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Abstract

Most studies on how people perceive a given quantity of items were conducted with visual cues exclusively and only offered spatial area based explanations, such as spatial estimation and perceptual grouping theories. This article establishes how people perceive a given quantity when only a written description is provided without any visual cues. Across two studies we show that variety decreases perceived quantity when a variety cue is given, while variety increases perceived quantity when a visual cue is not given. This is because people tend to rely heavily on spatial areas when a visual cue is present and because people are prone to confirmation bias when they are provided with no visual cues but only written descriptions. Furthermore, we highlight that quantity perception has a mediation effect on consumers’ attitude―the intention to participate in sales promotional events. Lastly, we summarize the article and discuss its contributions, implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

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