Journal of Consumer Research
October 4, 2011


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Journal of Consumer Research
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The Bad Thing about Good Games: The Relationship between Close Sporting Events and Game-Day Traffic Fatalities

Stacy Wood
Melayne Morgan McInnes
David A. Norton


For sports fans, great games are the close ones: those between evenly matched opponents, where the game remains undecided until the very end. However, the dark side to sporting events is the incidence of traffic fatalities due to game-related drinking. Does the closeness of the game affect the number of fatalities that occur? Two opposing predictions can be made. Games that are not close ("blowouts") may be less engaging, thus increasing drinking. Alternatively, close games may be more dangerous, increasing competition-associated testosterone that spills over into aggressive driving. An analysis of major sporting events (2001-2008) shows that closer games are significantly correlated with more fatalities. Importantly, increased fatalities are observed only in locations with winning fans (game site and/or winners' hometown), congruent with a testosterone-based account. Ultimately, this finding has material consequences for public welfare on game days and suggests that one silver lining for losing fans may be a safer drive home.

 

DOI: 10.1086/660164
Electronically published May 13, 2011

 


How Does Organizational Identification Form? A Consumer Behavior Perspective

Melea Press
Eric J. Arnould

This article takes a consumer behavior perspective to investigate how constituents come to identify with organizations. Using longitudinal and cross-sectional interview data collected in two contexts (one consumer and one employee), the data illustrate that constituents engage with two conduits, one formal and one informal. These conduits provide opportunities for sensegiving, which features normative elements particular to an organization, and sensemaking, an integrative process in which productive consumption plays a key role. Three paths (epiphany, emulation, and exploration) leading from these conduits to identification are defined and explored. Second, this article reveals dynamic consequences of identification for both customer and employee constituents, including changes in their consumer values and behaviors extending beyond organizational concerns. Finally, this article defends the merit of softening hard conceptual distinctions drawn between consumers and employees, as the findings show that identification forms in parallel fashion with similar outcomes across a consumer-to-firm and an employee-to-firm context.

 

DOI: 10.1086/660699
Electronically published May 11, 2011 

 


When Blemishing Leads to Blossoming: The Positive Effect of Negative Information

Danit Ein-Gar
Baba Shiv
Zakary L. Tormala

This research uncovers a counterintuitive effect of negative information, showing that under specifiable conditions people will be more favorably disposed to a product when a small dose of negative information is added to an otherwise positive description. This effect is moderated by processing effort and presentation order, such that the enhanced positive disposition toward the product following negative information emerges when the information is processed effortlessly rather than effortfully and when the negative information follows rather than precedes positive information. Four studies demonstrate this blemishing effect in both lab and field settings and explore the proposed mechanism and boundary conditions.

 

DOI: 10.1086/660807
Electronically published May 13, 2011  

 


Shall I Tell You Now or Later? Assimilation and Contrast in the Evaluation of Experiential Products

Keith Wilcox
Anne L. Roggeveen
Dhruv Grewal


This research demonstrates that the effect of product information on the evaluation of an experiential product depends on the order with which such information is presented. In a series of experiments, the authors find that when information is presented before consuming an experiential product, the information results in an assimilation effect such that consumers evaluate the same experience more positively when the product information is favorable compared to when it is unfavorable. More interestingly, when such information is presented after consuming an experiential product, it results in a contrast effect such that consumers evaluate the same experience more negatively when the product information is favorable compared to when it is unfavorable. These findings have important implications for marketers in a host of experiential categories.

 

DOI: 10.1086/660702
Electronically published May 13, 2011

 

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