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December 24, 2013
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Journal of Consumer Research
Ahead of Print Highlights


Overindividuation in Gift Giving: Shopping for Multiple Recipients Leads Givers to Choose Unique but Less Preferred Gifts

Mary Steffel
Robyn A. LeBoeuf

This research examines how the social context in which gifts are selected influences gift choices. When givers select gifts for multiple recipients, they tend to pass up gifts that would be better liked by one or more recipients in favor of giving different gifts to each recipient, even when recipients will not compare gifts. This overindividuation does not seem to arise because givers perceive recipient preferences differently when they consider them together versus separately: although giver gift selections differ between a one-recipient and multiple-recipient context, their perceptions of which gifts would be better liked do not. Rather, overindividuation seems to arise because givers try to be thoughtful by treating each recipient as unique. Consistent with this, givers are more likely to overindividuate when they are encouraged to be thoughtful. Focusing givers on recipient preferences reduces overindividuation and can help givers select better-liked gifts.

DOI: 10.1086/674199
Electronically published November 21, 2013

The Interactive Effect of Beliefs in Malleable Fate and Fateful Predictions on Choice

Hyeongmin (Christian) Kim
Katina Kulow
Thomas Kramer

Despite the ubiquity of fateful predictions in consumers' lives, little is known about how these forecasts impact subsequent choice. This research concerns fate as an inevitable outcome and posits that consumers who believe in fate have an implicit theory about the nature of fate, such that some consider that their fate is preordained and outside of individual influence, whereas others believe that their fate is malleable and can be changed. The choice share of an indulgent (vs. virtuous) option increases only among consumers who believe that their fate is malleable when an unfavorable day ahead is predicted for them. This result appears consistent with an argument that they intentionally choose an indulgent option as a deliberate strategy to compensate for an unfavorable day ahead. However, analysis of verbal protocols points to an incidental nature of indulgent choice among those who believe in malleable fate. The research also discusses boundary conditions and casts doubt on an alternative explanation based on reactance.

DOI: 10.1086/674196
Electronically published November 21, 2013

The Top-Ten Effect: Consumers' Subjective Categorization of Ranked Lists

Mathew S. Isaac
Robert M. Schindler

Long lists of ranked items, such as Bloomberg Businessweek's rankings of MBA programs, are ubiquitous in Western culture, and they are often used in consumer decision making. Consumers mentally subdivide ranked lists into a smaller set of categories and exaggerate differences between consecutive items adjacent to category boundaries. Further, despite prior work suggesting that people might subjectively produce place-value categories (single digits, the twenties), this research shows that consumers interpret ranked lists by generating round-number categories ending in zero or five (top 10, top 25). Thus, for example, consumers will more favorably evaluate improvements in rank that cross round-number-category boundaries (shifting from rank 11 to rank 10) than improvements in rank that cross place-value-category boundaries (shifting from rank 10 to rank 9). This phenomenon, labeled the top-ten effect, occurs because round numbers are cognitively accessible to consumers due to their prevalent use in everyday communication.

DOI: 10.1086/674546
Electronically published December 3, 2013

To Be or Not to Be Unique? The Effect of Social Exclusion on Consumer Choice

Echo Wen Wan
Jing Xu
Ying Ding

After an experience of being excluded, consumers may strategically choose products to differentiate themselves from the majority of others as a result of their appraisal of the exclusion situation. When excluded individuals perceive that the cause of social exclusion is stable (vs. unstable), they exhibit greater preference for distinctive products than do included individuals. Excluded individuals prefer distinctive products when their self-view is enhanced through self-affirmation. Moreover, these effects are driven by a strengthened perception of uniqueness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

DOI: 10.1086/674197
Electronically published November 22, 2013




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