Chronological cues and consumers’ preference for mere newness

Chronological cues are ubiquitous in retail settings, whether they come the form of production, release, on-shelf, or purchase dates, etc. Yet, remain relatively underexplored marketing literature. Could newness that arises from these chronological lead consumers to prefer options merely because newer, above and beyond any substantive benefits conferred implied by newness? We propose find a series eight preregistered studies (n= 2,216) exhibit mere preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer over older with no newness. provide evidence overgeneralization is one important driver preference: Most hold positive (negative) associations (oldness) an implicit association test, reduced domains which opposite exists. Consequently, willing pay premium even for