Showing papers by "Carlos J. Torelli published in 2007"

Culture and Mental Representations of Power: Implications for Consumers' Information-Processing Strategies, Judgments, and Influence Attempts

Abstract: This research examines the link between culture and consumer phenomena by focusing on the relationship between cultural orientation and mental representations of power. We distinguish among cultures that foster associations of power with statusenhancing concerns, those that encourage associations of power with concerns for the welfare of others, and those that do not emphasize the use of power as a theme for organizing social information. The research builds upon the relatively new distinction in the study of culture between horizontal (valuing equality) and vertical (emphasizing status and power) cultural orientations. We analyze implications of this distinction in view of research about the effects of power on goal activation and motivated impression formation. Integrating these approaches, we develop a framework for linking cultural orientation with distinct mental representations of power. This helps us to predict the power-related goals that individuals with different cultural orientations activate in a given context. In turn, these goals determine individuals’ information-processing strategies when evaluating product information, and their subsequent judgments and actions. We develop an empirical plan to collect data for the proposed framework and discuss the implications to the broader domains of consumer behavior.

Individuality, Relatedness, Or None of the Above? How Thinking Concretely Can Impair the Activation of Self-Relevant Goals

Abstract: This research shows the importance of mindsets as cognitive processes that can interact with people’s self-representations and impact their interpretations of consumer situations. In four experiments, we show that individuals are more likely to bring to mind goals linked to a primed self-concept when they are in an abstract mindset (compared to a concrete mindset). Participants in an abstract mindset who are primed with independence bring to mind more independence goals whereas those primed with interdependence bring to mind more relatedness goals. In contrast, participants in a concrete mindset focus on concrete experiences from the situation regardless of self-concept priming.