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Journal of Consumer Research
Ahead of Print Highlights
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Feeling the Future: The Emotional Oracle Effect Michel Tuan Pham
Leonard Lee
Andrew T. Stephen
Eight studies reveal an intriguing phenomenon: individuals who have higher trust in their feelings can predict the outcomes of future events better than individuals with lower trust in their feelings. This emotional oracle effect was found across a variety of prediction domains, including (a) the 2008 US Democratic presidential nomination, (b) movie box-office success, (c) the winner of American Idol, (d) the stock market, (e) college football, and even (f) the weather. It is mostly high trust in feelings that improves prediction accuracy rather than low trust in feelings that impairs it. However, the effect occurs only among individuals who possess sufficient background knowledge about the prediction domain, and it dissipates when the prediction criterion becomes inherently unpredictable. The authors hypothesize that the effect arises because trusting one's feelings encourages access to a "privileged window" into the vast amount of predictive information that people learn, often unconsciously, about their environments.
DOI: 10.1086/663823
Electronically published January 12, 2012
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Liquid Relationship to Possessions Fleura Bardhi
Giana M. Eckhardt
Eric J. Arnould
This study investigates consumers' relationship to possessions in the condition of contemporary global nomadism. Prior research argues that consumers form enduring and strong attachments to possessions because of their centrality to identity projects. This role is heightened in life transitions including cross-border movements as possessions anchor consumer's identities either to their homeland or to the host country. This study reexamines this claim via in-depth interviews with elite global nomads, deterritorialized consumers who engage in serial relocation and frequent short-term international mobility. An alternative relationship to possessions characterized by detachment and flexibility emerges, which is termed "liquid." Three characteristics of a liquid relationship to possessions are identified: temporary situational value, use-value, and immateriality. The study outlines a logic of nomadic consumption, that of instrumentality, where possessions and practices are strategic resources in managing mobility. A liquid perspective on possessions expands current understandings of materiality, acculturation, and globalization. DOI: 10.1086/664037
Electronically published January 12, 2012
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Conspicuous Consumption versus Charitable Behavior in Response to Social Exclusion: A Differential Needs Explanation Jaehoon Lee
L. J. Shrum
Social exclusion has been shown to produce a number of different responses. This research examines the proposition that social exclusion may produce either self-focused or prosocial responses, depending on which needs are threatened. Different types of social exclusion threaten different needs, which in turn produce distinct outcomes (differential needs hypothesis). Social exclusion in the form of being implicitly ignored increased conspicuous consumption, whereas being explicitly rejected increased helping and donation behavior. However, when efficacy needs (power, meaningful existence) were bolstered, the effects of being ignored were eliminated, whereas when relational needs (self-esteem) were bolstered, the effects of being rejected were eliminated. The results indicate that certain types of social exclusion produce prosocial responses, whereas others produce self-focused and attention-getting responses.
DOI: 10.1086/664039
Electronically published January 17, 2012
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The Effect of Ordering Decisions by Choice-Set Size on Consumer Search Jonathan Levav
Nicholas Reinholtz
Claire Lin
Consumers frequently engage in sequential decisions. This article explores whether the order of these decisions can influence the manner in which consumers search through the possible choice options. Results from five studies suggest that ordering decisions by increasing (vs. decreasing) choice-set size leads to greater search depth (measured by both sampling count and decision time). Initial, smaller choice sets in increasing sequences appear to initiate a maximizing mind-set, which then persists even as participants encounter later, larger choice sets. These participants report a greater desire to maximize and are less satisfied with their decisions, consistent with research on chronic maximizers. In addition, they continue to exhibit maximizing behavior in subsequent, unrelated tasks, supporting a mind-set account of the differences in search. In sum, decision makers are proposed to be "sticky adapters": initial decision strategies seem to constrain the extent to which they adapt to new contexts.
DOI: 10.1086/664498
Electronically published January 25, 2012
Selected Media Mentions
How Does the Order of Choices Affect Consumer Decisions?
Science NewsLine
How does the order of choices affect consumer decisions?
Phys.Org
How does the order of choices affect consumer decisions?
EurekAlert! |
An Arousal Regulation Explanation of Mood Effects on Consumer Choice Fabrizio Di Muro
Kyle B. Murray
This article examines how consumers' preferences are affected by the interplay between their level of arousal and the valence of their current affective state. Building on prior research examining the regulation of mood valence, the authors propose that consumers are also motivated to manage their level of arousal. It is predicted that this motivation systematically affects consumers' product preferences such that consumers in a pleasant mood will tend to choose products that are congruent with their current level of arousal, while those in an unpleasant mood will tend to choose products that are incongruent with their current level of arousal. The results of three consequential choice studies-that use scent and music to vary consumers' moods-provide strong support for the hypotheses. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the results.
DOI: 10.1086/664040
Electronically published January 25, 2012
Selected Media MentionsScience NewsLine Phys.Org
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The Optimistic Trust Effect: Use of Belief in a Just World to Cope with Decision-Generated Threat Andrew E. Wilson
Peter R. Darke
In a process the authors term just world coping, some consumers use positive beliefs concerning the general benevolence of the world as a resource to cope with marketplace threat. This belief buffers or even, ironically, enhances trust judgments in the face of threat. Three experiments and one replication show that, whereas consumers who do not hold this belief respond to decision-generated threat with distrust, trust is significantly higher for those who believe in a just world (optimistic trust effect). Process evidence shows such coping is automatically activated in response to threat but can be corrected for more normative considerations when an obvious ulterior motive is present. Finally, evidence this coping serves an ego-protective function is provided by manipulating whether consumers are directly threatened. Overall, findings are consistent with the view that belief in a just world operates as a positive illusion that allows consumers to cope with decision threat.
DOI: 10.1086/664499
Electronically published January 25, 2012
Selected Media Mentions Science Daily EurekAlert!
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