'5' Calories Or 'Low' Calories? What Do We Know About Using Numbers Or Words to Describe Products and Where Do We Go From Here?

Marketing information about products is often conveyed by providing numerical or verbal information along specific attributes. Such information is the basic input to consumer decision making that is utilized to make higher-level decisions. This paper reviews empirical work on numerical and verbal information with the aim of synthesizing past research in terms of what we know and where we go from here. In keeping with this goal, the review of empirical research is organized in terms of different elements of decision making, specifically, information search, comparisons, memory, and evaluations. Details on the empirical design of each study reviewed here are provided to enable comparisons across studies. Insights drawn from each area are synthesized in a discussion of theoretical implications and future research directions in terms of dimensions along which numerical and verbal information differ and the impact of ability and motivation to process information.