Journal of Consumer Research
    
Ahead of Print Highlights
April 22, 2014

Why Feasibility Matters More to Gift Receivers than to Givers: A Construal-Level Approach to Gift Giving

Ernest Baskin
Cheryl J. Wakslak
Yaacov Trope
Nathan Novemsky 

 

This article looks at the trade-offs that gift givers and gift receivers make between desirability and feasibility using construal level theory as a framework. Focusing on the asymmetric distance from a gift that exists within giver-receiver dyads, the authors propose that, unlike receivers, givers construe gifts abstractly and therefore weight desirability attributes more than feasibility attributes. Support for this proposition emerges in studies examining giver and receiver mind-sets, as well as giver and receiver evaluations of gifts. Furthermore, givers do not choose gifts that maximize receiver happiness or other relationship goals even though givers believe they are doing so. Finally, while givers are sensitive to their distance from the receiver, receivers are not sensitive to this distance.   


DOI: 10.1086/675737
Published Online March 6, 2014 

Hedonic Eating Goals and Emotion: When Sadness Decreases the Desire to Indulge

Anthony Salerno
Juliano Laran
Chris Janiszewski 


The influence of sadness on indulgent consumption depends on the presence of a hedonic eating goal. Sadness heightens a person's sensitivity to the potentially harmful consequences of indulgent consumption, which decreases indulgence when a hedonic eating goal is salient. As sadness is often associated with a loss, this protective function is geared toward preventing future losses. The execution of this function is mitigated by feelings of safety, a counterforce to concerns about the harmful consequences of goal pursuit. Alternatively, when a hedonic eating goal is not salient, or a salient goal does not have harmful consequences, sadness results in emotion regulation (indulging as a means of feeling better). The effects of emotions on indulgent consumption can be goal-dependent, and emotions can aid consumers in the balancing of long-term goals and well-being.


DOI: 10.1086/675299
Published Online January 31, 2014 

Power and Action Orientation: Power as a Catalyst for Consumer Switching Behavior

Yuwei Jiang
Lingjing Zhan
Derek D. Rucker 

  

Building on an action-orientation perspective of power, original hypotheses regarding power and consumer switching behavior are presented. Because high power is associated with a readiness to act, and switching behavior often requires taking action in some form, inducing consumers to feel powerful is hypothesized to increase consumer switching. Multiple experiments provide support for this perspective along with evidence for the process via both moderation and mediation. This work contributes to the consumer switching literature by demonstrating power as a new psychological catalyst for switching behavior, and also adds to the power literature by distinguishing between goal priming and semantic priming accounts of the action orientation of high power. Specifically, consistent with a goal priming account, engaging in action is found to sate consumers' subsequent need for action as opposed to maintain or increase consumer desire to act, as might be predicted from a semantic priming account.  


DOI: 10.1086/675723
Published Online February 19, 2014 

How and When Grouping Low-Calorie Options Reduces the Benefits of Providing Dish-Specific Calorie Information

Jeffrey R. Parker
Donald R. Lehmann 


To date the effectiveness of inducing lower-calorie choices by providing consumers with calorie information has yielded mixed results. Adding dish-specific calorie information to menus (calorie posting) tends to result in lower-calorie choices. However, additionally grouping low-calorie dishes into a single "low-calorie" category (calorie organizing) ironically diminishes the positive effects of calorie posting. This outcome appears to be caused by the effect that grouping low-calorie options has on consumer consideration sets. When choosing from a calorie-organized menu, consumers are more likely to filter out low-calorie options in the early noncompensatory screening stages of the decision process and, consequently, are less likely to choose low-calorie options. This result disappears when consumers deliberate longer before choosing. These results are important for consumer welfare as well-intentioned restaurateurs (policy makers) may be tempted to institute (mandate) the calorie organization of menus, inadvertently resulting in consumers choosing higher-calorie meals.    


DOI: 10.1086/675738
Published Online March 12, 2014


Decisions at a Distance

(Spring 2014)

Curator: Rebecca Hamilton

The Politics of Consumer Identity Work (Autumn 2013)

Curator: Craig J. Thompson

Curator: Rebecca Ratner

      
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