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January 15, 2013
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Journal of Consumer Research
Current Issue Highlights


The Exception Is the Rule: Underestimating and Overspending on Exceptional Expenses

Abigail B. Sussman
Adam L. Alter

Purchases fall along a continuum from ordinary (common or frequent) to exceptional (unusual or infrequent), with many of the largest expenses (electronics, celebrations) being the most exceptional. While consumers are fairly adept at budgeting and predicting how much they will spend on ordinary items, they both underestimate their spending on exceptional purchases overall and overspend on each individual purchase. Based on the principles of mental accounting and choice bracketing, the authors show that this discrepancy arises in part because consumers categorize exceptional expenses too narrowly, construing each as a unique occurrence and consequently overspending across a series of discretely exceptional expenses. They conclude by proposing an intervention that diminishes this tendency by helping consumers consider their spending on exceptional items as part of a larger set of purchases.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665833

 

Selected Media Mentions

 

Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition

Ravi Mehta
Rui (Juliet) Zhu
Amar Cheema

This paper examines how ambient noise, an important environmental variable, can affect creativity. Results from five experiments demonstrate that a moderate (70 dB) versus low (50 dB) level of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks and increases the buying likelihood of innovative products. A high level of noise (85 dB), on the other hand, hurts creativity. Process measures reveal that a moderate (vs. low) level of noise increases processing difficulty, inducing a higher construal level and thus promoting abstract processing, which subsequently leads to higher creativity. A high level of noise, however, reduces the extent of information processing and thus impairs creativity.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665048

 

Selected Media Mentions

  

The Guardian    

TIME  

 

The Atlantic      

 

Does background noise make consumers buy more innovative products?
EurekAlert!  
 
 

A Tiger and a President: Imperceptible Celebrity Facial Cues Influence Trust and Preference

Robin J. Tanner
Ahreum Maeng

Neuroscientific research suggests that the brain has evolved specific capabilities enabling automatic social judgments of others to be made based on facial properties alone. However, little research in marketing has considered the consequences of how facial imagery is automatically processed. The authors explore automatic perceptions of familiarity by using morphing software to digitally combine unfamiliar faces with those of Tiger Woods and George Bush. Despite a complete lack of conscious recognition, trustworthiness ratings of the composite faces are clearly influenced by the celebrities in question. This appears to be due to implicit recognition being sufficient for individuals to automatically access their own summary valence judgments of either Woods or Bush. Alternative explanations based on a perceptual-fluency account, or implicit recognition sufficient to perceive specific trait ratings, are ruled out. These findings suggest that the marketing practice of digitally manipulating the attractiveness of facial imagery risks overlooking the important influence of familiarity.

 

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI:10.1086/665412

  

Selected Media Mentions

  

 

Trusting Tiger Woods: How do facial cues affect preference and trust?

EurekAlert! 


Bracing for the Psychological Storm: Proactive versus Reactive Compensatory Consumption

Soo Kim
Derek D. Rucker

This research introduces the distinction between compensatory consumption that is engaged in after, as opposed to before, one experiences a self-threat (termed reactive vs. proactive compensatory consumption). Five experiments document the phenomenon of proactive compensatory consumption as well as corresponding boundary conditions for its effect. Furthermore, whereas both reactive and proactive compensatory consumption are associated with seeking products that symbolically relate to an experienced or potential threat, the authors demonstrate that reactive compensatory consumption is more likely to be associated with the use of products for the purpose of distraction. They examine how and when these different forms of compensatory consumption affect consumer preferences versus actual consumption behavior. Implications for delineating reactive versus proactive compensatory consumption in the literature, as well as the use of consumption for the purpose of symbolic self-completion versus distraction, are discussed.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665832

 

Selected Media Mentions

  

The Atlantic   

 

Phys.Org     

 

Retail therapy: Shopping to cope with future challenges
EurekAlert!  
 
 

Choosing Here and Now versus There and Later: The Moderating Role of Psychological Distance on Assortment Size Preferences

Joseph K. Goodman
Selin A. Malkoc

Consumers prefer larger assortments, despite the negative consequences associated with choosing from these sets. This article examines the role of psychological distance (temporal and geographical) in consumers' assortment size decisions and rectifies contradicting hypotheses produced by construal level theory. While consumers prefer larger assortments when the choice takes place in the here and now, they are more likely to prefer small assortments when choices pertain to distant locations and times. This decrease in preference for large assortments is due to psychological distance increasing the similarity of the options in a category, making them appear more substitutable. This effect of psychological distance reverses when consumers consider desirability/feasibility trade-off information inherent in the assortment size decision. These findings point to important outcomes of psychological distance, resolving opposing predictions of construal level theory, and identify boundary conditions for the well-established notion that consumers are attracted to large assortments.

Volume 39, Number 4, December 2012
DOI: 10.1086/665047

 

Selected Media Mentions

   
EurekAlert!



 


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