A second pathway by which fluency might affect buying decisions is via an affect-as-information heuristic. At least partially,
consumer choice is frequently related to affect. That is, consumers often buy what they like and reject what they do not like. Though the present study is not concerned with preference judgments explicitly, Reber et al. (1998) showed that perceptual fluency is affectively positive and selectively enhances positive (but not negative) judgments. In the context of non-preference buying, feeling good might be judged as having previously determined that a price was acceptable. In this sense, the process is identical to the familiarity prediction; familiarity feels good. However, for enhanced conceptual fluency, Lee and Labroo (2004 – Study 4) demonstrated that it does not necessarily follow that enhanced conceptual fluency leads to positive judgments in a product evaluation task even if the actual processing fluency aspect itself is experienced positively. In their study, Lee and Labroo used a negatively valenced conceptual prime (Lice Shampoo) and demonstrated reduced product evaluations of a low familiarity brand of conditioner relative to evaluation of a control product (alkaline batteries). In other words, it is possible that enhanced processing fluency can also be associated with
not buying.