The Moderating Role of Mindfulness in New Product Evaluation

Mindfulness has the potential to affect new product evaluation since consumers with a higher propensity for mindfulness are more likely to notice and accept differences between existing and new products. This research references piecemeal/category-based processing theory to study the moderating effect of individual mindfulness on information processing in the presence of product category knowledge. We find that mindfulness does not have a direct effect on processing style. However, mindfulness does moderate the relationship between product category knowledge and processing style. Understanding underlying factors during information processing provides important insights for marketers as they implement marketing strategies.