Journal of Consumer Research
    
Ahead of Print Highlights
June 3, 2014

"So Cute I Could Eat It Up": Priming Effects of Cute Products on Indulgent Consumption

Gergana Y. Nenkov
Maura L. Scott  

 

This article examines the extent to which consumers engage in more indulgent consumption when they are exposed to whimsically cute products and explores the process by which such products affect indulgence. Prior research on kindchenschema (baby schema) has found that exposure to cute babies or baby animals leads to more careful behavior, suggesting restraint. The present research uncovers the opposite: consumers become more indulgent in their behavior after exposure to whimsically cute products. Exposure to whimsically cute products primes mental representations of fun, increasing consumer focus on approaching self-rewards and making consumers more likely to choose indulgent options. These effects do not emerge for kindchenschema cute stimuli, since they prime mental representations of vulnerability and caretaking. Four studies provide evidence for the proposed effects and their underlying process..   


DOI: 10.1086/676581
Published Online April 17, 2014 

Brand Tourists: How Non-Core Users Enhance the Brand Image by Eliciting Pride

Silvia Bellezza
Anat Keinan 


How do core consumers of selective brands react when non-core consumers obtain access to the brand? Contrary to the view that non-core consumers and downward brand extensions pose a threat to the brand, this work investigates the conditions under which these non-core consumers enhance rather than dilute the brand image. A distinction between two types of non-core consumers based on how they are perceived by current consumers of core products is introduced: "brand immigrants" who claim to be part of the in-group of core consumers of the brand and "brand tourists" who do not claim any membership status to the brand community. Core consumers respond positively to non-core consumers when they are perceived as brand tourists. The brand tourism effect is mediated by core consumer pride and moderated by brand patriotism and selectiveness of the brand.


DOI: 10.1086/676679
Published Online May 14, 2014 

The Product-Agnosia Effect: How More Visual Impressions Affect Product Distinctiveness in Comparative Choice

Jayson Shi Jia
Baba Shiv
Sanjay Rao  

  

Consumer choice is often based on the relative visual appeal of competing products. Lay intuition, common marketing practice, and extant literature all suggest that more visual impressions help consumers distinguish products. This research shows that the opposite can occur. Rather than highlighting differences, seeing more pictures of products being compared can obfuscate perceptions, reduce distinctiveness and attractiveness of products, and increase choice uncertainty. This "product-agnosia" effect is driven by shifts in the perceptual focus level of visual information processing. More visual impressions increased component-oriented and decreased gestalt-oriented perceptual focus, which undermined the distinctiveness of products distinguished on a gestalt level (by style). The effect reversed for products distinguished on a component level (by technical features). Overall, the efficacy of "showing more" depended on matching consumer visual-processing style and the level (gestalt vs. component) at which products are differentiated.  


DOI: 10.1086/676600
Published Online April 30, 2014 

Should Birds of a Feather Flock Together? Understanding Self-Control Decisions in Dyads

Hristina Dzhogleva
Cait Poynor Lamberton   


Can we rely on our high self-control friends to help us make better joint spending and diet decisions? In joint decisions, homogeneous high self-control pairs make less indulgent choices than both homogeneous low self-control and mixed pairs. However, there is no difference in the self-regulatory patterns of the latter two dyad types: having one high self-control partner in a dyad does not lead to more restraint than having none. This pattern exists because higher self-control individuals tend to prioritize prorelationship behaviors over their personal preference for restraint. Therefore, they assent to the lower self-control partner's more indulgent preferences. Consistent with this explanation, interventions that change individuals' prorelationship motivation can alter this pattern. Given the range of decisions consumers may make in couples or pairs, this research has implications for consumers, marketers, and public-policy makers.    


DOI: 10.1086/676599
Published Online April 30, 2014

The Experience versus the Expectations of Power: A Recipe for Altering the Effects of Power on Behavior

Derek D. Rucker
Miao Hu
Adam D. Galinsky 

  

Power transforms consumer behavior. This research introduces a critical theoretical moderator of power's effects by promoting the idea that power is accompanied by both an experience (how it feels to have or lack power) and expectations (schemas and scripts as to how those with or without power behave). In some cases, the psychological experience of power predisposes consumers to behave one way, whereas attention to the expectations of power suggests behaving in another way. As a consequence, power's effects for consumer behavior can hinge on consumer focus. Specifically, a focus on the experience or expectations of power critically moderates how power affects both information processing and status seeking. However, as the experience of power incites a desire to act, and the powerful are expected to act, power produces more action regardless of focus. These findings provide a new lens on power and have important implications for consumer behavior.  


DOI: 10.1086/676598
Published Online April 23, 2014 

Transforming Health Care: Empowering Therapeutic Communities through Technology-Enhanced Narratives

Kelly Tian
Pookie Sautter
Derek Fisher
Sarah Fischbach
Cuauhtemoc Luna-Nevarez
  Kevin Boberg
  Jim Kroger
  Richard Vann   


Health technology innovations continue to revolutionize health care delivery but simultaneously challenge the design of services that do not marginalize human participation in the creation of value in the health care delivery process. This research recruited persons living with chronic disease to collaborate in developing information communication technologies (ICTs) conceived as a virtual reality game and web-compatible graphic novel intended to function as entertaining health education aids. The findings revealed a transformative potential for ICTs far beyond original expectations. The participants envisioned ICTs that integrate data from biophysical monitoring devices with personal narratives toward creating social platforms that empathically share a common and clear understanding of the physical, emotional, and sociocultural realities of living with chronic disease. Consistent with cultural trauma theory, the research conclusions focus on realizing the power of technology-enhanced narratives to build collaborative therapeutic communities and to provide impetus for affecting social change and action in health care systems.    


DOI: 10.1086/676311
Published Online April 23, 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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