{"title":"How Numerical Cognition Explains Ambiguity Aversion","authors":"Marina Lenkovskaya, Steven Sweldens","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae041","url":null,"abstract":"Consumers generally prefer precise probabilities or outcomes over imprecise ranges with the same expected value, a bias known as ‘ambiguity aversion.’ We argue that two elementary principles of numerical cognition explain great heterogeneity in this bias, affecting consumer choices in many domains where options are characterized by varying levels of uncertainty (e.g., lotteries, discounts, investment products, vaccines, etc). The first principle, the ‘compression effect,’ stipulates that consumers’ mental number lines are increasingly compressed at greater number magnitudes. This alone suffices to predict ambiguity aversion as it causes a midpoint (e.g., $40) to be perceived as closer to the upper bound of a range (e.g., $60) compared to its lower bound (e.g., $20). Furthermore, as the compression effect distorts the mental number line especially at lower numbers, it follows that ambiguity aversion should decrease around greater numbers. The second principle, the ‘left-digit effect’ causes a range’s relative attractiveness to decrease (increase) disproportionately with every left-digit transition in its lower (upper) bound, thus increasing (decreasing) ambiguity aversion. Due to the overall compression effect, the impact of the left-digit effect increases at greater numbers. We present 34 experiments (N = 10634), to support the theory’s predictions and wide applicability.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141568579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michelle F Weinberger, Ernest Baskin, Kunter Gunasti
{"title":"Relational Gifting: Conceptual Frameworks and an Agenda for a New Generation of Research","authors":"Michelle F Weinberger, Ernest Baskin, Kunter Gunasti","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae042","url":null,"abstract":"Relational gifts are given among known social connections and are oriented towards relationship work and care. An abundance of gifting research over the past 50 years has focused on gift selection and reception, most recently on variables driving mismatches between what givers and recipients think make good gifts. That work lays an essential foundation. However, important opportunities remain to deepen understandings by broadening the focus to view gifting as a relational, social, and often longitudinal process that is intertwined within evolving social and cultural contexts. This paper conceptualizes three under-researched areas of opportunity on relational gifting: 1) understanding the evolving and contextualized experience of a gift in recipients’ lives, 2) tracing the gift circuit, the dynamics of gifting within social relationships over time, and 3) mapping relational gifting as a dynamic gift system that reflects and reinforces social structure and networks of care. Together, these three areas present important ground for future psychological, sociological, and anthropological consumer research that deepens understanding of when, how, and why relational gifts matter and the relational work that these gifts enable. Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to set an agenda for a new generation of relational gifting research.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141577336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gwarlann de Kerviler, Catherine Demangeot, Pierre-Yann Dolbec
{"title":"Why and How Consumers Perform Online Reviewing Differently","authors":"Gwarlann de Kerviler, Catherine Demangeot, Pierre-Yann Dolbec","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae040","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewing products and services is a widespread consumer activity in which millions engage. Why and how do consumers review differently from one another? Prior work assumes that consumers commonly understand what reviewing is. Consequently, it attributes differences in reviewing to individual variations in psychological, motivational, and sociodemographic characteristics, consumption experiences, and expertise. This central assumption is problematic because it fails to consider that differences in how consumers understand reviewing may explain why they approach and perform reviewing differently. To address this gap, we analyze a large qualitative data set composed of reviews and interviews with their authors. Our insights complement prior work by theorizing the sociocultural shaping of reviewing. We answer why consumers review differently by inductively theorizing the concept of reviewing orientation—a cultural model comprising a set of interconnected characteristics that shapes how consumers review and translates into a distinct reviewer voice—a reviewer’s standpoint expressed within a review. We answer how consumers review differently by developing three reviewing orientations: communal sharing, systemic evaluation, and competitive punditry. Finally, we discuss the transferability of the findings, the role of institutional dynamics in reviewing, and recommendations for online review platforms and marketers.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141551652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohamed A Hussein, Courtney Lee, S Christian Wheeler
{"title":"How Do Consumers React to Ads That Meddle in Out-Party Primaries?","authors":"Mohamed A Hussein, Courtney Lee, S Christian Wheeler","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae039","url":null,"abstract":"In 2022, Democrats spent $53 million on ads helping far-right candidates win Republican primaries. Paying for ads that support far-right candidates, the reasoning went, could help Democrats win in the general elections because it is easier to beat extreme than moderate candidates. In the current research, we ask: how do consumers react to the use of “meddle ads”? On the one hand, because of rising levels of polarization, consumers might be accepting, or even supportive, of meddle ads. On the other hand, because meddle ads might come across as unethical and risky, consumers might be averse to their use. Across seven main studies and ten supplemental studies (N = 7,740) using multiple empirical approaches—including conjoint analysis, vignette studies, incentive-compatible donation studies, and analysis of online comments using human coders and NLP tools—we find that consumers are averse to the use of meddle ads. This aversion is driven by three factors: concerns about the character of the candidate, outcome-related risk (losing elections), and system-related risk (losing trust in democracy). These findings contribute to research on political marketing, provide practical guidance for marketers around meddle ads, and identify a novel type of risk perceptions with implications for consumer behavior research.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141551651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Therapy for Negative Consumption Experiences: The Impact of Emotional and Rational Reviews on Review Writers","authors":"Alisa Yinghao Wu, Vicki G Morwitz","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae037","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This research tests a solution for consumers to recover faster from negative experiences. We identify this solution by examining how the manner in which review writers express their emotions and rational thoughts in their reviews causally influences review writers. The results of five studies (field data and experiments) show that, similar to writing about traumatic life events, when review writers express both emotional and rational aspects in reviews about negative consumption experiences, they feel better afterwards (ie, they recover affectively), and are more likely to purchase again (ie, they recover cognitively). We further examine why writing integrated reviews has positive effects on review writers by collecting biophysiological response data, which provides support for an account related to affective recovery, and by analyzing thought listing data, which provides support for an account related to cognitive recovery. This research shows that writing online reviews can serve as a digital therapy tool that helps consumers recover from negative experiences.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141338730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identities without Products: When the Preference for Self-Linked Products Weakens","authors":"Liad Weiss, Robin J Tanner","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae038","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Extant literature and common marketing practices converge around the idea that stronger self-links to a brand and its products lead to increased brand loyalty. In this paper, we challenge this conventional notion by revealing situations where the preference for self-linked brands diminishes, despite the self-links remaining unchanged. We introduce a key distinction between two types of consumer identities based on whether identity expression relies on specific products: product-dependent (e.g., chef) and product-independent (e.g., foodie). Our theory posits that self-links to products exert less influence on preference when a product-independent identity is prominent. Across five studies examining consumer leisure identities, we find that priming a product-independent (vs. product-dependent) identity reduces preference for self-linked products/brands. Interestingly, it can also enhance preference for negatively self-linked (dissociative) products/brands among materialistic consumers. In a sixth experiment and a real-world Facebook study, we illustrate that the extent to which consumers’ identity is chronically product-independent can be assessed either directly or indirectly from social media interests, allowing for more effective targeting of brand-switching appeals. Adding to the literature on the symbolic role of products in identity expression, our research uniquely investigates the functional role of products in identity expression and its profound impact on product/brand preference.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141348832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using Cultural Repertoires during Unsettled Times","authors":"Ye (Nicole) Yang, Julie L Ozanne, Marcus Phipps","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae036","url":null,"abstract":"This research draws on the theory of culture in action, which explains how consumers selectively mobilize their cultural repertoires to understand and solve daily problems. Contemporary life, however, is increasingly unsettled, challenging the adequacy of consumers’ repertoires and how they use existing institutional cultural resources. This qualitative study identifies four ways that consumers use their cultural repertoires and institutional resources during unsettled times. Formulaic uses are when consumers mobilize familiar cultural tools and existing resources to resettle. Versatile uses are when consumers develop new cultural tools to transform while working within demanding institutional resources. Freewheeling uses are when consumers mobilize familiar cultural tools for play but rework institutional resources to be less demanding. Finally, troubleshooting uses are when consumers extend their existing cultural tools to suffice but reject institutional resources. These varied uses of culture capture how consumers either mobilize or develop their cultural repertoires and institutional resources to serve different ends. This study provides a more dynamic, pragmatic, and nuanced explanation of how consumers summon culture to solve problems during unsettled times. A conceptual model explains this process, and the discussion highlights the theoretical contributions.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141529785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Discomfort of Things! Tidying-up and Decluttering in Consumers’ Homes","authors":"Johanna Gollnhofer, Kushagra Bhatnagar, B. Manke","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae034","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Most relatively affluent consumers are fighting a losing battle with material disorder in their homes. No matter how hard they try to rein it in, material disorder always comes out on top. We argue that part of the continued obduracy of material disorder is because of its messy understanding. We clarify material disorder’s muddled conceptual boundaries by theorizing from an ethnographic investigation of consumers who recently dealt with material disorder through decluttering their homes. Leveraging twin analytical lenses that we label the possessive materialist and post-materialist lenses, we surface two distinct yet inter-dependent forms of disorder (disorder-as-untidiness, and disorder-as-clutteredness) that together plague consumers’ homes. We contribute a pluralized understanding of material disorder, ie, disorders not disorder. We also offer novel insight into agentic struggles between consumers and home possessions over material dis/orders.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141105840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marisabel Romero, Adam W Craig, Milica Mormann, Anand Kumar
{"title":"Are ‘10-Grams of Protein” Better than ’Ten Grams of Protein”? How Digits versus Number Words Influence Consumer Judgments","authors":"Marisabel Romero, Adam W Craig, Milica Mormann, Anand Kumar","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae030","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Numerical information can be communicated using different number formats, such as digits (“5”) or number words (“five”). For example, a battery product may claim to last for “5 hours” or “five hours.” And while these two formats are used interchangeably in the marketplace, it is not clear how they influence consumer judgments and behavior. Via six experimental studies, two online ad campaigns, and one large secondary dataset analysis, we find that digits, compared to number words, positively affect consumer behavior. We refer to this phenomenon as the number format effect. We further show that the number format effect occurs because consumers feel that digits (vs. number words) are the right way to present numerical information: digits lead to a sense of feeling right that then affects consumer behavior. Finally, we show that the number format effect is amplified when credibility of the source of information is low, and attenuated when source credibility is high. The current research advances knowledge of how numerical information influences consumer judgments and behavior and carries important implications for marketers and policymakers as they communicate numerical information to consumers.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141104340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Aversion to Intervention: How the Protestant Work Ethic Influences Preferences for Natural Healthcare","authors":"Yimin Cheng, Anirban Mukhopadhyay","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucae033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The term “natural” is ubiquitous in advertising and branding, but limited research has investigated how consumers respond and relate to naturalness. Some researchers have documented preferences for natural products, specifically food, but there has been scant investigation of the psychological antecedents of such preferences, especially in the critical, multi-trillion dollar domain of healthcare. Using publicly available country-level data from 41 countries and individual-level experimental and survey data from the lab and online panels, we find converging evidence that consumers do indeed differ in their preferences for relatively natural versus artificial healthcare options. These differences are influenced by the extent to which they subscribe to the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE)—a belief system that influences judgments and behaviors across diverse domains—such that people who subscribe strongly (vs. weakly) to the PWE are more likely to prefer natural healthcare options, because they are more averse to external intervention in general. Further, belief in the PWE makes consumers more sensitive to the intrusiveness of an intervention than to its extent. Theoretical and substantive implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141112624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}