Effects of Temperature and Social Density on Consumer Choices with Multiple Options

Environmental contexts, like temperature and social density, can influence consumers’ decision making considerably. Although previous research established a bidirectional link between temperature and social proximity, it examined temperature and social density’s downstream consequences in isolation, neglecting possible interaction effects. Moreover, the research produced conflicting results (e.g., on preferences for premium products), suggesting fit effects and compensatory effects. We address this research gap in a preregistered experiment with an orthogonal design on temperature and social density, and expand research on temperature and social density’s downstream consequences by measuring preferences for products with different premium, innovativeness, safety, scarcity, or uniqueness levels. Building on previous research, we hypothesize that temperature and social density have similar effects, but find they have distinct effects. Specifically, the interaction effect for safety and premium products indicates that under cold or neutral temperature conditions high tier choices increase when social density is high, but not under warm conditions—suggesting that warmth has an attenuating effect. Furthermore, choices for high tier innovative products profit from cold and low social density primes, whereas the results for scarce and unique products are inconclusive. These findings suggest that temperature and social density have complex product-category-specific consequences and require follow-up research.