Abstract: We report a study designed to examine how spatial distance interacts with product attributes to influence consumer selection preference. In the preliminary experiment, we asked Chinese participants to rate the attractiveness and importance of certain attributes that potato chips might have. Thus, we obtained descriptions of two brands of potato chips which had comparable overall attractiveness. One brand had more attractive alignable attributes, whereas the other brand had more attractive nonalignable attributes. In Experiment 1, we examined how the egocentric spatial distance and product attributes interact to influence consumer preference. The results revealed that the egocentric spatial distance between the participants and each brand of potato chips did not influence their selection preference. In Experiment 2, we examined how the allocentric spatial distance and product attributes interact to influence consumer preference. The results revealed that consumers had a higher preference on the brand which had more attractive nonalignable attributes, when the spatial distance between the two brands of potato chips increased. Taken together, these results demonstrated that emphasizing the allocentric distance between two products might highlight the difference between them, and therefore increase consumer′s usage of nonalignable attributes in their selection process.

Key words: spatial distance, product attributes, consumer selection preferences, psychological distance.

摘要： 通过两个实验检验空间距离如何影响消费者选择偏好。实验一中，产品与消费者之间的空间距离不影响他们对不可匹配属性更优产品的偏好。实验二中，两种产品之间的空间距离与产品属性交互作用影响了消费者的选择偏好，使他们在两产品之间空间距离远时比近时更偏好不可匹配属性更优产品。两种不同类型的空间距离对消费者选择偏好的影响是不同的。强调两产品之间的空间距离远，会影响消费者在选择过程中对不可匹配属性的使用。

关键词: 空间距离, 产品属性, 选择偏好, 心理距离。