Fang-Chi Lu wants to know how you see the world. To find out, she asks how you perceive a group of geometric shapes. [Have relevant photo of a sketch she drew illustrating these figures adjacent to text]

What is your first impression when you see this: squares or a triangle? (You can’t answer both.)

If you primarily see it as squares, you’re a concrete thinker. If your first impression is, “That’s a triangle,” then you’re an abstract thinker, says Lu.

Applying insights from social psychology to consumer behavior, Lu studies mindsets— or the preferences and assumptions that make up our world views, and how they influence our decision-making processes.

While Lu constantly reads articles in her field to find research gaps that help her generate research ideas, she also observes her own behavior and the behavior of friends.

“Sometimes, perhaps when you are out shopping or wandering around, you start wondering, ‘Oh, why did I make that decision? Why did I behave this way?’” Lu says.

A Ph.D. candidate in marketing and Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Year Fellowship recipient, Lu examines how our mindsets influence consideration sets, or the array of possibilities we consider when making a decision. She theorizes that people with concrete mindsets tend to track through more detail in decision-making processes. As a result, she believes they will consider more options when making a purchase.

For example, let’s say you decide to buy a car because the one you are driving is too old and worn down. Lu breaks down the thought process that goes into such a purchase. From that initial need, more specific needs are considered, such as the number of people in the household—if you have a large family, perhaps you are in the market for an SUV. Then, Lu says, you consider what brands on the market can fulfill those needs.

“That’s why I say consideration sets—you’re searching for information, and whether the available brands can fulfill those needs,” says Lu. “You come up with alternatives, some potential brands to fulfill the needs, and those are the brands you consider. At that stage, you compare the alternatives and come up with your final decision.”

She contends that the final purchase selection is made from that limited field of brands—the brands that were part of the consumer’s initial consideration set. Lu says her study results indicate that concrete thinkers tend to have larger consideration sets than abstract thinkers.

To test this hypothesis, Lu asked her study participants to complete additional tasks. Having already segmented the group into concrete and abstract thinkers, Lu found that people with concrete mindsets, when given a certain word, can generate more associated words, compared with people with abstract mindsets. Concrete thinkers also think more about contextual details. “Those details can serve as retrieval cues to help them recall certain brands,” says Lu.

This data helps Lu observe the effects of mindset and memory on decision-making processes. Her research indicates that the mindset used for a previous, unrelated task can influence what one does during the following task. She believes her research will be useful for marketers. “They may want to create a context to stimulate a certain mindset—abstract versus concrete—which will in turn influence the alternatives consumers consider.”

Leading brands usually have stronger associations in consumer’s minds, Lu says.

“Marketers might want a consumer to use an abstract mindset when they make decisions,” says Lu, “because the leading brand will always pop up first and they will not think of any others.”

But if consumers are in a concrete mindset, they think of more considerations, and the leading brand is less likely to be chosen. “If they start thinking more concretely, a lot of noise comes to mind. There are too many choices, and they all look good,” says Lu. “And you will end up with indecision.”