A paradox exists in our understanding of consumer psychology and behavior. There is a strong positive relationship between familiarity and liking that resides at the core of consumer psychology and behavior (e.g., Monahan, Murphy, & Zajonc, 2000; Monin, 2003; Monin & Oppenheimer, 2005; Zajonc, 1968; 2001). Yet, consumer also prefer novelty (e.g., Bornstein, Kale, & Cornell, 1990; Gillebaart, Förster, & Rotteveel, 2012; Rubera & Kirca, 2012; Talke, Salomo, Wieringa, & Lutz, 2009). For instance, they favor brands more after repeated exposure (Fang, Singh, & Ahluwalia, 2007; Ferraro, Bettman, & Chartrand, 2009), but excessive exposure results in satiation and boredom (Bornstein et al., 1990). Similarly, consumers are both neophiliacs and neophobics who hold a dualistic tendency to approach and avoid innovations, respectively (for a review, see van Trijp & van Kleef, 2008). In fact, recent research on the psychology of familiarity failed to coincide on whether people prefer familiarity or novelty (Norton, Frost, & Ariely, 2011; 2013; Norton et al., 2007; Reis, Maniaci, Caprariello, Eastwick, & Finkel, 2011; Ullrich, Krueger, Brod, & Groschupf, 2013). In this theoretical paper, we propose that a missing piece to this paradox is our understanding of people’s affective motivations to approach novelty. Interest is an emotion that motivates people’s curiosity to approach novel, complex, but not necessarily pleasant stimuli (e.g., Turner & Silvia, 2006). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relevance of interest to our understanding of consumer psychology and behavior. Specifically, liking (contentment and joy) motivates people to favor familiarity, whereas interest motivates consumers to favor novelty. Specifically we use an appraisal theory perspective to differentiate the emotional and motivational quality of interest from liking (contentment and joy). Furthermore, we show how interest and its related appraisal may explain the boundary conditions of the familiarity-liking association that are not yet explained in the existing literature. Practical and theoretical implications of the differentiation between the familiarity-liking and interest-novelty association in consumer psychology and marketing are discussed.

• Billy Sung(Curtin University, Australia)
• Eric Vanman(University of Queensland, Australia)
• Nicole Hartley(University of Queensland, Australia)