give rise to their application. Three studies examined the conditions in which these spontaneous and deliberative processes exert an influence on variety seeking.