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November 20, 2012
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Journal of Consumer Research
Current Issue Highlights


Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals

Amy N. Dalton
Stephen A. Spiller

Implementation intentions are specific plans regarding how, when, and where to pursue a goal (Gollwitzer). Forming implementation intentions for a single goal has been shown to facilitate goal achievement, but do such intentions benefit multiple goals? If so, consumers should form implementation intentions for all their goals, from eating healthily to tidying up. An investigation into this question suggests that the benefits of implemental planning for attaining a single goal do not typically extend to multiple goals. Instead, implemental planning draws attention to the difficulty of executing multiple goals, which undermines commitment to those goals relative to other desirable activities and thereby undermines goal success. Framing the execution of multiple goals as a manageable endeavor, however, reduces the perceived difficulty of multiple goal pursuit and helps consumers accomplish the various tasks they planned for. This research contributes to literature on goal management, goal specificity, the intention-behavior link, and planning.

 

Volume 39,  Number 3, October 2012
DOI:10.1086/664500

  

Selected Media Mentions

  

 

When does planning interfere with achieving our goals?

EurekAlert! 


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. 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.

Volume 39, Number 3, October 2012
DOI: 10.1086/664499

 

Selected Media Mentions

 
EurekAlert!

We Are Not the Same as You and I: Causal Effects of Minor Language Variations on Consumers' Attitudes toward Brands

Aner Sela
S. Christian Wheeler
G�len Sarial-Abi

Can subtle wording changes in marketing communications, such as saying "you and [the brand]" as opposed to "we," affect consumer evaluation of real-world brands? Despite their importance in interpersonal communication, the effects of such variations in relationship-implying language on consumer perceptions of brands have received little research attention. Closeness-implying pronouns (saying "we" rather than "you and the brand") can have either positive or negative effects on consumer attitudes toward real-world brands with which they have real working relationships. These effects depend on whether the closeness implied by the pronoun is consistent with expected interactions with the brand. These effects are moderated by affiliation with the brand (customers vs. noncustomers), brand type, and the extent of cognitive elaboration and are mediated by perceived brand trustworthiness. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Volume 39, Number 3, October 2012
DOI: 10.1086/664972

 

Selected Media Mentions

  

Science Daily  

 

Phys.Org     

 

Why do consumers dislike corporate brands that get too familiar?
EurekAlert!  
 
 

 


Is Meat Male? A Quantitative Multimethod Framework to Establish Metaphoric Relationships

Paul Rozin
Julia M. Hormes
Myles S. Faith
Brian Wansink

Metaphors are increasingly recognized as influencing cognition and consumption. While these linkages typically have been qualitatively generated, this article presents a framework of convergent quantitative methodologies that can further document the validity of a metaphor. To illustrate this multimethod framework, the authors explore whether there is a metaphoric link between meat and maleness in Western cultures. They address this in six quantifiable studies that involve (1) implicit associations, (2) free associations, (3) indirect-scenario-based inferences, (4) direct measurement profiling, (5) preference and choice, and (6) linguistic analysis and conclude that there is a metaphoric relationship between mammal muscle meat and maleness.

Volume 39, Number 3, October 2012
DOI: 10.1086/664970

 

Selected Media Mentions

   
Of Meat and Men 
The New Yorker 

Apparently "Real Men" Don't Eat Veggies Either 
National Geographic 

Scientific American 
 
EurekAlert!



 


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