Patterns of Hedonic Consumption Over Time

Two experiments investigated whether individuals choose to listen to songs that maximize their enjoyment on each trial (local maximization) or across the sequence of trials (global maximization). In Study 1, participants made repeated choices between one liked song and one disliked song. In Study 2, participants made repeated choices between a liked song and two less-preferred songs. Participants' choices and ratings indicate that they did not maximize locally. In both studies, participants switched to the less-preferred songs before their ratings of the favored songs had declined to the level of the less-preferred songs. Additionally, in Study 2, more participants chose their favorite song on a given trial when it was the last trial of the block than when the block was expected to continue. This indicates that participants who did not choose the favored song in the latter case were not maximizing locally. That individuals continued to choose variety even at the very end of the experiments also suggests that they were not maximizing globally. Thus, the present studies suggest the intriguing possibility that participants' variety seeking did not reflect local or global maximization. Implications for variety seeking are discussed.