Abstract:

This article investigates the influence of product density on consumers’ product evaluation and the roles of social identity inference and mall image within this relationship from the perspective of cognitive view of metaphor. We postulated that the product density influences consumers’ judgment. Results of Five studies indicate that product density negatively influenced consumer evaluation on a product, the higher the product density, the lower the consumers’ evaluation on the product. Besides, Social identity inference mediated the relationship between product density and product evaluation. Specially, product density influenced consumers’ evaluation toward a product through consumers’ perception of social identity level inference(high vs low). Furthermore, mall image moderated the relationship between product density and consumers evaluation on a product. Consumers normally prefer the low density display method.

Key words: product density, social identity, mall image, product evaluation