Journal of Consumer Research
February 15, 2011



  





































































































































































































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Journal of Consumer Research
Current Issue Highlights

Demythologizing Consumption Practices:
How Consumers Protect Their Field-Dependent Identity Investments from Devaluing Marketplace Myths

Zeynep Arsel
Craig J. Thompson


Marketplace myths are commonly conceptualized as cultural resources that attract consumers to a consumption activity or brand. This theoretical orientation is prone to overstating the extent to which consumer identity investment in a field of consumption is motivated by an associated marketplace myth. The authors provide a theoretical corrective to this tendency by investigating consumers who have become vested in a commercially mythologized consumption field through an incremental process of building social connections and cultural capital. For these consumers, the prevailing marketplace myth is experienced as a trivialization of their aesthetic interests, rather than as a source of identity value. In response, consumers employ demythologizing practices to insulate their acquired field-dependent social and cultural capital from devaluation. The authors' findings advance theorizations concerning marketplace myths and consumer identity work and explicate the sociocultural forces that deter consumers from abandoning a consumption field that has become culturally associated with undesirable meanings.

Volume 37, Number 5, February 2011
DOI: 10.1086/656389


Selected Media Mentions

The Wall Street Journal
Working and Thinking Longer

WIRED
Hipster: from cultural icon to caricature

Psychology Today
The Sad Science of Hipsterism

The Globe and Mail
Hipster? Moi?

EurekAlert!
Who are you calling 'hipster'? Consumers defy labels and stereotypes


Social Exclusion Causes People to Spend
and Consume Strategically in the Service of Affiliation

Nicole L. Mead
Roy F. Baumeister
Tyler F. Stillman
Catherine D. Rawn
Kathleen D. Vohs


When deeply ingrained need for social connection is thwarted by social exclusion, profound psychological consequences ensue. Despite the fact that social connections and consumption are central facets of daily life, little empirical attention has been devoted to understanding how belongingness threats affect consumer behavior. In four experiments, the authors tested the hypothesis that social exclusion causes consumers to spend and consume strategically in the service of affiliation. Relative to controls, excluded participants were more likely to buy a product symbolic of group membership (but not practical or self-gift items), tailor their spending preferences to the preferences of an interaction partner, spend money on an unappealing food item favored by a peer, and report being willing to try an illegal drug, but only when doing so boosted their chances of commencing social connections. Overall, results suggest that socially excluded people sacrifice personal and financial well-being for the sake of social well-being.

Volume 37, Number 5, February 2011
DOI: 10.1086/656667


Selected Media Mentions

TIME Magazine
How Retail Therapy Works: Spending Money for Social Acceptance

MSNBC
Lonely people do really weird things to fit in, study confirms

Business News Dialy
Money Can't Buy Love, but It Might Buy Friends

Medical News Today
Money, Drugs And Chicken Feet? What Consumers Will Do For Social Acceptance

Health24.com
The high cost of fitting in


No Pain, No Gain? How Fluency and Construal Level Affect Consumer Confidence
Claire I. Tsai
Ann L. McGill


Choice confidence is affected by fluency and moderated by construal levels that evoke different theories to interpret the feelings of fluency. At lower construal levels, fluency informs the feasibility of completing the concrete steps of the decision process to choose well, but at higher construal levels, fluency informs (insufficient) effort invested for the desirability of the outcome. The authors manipulated fluency by varying the font of product descriptions or the number of thoughts we asked participants to recall. These studies showed that fluency increased confidence for people processing at lower construal levels but decreased confidence for those processing at higher construal levels. Construal level does not affect the persuasiveness of consumers' thoughts, supporting the hypothesis that it is the interpretation of fluency experienced during judgment, not the thought content, that leads to the moderating effects of construal level.

Volume 37, Number 5, February 2011
DOI: 10.1086/655855


Selected Media Mentions

United Press International
Reasons for consumer confidence studied

EurekAlert!
Consumer confidence: When our choices makes the most sense

Science Daily
Consumer Confidence: When Our Choices Makes the Most Sense

PhysOrg.com
Consumer confidence: When our choices makes the most sense

RedOrbit
Consumer Confidence: When Our Choices Make The Most Sense


Assimilation and Contrast in Price Evaluations
Marcus Cunha Jr.
Jeffrey D. Shulman


How are price judgments influenced by the distribution of observed prices for other items in the same category? Processing goals will moderate price-judgment processes. When the processing goal is discrimination, price perceptions will be influenced by variations in range and ranks of prices in a distribution and contrast effects will be observed. For example, lowering the price of the lowest-priced product in a set will increase perceived expensiveness of higher-priced products. When the processing goal is generalization, however, price perceptions will be influenced by variations in the mean of the price distribution, in which case assimilation is observed. For example, lowering the price of the lowest-priced product in a set will decrease perceived expensiveness of higher-priced products. This latter finding is in sharp contrast to findings in the current literature on the effect of price structure on price judgments.

Volume 37, Number 5, February 2011
DOI: 10.1086/656060


Selected Media Mentions

CBC News
Consumer price perception can be altered: study

 
EurekAlert!
In-store displays: How do consumers perceive pricing?

 
Science Daily
In-Store Displays: How Do Consumers Perceive Pricing?

 
Eureka! Science News
In-store displays: How do consumers perceive pricing?

 
PhysOrg.com
In-store displays: How do consumers perceive pricing?

 
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Please remember that the current editors' terms will be ending on June 30, 2011. Any manuscripts (new or revised) received after this date will be processed by the new editors.
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