The Sources and Consequences of the Fluent Processing of Numbers

Consumers often like fluently processed stimuli. The authors find that one source of fluency for numerical stimuli is the generation of a number through common addition (e.g., 1 + 1 through 10 + 10) and common multiplication (2 × 2 through 10 × 10) problems (study 1). Common addition and multiplication problems (arithmetic), or their operands, can be used to prime a number and increase its fluency (study 3). The benefits of arithmetic and operand primes are limited to single primes (i.e., more primes are not necessarily better) (Study 5). Number fluency is relevant to creating numeric brand names (Study 2), enhancing the liking of numeric brand names through advertising (Study 4), and executing price promotions (Study 6).