Journal of Consumer Research
May 25, 2010















































































































































































































































Contact JCR
[email protected]



JCR Home Page and
Submission Information

http://ejcr.org



Subscribe to JCR
http://bit.ly/7rbzQK



Follow JCR on TwitterFollow JCR on Twitter

http://twitter.com/JCRNEWS

Journal of Consumer Research
Highlights from Two Years Ago

Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations
in a Public Relations Crisis

Gerald J. Gorn
Yuwei Jiang
Gita Venkataramani Johar


What are the effects of "baby faces" on the trustworthiness and judgments of a company's chief executive officer in a public relations crisis? Experiment 1 demonstrates boundary conditions for the babyfaceness-honesty trait inference and its influence on company evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that trait inferences of honesty are drawn spontaneously but are corrected in the presence of situational evidence (a severe crisis) if cognitive resources are available. These babyface-trait associations underlie evaluations by reversing the babyface effect on judgments when a priming task creates associations counter to the typical babyface-unintentional harm stereotype, and when there's a situation where innocence is a liability.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/529533


Selected Media Mentions

Economic Times
'Baby-faced chief executives save face better for companies'

Los Angeles Times
Office betting pools, baby-faced CEOs and bikinis

United Press International
CEO's face shape affects crisis reaction

BusinessWeek
Would I Lie to You?

Reuters
Baby-faced bosses can help in public crises: research

Washington Post
The Face of Innocence

EurekAlert!
Saving face with a baby-face? Shape of CEO's face affects public perception

Science Daily
Saving face with a baby-face? Shape of CEO's face affects public perception

PhysOrg.com
Saving face with a baby-face? Shape of CEO's face affects public perception


The Effect of Making a Prediction
about the Outcome of a Consumption Experience
on the Enjoyment of That Experience

Naomi Mandel
Stephen M. Nowlis


Does predicting the outcome of an uncertain event enhance the enjoyment of observing that event? The current popularity of office pools, spoiler message boards, and online betting Web sites seems to suggest that the act of prediction increases enjoyment. However, consumers who make predictions about uncertain events enjoy observing those events significantly less than those who do not make predictions, despite consumer expectations to the contrary. The authors explain their results in terms of anticipated regret. In fact, removing the source of anticipated regret eliminates the negative effect of prediction on enjoyment.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/527339


Selected Media Mentions

Los Angeles Times
Office betting pools, baby-faced CEOs and bikinis

United Press International
Study: Office pools lead to unhappiness

Reuters
Office betting pools can be bad for your health: study

CBC News
Office pool thrills quickly turn into game of regret: study

EurekAlert!
All bets are off: Office pools lead to unhappiness

Science Daily
All bets are off: Office pools lead to unhappiness

PhysOrg.com
All bets are off: Office pools lead to unhappiness


The Perils of Hedonic Editing
Elizabeth Cowley

Retrospective hedonic editing occurs when people combine events to frame a previous experience in its most positive light. Although reflecting positively on the past has psychological and physiological benefits, it may also be used to justify potentially irresponsible behavior. In a gambling context the consequences may be perilous. When they have the opportunity, potentially irresponsible gamblers use hedonic editing strategies to reconstruct the past as more positive. The more positive memory provides them with evidence to support their desired outcome-playing again. The processes underlying hedonic editing include both the temporal categorization of positive and negative events and the strategic allocation of attention. The author also investigates the independence of motivation and opportunity.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/527267


Selected Media Mentions

Economic Times
Positive thinking may lead to irresponsible financial behavior

CBC News
In gambling, there's a downside to being upbeat: study

New York Daily News
Some consumer facts you may not have known

Science Daily
When Positive Thinking Leads To Financial Irresponsibility Like Compulsive Gambling

Thaindian News
Positive thinking may lead to irresponsible financial behavior (re-issue)


Can Evaluative Conditioning Change
Attitudes toward Mature Brands?
New Evidence from the Implicit Association Test

Bryan Gibson

What are the effects of evaluative conditioning on mature brands? Explicit attitudes for mature brands were unaffected by evaluative conditioning. Evaluative conditioning, however, changed implicit attitudes toward Coke and Pepsi. This occurred only for participants who initially had no strong preference for either brand. Contingency awareness was not necessary to change implicit brand attitudes. Brand choice was related to the altered implicit attitudes, but only when choice was made under cognitive load. Implications of these data for evaluative conditioning specifically, and for consumer research in general, are considered.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/527341


Selected Media Mentions

Newswise
Study Shows Consumers May be Swayed by Distraction

EurekAlert!
Coke or Pepsi? Being distracted can make you more susceptible to ads

PhysOrg.com
Coke or Pepsi? Being distracted can make you more susceptible to ads

Thaindian News
Consumers make more impulsive purchases when distracted


Consumer Emotional Intelligence:
Conceptualization, Measurement,
and the Prediction of Consumer Decision Making

Blair Kidwell
David M. Hardesty
Terry L. Childers


This research details the development of the Consumer Emotional Intelligence Scale (CEIS), which was designed to measure individual differences in consumer ability to use emotional information. Scale development procedures confirmed the theoretical structure of the 18-item scale. Results supported the scale's reliability and its discriminant and nomological validity. The consumer domain-specific measure predicted food choices better than a more domain-general alternative. Furthermore, consumer emotional intelligence (EI) predicted food choices beyond cognitive knowledge. Finally, consumer EI was found to generalize to product-based decision making. Theoretical implications of consumer EI are discussed along with areas of future research.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/524417


Selected Media Mentions

NewsRx
How about dessert?

EurekAlert!
How about dessert?

Science Daily
Emotional Intelligence Helps Make Better Product Choices

PhysOrg.com
How about dessert?


Counting Every Thought: Implicit Measures
of Cognitive Responses to Advertising

Yanliu Huang
J. Wesley Hutchinson


This research explores new implicit measures of cognitive responses to advertisements that focus on detecting the effects of specific thoughts. Consumer thoughts about persuasive messages can be assessed by both a thought recognition task and a belief verification task. Performance of tasks such as jointly observed responses, reaction times, and confidence ratings can be modeled as Poisson counting processes. Finally, the authors illustrate the effectiveness of these new measures in predicting consumer product attitudes and show that these measures can outperform traditional thought listing when people are unwilling or unable to report certain thoughts.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/527340


Selected Media Mentions

EurekAlert!
Counting every thought: What consumers see when looking at ads

Science Daily
Counting Every Thought: What Consumers See When Looking At Ads

PhysOrg.com
Counting every thought: What consumers see when looking at ads


Considering the Future:
The Conceptualization and Measurement
of Elaboration on Potential Outcomes

Gergana Y. Nenkov
J. Jeffrey Inman
John Hulland


The authors examine a new construct dealing with the consumer tendency to elaborate on potential outcomes, that is, to generate and evaluate potential positive and negative consequences of their behaviors. The authors develop the elaboration on potential outcomes (EPO) scale and then investigate its relationships with conceptually related traits and its association with consumer behaviors such as exercise of self-control, procrastination, compulsive buying, credit card debt, retirement investing, and healthy lifestyle. Consumers with high EPO levels exhibit more effective self-regulation when faced with a choice and EPO can be primed, temporarily improving self-regulation for consumers with low EPO levels.

Volume 35, Number 1, June 2008, DOI: 10.1086/525504


Selected Media Mentions

EurekAlert!
Look before you leap: New study examines self-control

PhysOrg.com
Look before you leap: New study examines self-control

Call for Nominations
click link above

Editorial:
Broadening the Scope of Consumer Research

click link above