Showing papers by "James R. Bettman published in 2014"

Surcharges plus Unhealthy Labels Reduce Demand for Unhealthy Menu Items

Abstract: Three laboratory experiments and a field experiment in a restaurant demonstrate that neither a price surcharge nor an unhealthy label is enough on its own to curtail the demand for unhealthy food. However, when the two are combined as an unhealthy label surcharge, they reduce demand for unhealthy food. The authors also show that the unhealthy label is as effective for women as the unhealthy label surcharge, whereas it backfires for men, who order more unhealthy food when there is an unhealthy label alone. The authors demonstrate that an unhealthy surcharge, which highlights both the financial disincentive and potential health costs, can significantly drive healthier consumption choices. From a policy and government perspective, if the goal is to reduce demand for unhealthy food, increasing the transparency of the health rationale for any financial disincentive is necessary to effectively lower unhealthy food consumption.

Self-Brand Connections: The Role of Reference Groups and Celebrity Endorsers in the Creation of Brand Meaning

Abstract: This chapter explores cross-cultural differences in brand extension response in more detail. It examines the idea that brand extension response differs between cultures due to differences in the way that brand extension fit is judged. The chapter focuses on research on cross-cultural psychology describing cultural differences in styles of thinking, with East Asian societies characterized by holistic thinking and Western societies characterized by analytic thinking. Holistic thinking involves an orientation to the context or field as a whole, whereas analytic thinking involves a detachment of the object from its context and a focus on attributes of the object. Our general prediction is that styles of thinking influence the way in which consumers from Eastern versus Western cultures judge brand extension fit and arrive at brand extension evaluations. All of the studies reported in the chapter make comparisons across different cultural groups.

Feeling Love and Doing More for Distant Others: Specific Positive Emotions Differentially Affect Prosocial Consumption

Abstract: Marketers often employ a variety of positive emotions to encourage consumption or promote a particular behavior (e.g., to buy, donate, or recycle) benefiting an organization or cause. We show that specific positive emotions do not universally increase prosocial behavior but rather encourage different types of prosocial behavior. Four studies show that whereas positive emotions (i.e., love, hope, pride, compassion) all induce prosocial behavior toward close entities (relative to a neutral emotional state), only love induces prosocial behavior toward distant others and international organizations. Love’s effect is driven by a distinct form of broadening, characterized by extending feelings of social connection and the boundary of caring to be more inclusive of others regardless of relatedness. Love — as a trait and a momentary emotion — is unique among positive emotions in fostering connectedness that other positive emotions (hope and pride) do not and broadening behavior in a way that other connected emotions (compassion) do not. This research contributes to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion by demonstrating a distinct type of broadening for love and adds an important qualification to the general finding that positive emotions uniformly encourage prosocial behavior.