Health & Fitness - Anticipation is better than getting there

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Anticipation is better than getting there

KENT RIDGE, Singapore (UPI) -- The sweet taste of success is made even sweeter with the anticipation of waiting, researchers in Singapore and Hong Kong found.

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found winners enjoy waiting to discover what they've won.

The researchers conducted two studies in which participants played and won simulated lucky-draw games. Some learned immediately what their prizes were; others were told they had won something from a pool of prizes.

"We find that consumers will be more delighted after winning a lucky draw when they do not know immediately the exact prize they will receive than when they do," Yih Hwai Lee of National University of Singapore and Cheng Qiu of the University of Hong Kong said in a statement.

The researchers said prize winners enjoyed imagining using the potential prizes and such "virtual consumption" prolonged positive feelings and made them receptive to marketing messages.

Participants who got clues about the nature of the possible prizes -- such as knowing it was an electronic product -- responded even more favorably. They also favored sensory-stimulating prizes that were capable of eliciting mental imagery such as chocolates or aroma therapy candles.

However, functional items like cutlery and digital clocks failed to stimulate, the study said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 06/20/2009

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