Current Issue Highlights 
August 18, 2015

August Issue        

The Value of Time
Anouk Festjens
Chris Janiszewski

Ten studies are used to document that time is valued in accordance with a double-kinked value function. There is a zone of indifference for small time gains (losses), increasing marginal utility (disutility) for moderate time gains (losses), and diminishing marginal utility (disutility) for large time gains (losses). Moderate amounts of time exhibit increasing marginal utility (disutility) because larger blocks of time provide a more diverse set of usage opportunities. It is only when it is difficult to imagine how more (less) time would be beneficial (detrimental) that there is diminishing marginal utility (disutility) for time. Thus time valuation shows increasing marginal utility when there is a time deficit, but diminishing marginal utility when there is a time surplus. These findings have implications for how other resources might be valued.

Volume 42, Number 2, August 2015
DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv021
 
Thomas Clayton O'Guinn
Robin J. Tanner
Ahreum Maeng


This article is about social space and material objects for sale within that space. The authors draw primarily on Goffman's (1971) concepts of use space and possession territories to predict that as the social density of a given space increases, inferences of the subjective social class and income of people in that space fall. Eight studies confirm that this is indeed the case, with the result holding even for stick figures, thus controlling for typical visual indicators of social class such as clothing or jewelry. Furthermore, these social class inferences mediate a relationship between social density and product valuation, with consumers assessing both higher prices and a greater willingness to pay for products presented in less crowded contexts. This effect of inferred class on product valuation is explained by status-motivated consumers' desire to associate with higher-status people. This research is the first to reveal the link between social density, status inferences, and object valuations. As such, it makes a novel contribution to what has come to be known in sociology as the topological turn: a renewed focus on social space.
 
Volume 42, Number 2, August 2015
DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv010
 
Ryan Rahinel
Rohini Ahluwalia

At every waking moment, one's mode of attention is situated at some point on a spectrum ranging from experiencing, where attention is directed toward perceptions and cognitions related to the immediate physical environment, to mind-wandering, where attention is directed toward thoughts, feelings, and daydreams that are decoupled from the environment. Consumers in an experiencing (vs. mind-wandering) mode place more importance on detecting change in their environment, which leads them to prioritize attention toward changeable stimuli (like price) and subsequently afford such stimuli greater weight in judgments and decisions. The research not only uncovers a novel stimuli characteristic -- changeability -- important in both the domain of attention modes and judgments but also diverges from the typical characterization of price as a salient cue or heuristic to generate a unique set of findings based on price's inherently changeable nature. More broadly, the findings highlight a way in which consumers' fundamental judgment and decision-making processes are shaped by cognitive mechanisms designed for the physical world.

Volume 42, Number 2, August 2015
DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv016
 
Craig J. Thompson
T
uba �st�ner


This study analyzes the marketplace performances that are enacted in the field of women's flat track roller derby using the theoretical lens of gender performativity. Rather than treating the roller derby field as an autonomous enclave of gender resistance, this study focuses on the interrelationships between derby grrrls' resignifying performances of femininity and the gender constraints that have been naturalized in their everyday lives. The market-mediated nature of derby grrrls' ideological edgework enables them to challenge orthodox gender boundaries, without losing sociocultural legitimacy. This analysis casts new theoretical light on the gendered habitus and reveals key differences to the outcomes that would follow from Bourdieusian assumptions about the deployment of cultural capital in zero-sum status competitions. The concept of ideological edgework also presents a theoretical alternative to critical arguments, such as the commodity feminism thesis, that assume an inherently paradoxical and, ultimately co-opting, relationship exists between practices of countercultural resistance and marketplace performances. The authors further argue that ideological edgework redresses some of the conceptual ambiguities that can lead gender researchers to conflate gender performativity with social performances.

Volume 42, Number 2, August 2015
DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv013
 

Transformative Consumer Research

(Spring/Summer 2015)

Curator: Julie L. Ozanne

Products as Signals

(Winter 2014/2015)

Curator: Page Moreau

Meaningful Choice

(Autumn 2014)

Curator: Jennifer Aaker

Morality and the Marketplace

(Summer 2014)

Curator: Kent Grayson

      
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