This might seem intuitively obvious—and Carlson School marketing professor Joan Meyers-Levy suspects that it is something retailers have a fuzzy sense of, though she couldn’t find any research on it: Ceiling height affects not only the way people feel, but the way they think, and it can influence their point-of-purchase decisions.
Meyers-Levy and a colleague at the University of British Columbia have published their research on this topic in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. What they found is that the expected did happen with their study subjects—i.e, a high ceiling brought to mind thoughts related to freedom, and a low ceiling triggered thoughts related to confinement. But beyond that, once “primed,” those thoughts affected the way subjects processed information.
“A high ceiling encourages us to engage in more abstract thinking, where we may see connections between things that are not highly salient, whereas a low ceiling causes us to focus more on detail,” Meyers-Levy says.
So, presented with a rack of sale-priced merchandise, a shopper with lots of space overhead may be more likely to “go with” the situation, she says, and make a purchase—feeling good about seizing opportunity, and seeing serendipitous ties between an item on the rack and personal interests, plans, or values. Under a lower ceiling, that same shopper could be more inclined to question whether 10 percent off is really a good deal, whether the item is truly needed, and whether the pockets are big enough.
Meyers-Levy says there’s no right way to design a retail environment, it all depends on what a company’s approach to consumers is. A low ceiling will focus them on problem solving and product features; a high ceiling will complement marketing and merchandising that evoke a mood or theme and a consumer’s sense of identity.
While she’s had inquiries about her work from architects who design retail settings, Meyers-Levy says she’s already thinking about other applications of her research: How might ceiling height affect healing, the consumer experience, and marketing in health care?
