Connecting cognition and consumer choice

•Cognitive theories benefit from engagement with pragmatic settings such as consumer choice.•Individual consumer choices affect the consumers themselves as well as social conditions like the economy and environment.•Cognitive models can describe and improve choices with appropriate interventions.•Cognitive science can benefit from large data sets collected in realistic environments that have increasing control.•Roles of context, representation, and learning in decision making can be better identified by examining consumer choice.

We describe what can be gained from connecting cognition and consumer choice by discussing two contexts ripe for interaction between the two fields. The first—context effects on choice—has already been addressed by cognitive science yielding insights about cognitive process but there is promise for more interaction. The second is learning and representation in choice where relevant theories in cognitive science could be informed by consumer choice, and in return, could pose and answer new questions. We conclude by discussing how these two fields of research stand to benefit from more interaction, citing examples of how interfaces of cognitive science with other fields have been illuminating for theories of cognition.