Novel products present unknown opportunities as well as unknown risks. Past research suggested that low psychological control highlights risks and reduces the adoption of novel products. Consistent with a situated cognition perspective, we show that this depends on the specifics of low control. Across five studies, novelty seeking was lower after consumers thought about instances of low (vs. high) personal influence, but higher after consumers thought about instances of low (vs. high) predictability of the world. Thinking about a lack of personal influence increased the perceived importance of personal capability and in turn impaired the exploration of novel options, whereas thinking about an unpredictable world increased the perceived importance of preparedness for an unknown future and in turn the exploration of novel options. Throughout, perceiving low personal influence benefited familiar products, whereas seeing the world as unpredictable benefited novel products. This highlights that understanding consumers' responses to a lack of control requires joint consideration of the specifics of threat and task, consistent with situated cognition principles.

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新奇作为机会和风险：心理控制和新奇寻求的情境认知分析

新产品带来未知的机会和未知的风险。过去的研究表明，低心理控制会突出风险并减少新产品的采用。与情境认知观点一致，我们表明这取决于低控制的具体情况。在五项研究中，消费者在考虑个人影响力低（相对于高）的情况后，寻求新奇的程度较低，但在消费者考虑到世界可预测性低（相对于高）的情况后，寻求新奇的程度较高。考虑缺乏个人影响会增加个人能力的重要性，进而损害对新选择的探索，而考虑不可预测的世界增加了为未知未来做好准备的重要性，进而增加了对新选择的探索。始终，认为个人影响力低有利于熟悉的产品，而将世界视为不可预测的有利于新产品。这突出表明，了解消费者对缺乏控制的反应需要联合考虑威胁和任务的细节，这与情境认知原则一致。