Journal of Consumer Research
Highlights from Two Years Ago
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Of Chameleons and Consumption:
The Impact of Mimicry on Choice and Preferences
Robin J. Tanner
Rosellina Ferraro
Tanya L. Chartrand
James R. Bettman
Rick Van Baaren
What is the effect of mimicry on consumer product consumption and appraisal? In the mimicking consumer path, individuals automatically mimic the consumption behaviors of other people and such mimicry then affects preferences toward the product(s) consumed. In the mimicked consumer path, being mimicked leads to increased prosociality, which affects preferences for products presented in dyadic interactions. Three studies confirm the two paths and suggest that mimicry can indeed influence product preferences.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/522322
Selected Media Mentions
United Press International
Human mimicry influences consumption
CBC News
Monkey see, monkey do: mimicking influences consumer behaviours, study says
EurekAlert!
Chameleons and copycats: How mimicry affects interpersonal persuasion
Science Daily
Chameleons and copycats: How mimicry affects interpersonal persuasion
Thaindian News
Mimicry may boost your salesmanship
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Does Touch Affect Taste? The Perceptual Transfer
of Product Container Haptic Cues
Aradhna Krishna
Maureen Morrin
The authors develop a conceptual framework regarding the perceptual transfer of haptic or touch-related characteristics from product containers to judgments of the products themselves. Thus, the firmness of a cup in which water is served may affect consumer judgments of the water itself. This framework predicts that not all consumers are equally affected by such nondiagnostic haptic cues. Consumers high in the autotelic need for touch (general liking for haptic input) are less affected by such nondiagnostic haptic cues compared to consumers low in the autotelic need for touch. The research has many implications for product and package design.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/523286
Selected Media Mentions
The Times (London)
Beaker people
Medical News Today
Study Finds That How A Container Feels Can Affect Taste
EurekAlert!
Does touch affect flavor? Study finds that how a container feels can affect taste
Science Daily
Does Touch Affect Flavor? Study Finds That How A Container Feels Can Affect Taste
Thaindian News
Indian researcher shows most people do judge a drink by its container
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The Effect of Temporal Frame on Information Considered in New Product Evaluation:
The Role of Uncertainty
Susan Jung Grant
Alice M. Tybout
How does presenting a new product launch as occurring in the future versus the past affect the information used to evaluate the product? When a launch is described as a future event, marketplace conditions and characteristics of the sponsoring company receive consideration, and both types of information influence evaluations. However, with a past launch, only sponsor information receives consideration and guides evaluations. This temporal frame effect is attenuated when certainty is primed, implying that the uncertainty associated with the future versus the past motivates more comprehensive use of available information in the future.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/527342
Selected Media Mentions
Guardian.co.uk
Why Apple's secretive approach is so effective
CBC News
People do less research on already launched products: study
EurekAlert!
Coming soon in fall 2008: People do less research on products that have already launched
PhysOrg.com
Coming soon in fall 2008: People do less research on products that have already launched
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Conscious and Nonconscious Components
of Superstitious Beliefs in Judgment
and Decision Making
Thomas Kramer
Lauren Block
Despite the large impact that superstitious beliefs have on the marketplace, currently very little is known about their implications for consumer judgment and decision making. The authors document the existence of the influence of superstitious beliefs on consumer behavior and specify their conscious and nonconscious underlying properties. Superstitious beliefs have a robust influence on product satisfaction and decision making under risk. However, these effects are only observed when superstitious beliefs are allowed to work nonconsciously. Using a process-dissociation task, the authors further demonstrate the distinct conscious versus nonconscious components of the effect of superstition on decision making under risk.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/523288
Selected Media Mentions
CBC News
Lucky you: superstitions affect consumer choices
EurekAlert!
Are you feeling lucky? How superstition impacts consumer choice
Science Daily
Are You Feeling Lucky? How Superstition Impacts Consumer Choice
Thaindian News
Superstition influences decision making: Study
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Social Capital Production in a Virtual P3 Community
Charla Mathwick
Caroline Wiertz
Ko de Ruyter
What are the relational norms that determine social capital (an intangible resource embedded in and accumulated through a specific social structure)? The social structure examined is a virtual community created through text-based conversations oriented toward peer-to-peer problem solving (P3). Empirical results support the conceptualization of social capital as an index composed of the normative influences of voluntarism, reciprocity, and social trust. Membership length was found to moderate the virtual P3 community experience. Qualitative analysis of the community dialog provides additional support for the characterization of virtual P3 activity as community based.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/523291
Selected Media Mentions
EurekAlert!
Online technical support forums build social capital
Science Daily
Online Technical Support Forums Build Social Capital
PhysOrg.com
Online Technical Support Forums Build Social Capital
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Technology/Ideology: How Ideological Fields Influence Consumers' Technology Narratives
Robert V. Kozinets
How do technology ideologies influence consumer-level thought, speech, and action? Applying critical discourse analysis and articulation theory approaches, a semiotic square model represents the relations between Techtopian, Green Luddite, Work Machine, and Techspressive ideological elements in an ideological field. The narratives of individual consumers move between ideological elements in ways suggested by the model's semantic relations. The results reveal novel aspects of consumers' dynamic relations to technology ideology and invite further investigations of technology and consumption ideology.
Volume 34, Number 6, April 2008, DOI: 10.1086/523289
Selected Media Mentions
EurekAlert!
From Green Luddite to Techspressive: The ideology of consumer technology
Science Daily
From Green Luddite to Techspressive: The ideology of consumer technology
PhysOrg.com
From Green Luddite to Techspressive: The ideology of consumer technology
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