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Journal of Consumer Research
Highlights from Two Years Ago
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The Role of Bolstering and Counterarguing Mind-Sets in Persuasion
Alison Jing Xu
Robert S. Wyer Jr.
The effect of a persuasive communication on individuals' attitudes can be influenced by the cognitive behavior they have performed in an earlier, unrelated situation. Inducing consumers to make supportive elaborations about a series of propositions activated a bolstering mind-set that increased the effectiveness of an unrelated advertisement they encountered subsequently. However, inducing consumers to refute the implications of a series of propositions activated a counterarguing mind-set that decreased the ad's effectiveness. These mind-sets had more impact when the cognitive behavior they activated differed from the behavior that would occur in the absence of these mind-sets. When the implications of a persuasive message were difficult to refute, inducing a counterarguing mind-set increased its effectiveness. Finally, watching a political speech or debate activated different mind-sets, depending on a priori attitude toward the politicians involved, and these mind-sets influenced the impact of an unrelated commercial they considered later.
Volume 38, Number 5, February 2012
DOI: 10.1086/661112
Selected Media Mentions
Scientific American
How do political debates affect advertising?
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Doing Poorly by Doing Good: Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Concepts Carlos J. Torelli
Alokparna Basu Monga
Andrew M. Kaikati
Although the idea of brand concepts has been around for a while, very little research addresses how brand concepts may influence consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Communicating the CSR actions of a luxury brand concept causes a decline in evaluations, relative to control. A luxury brand's self-enhancement concept (dominance over people and resources) is in conflict with the CSR information's self-transcendence concept (protecting the welfare of all), which causes disfluency and a decline in evaluations. These effects do not emerge for brands with openness (following emotional pursuits in uncertain directions) or conservation (protecting the status quo) concepts that do not conflict with CSR. The effects for luxury brand concepts disappeared when the informativeness of the disfluency was undermined but were accentuated in an abstract (vs. concrete) mind-set. These findings implicate brand concepts as a key factor in how consumers respond to CSR activities. Volume 38, Number 5, February 2012
DOI: 10.1086/660851
Selected Media Mentions
'Consumers Are Not Stupid': It's Tough Making Some Brands 'Responsible'
The Atlantic
The Perils of Corporate Social Responsibility
Psychology Today
When will a message of social responsibility backfire?
EurekAlert! |
Influence via Comparison-Driven Self-Evaluation and Restoration: The Case of the Low-Status Influencer
Edith Shalev
Vicki G. Morwitz
Ample research shows that consumers accept influence from a source they identify with and reject influence from a source they wish to dissociate from. The current article moves beyond the well-established identification principle and delineates a new influence process. Influence via comparison-driven self-evaluation and restoration (CDSER) takes place when one observes a counterstereotypical product user and, as a result, questions one's relative standing on the trait that the product symbolizes. In response to this threatening self-evaluation, the observer becomes more interested in the target product. To clearly distinguish CDSER from identification influence, the current investigation focuses on product users with a low socioeconomic status (SES). In contrast to the predictions of the identification principle, low-SES users can in some circumstances positively influence observers and increase their purchase intentions. The "low-status user effect" and the CDSER mechanism are demonstrated across multiple product categories in four studies.
Volume 38, Number 5, February 2012
DOI: 10.1086/661551
Selected Media Mentions Scientific American Why you really want that iPhone... because the janitor has one The Daily Mail
Downwardly mobile: When consumer decisions are influenced by people with lower socioeconomic status
EurekAlert! |
