Showing papers in "Journal of Consumer Research in 2001"

Consumers' Need for Uniqueness: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract: Consumers acquire and display material possessions for the purpose of feeling differentiated from other people and, thus, are targeted with a variety of marketing stimuli that attempt to enhance self‐perceptions of uniqueness. Because the pursuit of differentness (or counterconformity motivation) varies across individuals to influence consumer responses, we develop and validate a trait measure of consumers’ need for uniqueness. Consumers' need for uniqueness is defined as an individual’s pursuit of differentness relative to others that is achieved through the acquisition, utilization, and disposition of consumer goods for the purpose of developing and enhancing one’s personal and social identity. Following assessments of the scale’s latent structure, a series of validation studies examines the scale’s validity. The presentation of empirical work is followed by a discussion of how consumers' need for uniqueness could be used in better understanding consumer behavior and the role consumption plays in people...

On the Use of College Students in Social Science Research: Insights from a Second‐Order Meta‐analysis

Abstract: A second‐order meta‐analysis was conducted to assess the implications of using college student subjects in social science research. Four meta‐analyses investigating response homogeneity (cumulative N > 650,000) and 30 meta‐analyses reporting effect sizes for 65 behavioral or psychological relationships (cumulative N > 350,000) provided comparative data for college student subjects and nonstudent (adult) subjects for the present research. In general, responses of college student subjects were found to be slightly more homogeneous than those of nonstudent subjects. Moreover, effect sizes derived from college student subjects frequently differed from those derived from nonstudent subjects both directionally and in magnitude. Because there was no systematic pattern to the differences observed, caution must be exercised when attempting to extend any relationship found using college student subjects to a nonstudent (adult) population. The results augur in favor of, and emphasize the importance of, replicating r...

“I” Seek Pleasures and “We” Avoid Pains: The Role of Self-Regulatory Goals in Information Processing and Persuasion

Abstract: In four experiments, we show that goals associated with approach and avoidance needs influence persuasion and that the accessibility of distinct self-views moderates these effects. Specifically, individuals with an accessible independent selfview are more persuaded by promotion-focused information that is consistent with an approach goal. In contrast, individuals whose interdependent self-view is more accessible are more persuaded by prevention focused information that is consistent with an avoidance goal. When the persuasive appeal is compatible with self-regulatory focus, individuals demonstrate greater recall of the message content and are more discerning regarding argument strength. These findings provide convergent evidence that central processing under goal compatible conditions underlies the persuasion effects.

Utopian Enterprise: Articulating the Meanings of Star Trek’s Culture of Consumption

Abstract: In this article, I examine the cultural and subcultural construction of consumption meanings and practices as they are negotiated from mass media images and objects. Field notes and artifacts from 20 months of fieldwork at Star Trek fan clubs, at conventions, and in Internet groups, and 67 interviews with Star Trek fans are used as data. Star Trek’s subculture of consumption is found to be constructed as a powerful utopian refuge. Stigma, social situation, and the need for legitimacy shape the diverse subcultures’ consumption meanings and practices. Legitimizing articulations of Star Trek as a religion or myth underscore fans’ heavy investment of self in the text. These sacralizing articulations are used to distance the text from its superficial status as a commercial product. The findings emphasize and describe how consumption often fulfills the contemporary hunger for a conceptual space in which to construct a sense of self and what matters in life. They also reveal broader cultural tensions between the...

Consumer Self‐Confidence: Refinements in Conceptualization and Measurement

Abstract: The development and validation of measures to assess multiple dimensions of consumer self‐confidence are described in this article. Scale‐development procedures resulted in a six‐factor correlated model made up of the following dimensions: information acquisition, consideration‐set formation, personal outcomes, social outcomes, persuasion knowledge, and marketplace interfaces. A series of studies demonstrate the psychometric properties of the measures, their discriminant validity with respect to related constructs, their construct validity, and their ability to moderate relationships among other important consumer behavior variables.

The Moderating Effect of Perceived Risk on Consumers’ Evaluations of Product Incongruity: Preference for the Norm

Abstract: Research supports the existence of a “moderate incongruity effect” such that an option that is moderately inconsistent with an evoked product category schema is sometimes preferred to a congruent option. We propose that perceived risk is an important situational factor that moderates the impact of congruity on evaluations. Three studies show that the positive evaluation of moderately incongruent products, relative to congruent ones, does not appear when there is risk associated with product selection. When consumers perceive high risk associated with a purchase, the moderate incongruity effect is reversed such that the congruent is preferred to the moderately incongruent product. Only in conditions where subjects perceived no real risk did the positive effect of moderate incongruity appear. The limiting effect of perceived risk appears to be due to consumers’ “preferences for the norm” under high‐risk conditions. The set of findings are discussed as they relate to and extend current thinking about the eff...

The Influence of Task Complexity on Consumer Choice: A Latent Class Model of Decision Strategy Switching

Abstract: The literature indicating that person‐, context‐, and task‐specific factors cause consumers to utilize different decision strategies has generally failed to affect the specification of choice models used by practitioners and academics alike, who still tend to assume an utility maximizing, omniscient, indefatigable consumer. This article (1) introduces decision strategy selection, within a maintained compensatory framework, into aggregate choice models via latent classes, which arise because of task complexity; (2) it demonstrates that within an experimental choice task, the model reflects changing aggregate preferences as choice complexity changes and as the task progresses. The import of these findings for current practice, model interpretation, and future research needs is examined.

Withholding consumption: A social dilemma perspective on consumer boycotts.

Abstract: This article draws on social dilemma theory and reference group theory to understand the individual boycott decision and tests the predictions stemming from this conceptualization in two experiments. Consistent with our predictions, consumers' likelihood of participating in both economic and social-issue boycotts is jointly determined by their perceptions of the boycott's likelihood of success, their susceptibility to normative social influences, and the costs they incur in boycotting. Consumers' success perceptions are, in turn, determined by their expectations of overall participation and efficacy, as well as the message frame inherent in proboycott communications. Two key determinants of consumers' boycotting costs are their preference for the boycotted product and their access to its substitutes. More specifically, consumers who are more susceptible to the normative influence exerted by the reference group of potential boycotters are more influenced by expected overall participation rates in their boycott likelihood.

Affect Monitoring and the Primacy of Feelings in Judgment

Abstract: Multidisciplinary evidence suggests that people often make evaluative judgments by monitoring their feelings toward the target. This article examines, in the context of moderately complex and consciously accessible stimuli, the judgmental properties of consciously monitored feelings. Results from four studies show that, compared to cold, reason-based assessments of the target, the conscious monitoring of feelings provides judgmental responses that are ( a ) potentially faster, ( b ) more stable and consistent across individuals, and importantly ( c ) more predictive of the number and valence of people's thoughts. These findings help explain why the monitoring of feelings is an often diagnostic pathway to evaluation in judgment and decision making.

“What Is It?” Categorization Flexibility and Consumers' Responses to Really New Products

Abstract: To understand really new products, consumers face the challenge of constructing new knowledge structures rather simply changing existing ones. Recent research in categorization suggests that one strategy for creating representations for these new products is to use information already contained in familiar product categories. While knowledge from multiple existing categories may be relevant, little research has examined how (and if) consumers process information drawn from more than one domain. We use two experiments to demonstrate how consumers use cues from multiple categories to develop expectations about and preferences for new products. Our findings suggest that the first plausible category label provided to the consumer significantly influences their categorizations, expectations, and preferences. Only when advertisers place limits on the type of information to transfer from each existing category can consumers use information from multiple categories effectively.

The Effect of Novel Attributes on Product Evaluation

Abstract: Many technological innovations introduce attributes that are novel or completely unknown to a large number of consumers. For example, recently introduced attributes such as GPS in cars or I‐Link in computers are likely to have been novel to many consumers. Past research suggests that the addition of novel attributes is likely to improve product evaluation and sales, since consumers interpret these attributes as additional benefits provided by the manufacturer. However, this article demonstrates that the positive effect of novel attributes holds only in the case of low‐complexity products. In the case of high‐complexity products, the addition of novel attributes can actually reduce product evaluation because of negative learning‐cost inferences about these attributes. Further, the positive and negative effects of novel attributes on product evaluation are accentuated by external search for information when the information discovered through search is ambiguous in nature. Finally, it is shown that the negat...

Effects of Payment Mechanism on Spending Behavior: The Role of Rehearsal and Immediacy of Payments

Abstract: Past expenses have been shown to influence future spending behavior by depleting available budgets. However, a prerequisite for this relationship is the accurate recall of past payments and the experiencing of the full aversive impact associated with them. This article shows that the use of different payment mechanisms influences both these factors and hence moderates the effects of past payments on future spending. Specifically, past payments strongly reduce purchase intention when the payment mechanism requires the consumer to write down the amount paid (rehearsal) and when the consumer’s wealth is depleted immediately rather than with a delay (immediacy). Two experiments show support for the proposed theoretical framework.

Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity

Abstract: Two field studies investigate the importance of social presence (real and imagined) and familiarity with the purchase act in producing embarrassment in the context of an embarrassing product purchase. The results indicate that awareness of a social presence during purchase selection and commitment, whether real or imagined, is a motivating factor in creating embarrassment for the consumer. Further, our results show that the more familiar consumers are with an embarrassing product purchase, the less embarrassed they are likely to feel. Familiarity with an embarrassing product purchase is also shown to have implications for the effect of social presence. That is, familiarity with purchase acts as a moderator for the relationship of real social presence and embarrassment by reducing the influence of the social presence. In the context of an imagined social presence, purchase familiarity is shown to reduce the likelihood of imagining. These findings are integrated into a discussion of the theoretical implications and the potential avenues for future research in the area.

Gift Giving in Hong Kong and the Continuum of Social Ties

Abstract: This article explores gift‐giving practices using data collected through interviews in Hong Kong. I argue that Chinese culture promotes the familial over the private self and that the attainment of family‐oriented goals represents an important measure of self‐realization and self‐fulfillment. Although each individual also has a private or inner self (chi), it is also subject to the collective will. This idea is in keeping with Confucian ideals that encourage the individual to focus on developing internal moral constraints and conquering selfishness in the pursuit of social propriety. Furthermore, the boundaries of the familial self are permeable and may include others, such as important romantic partners and, occasionally, close friends who become “like family.” In family and like‐family contexts, reciprocity is discouraged, and there is no need to build relationships through gift giving. Our research also suggests, however, that there are various gradations of intimacy in gift relationships against the b...

Emotional Contagion Effects on Product Attitudes

Abstract: Two experiments examine the existence of, and explanation for, emotional contagion effects on product attitudes. In the first experiment, emotional contagion occurred among “receivers” who “caught” a happy emotion from “senders” whom the receivers liked. The relationship between the emotion experienced by senders and receivers was found to be mediated by receivers mimicking smiling on the part of senders. Exposing receivers to happy senders they liked also resulted in receivers having a positive attitudinal bias toward a product. The happiness experienced by receivers via contagion was found to mediate the effects of sender emotion and receiver liking of the sender on receiver product attitudes. The second experiment replicated the first while demonstrating that observation of the facial expressions of senders by receivers, thus allowing mimicking of smiling, was a necessary condition for emotional contagion to occur. The relevance of emotional contagion for understanding consumer behavior across various ...

Effects of Brand Logo Complexity, Repetition, and Spacing on Processing Fluency and Judgment

Abstract: It is generally accepted that repeated exposure to an advertisement can influence liking for an advertisement and for the brand names and product packages included in the advertisement. Although it has often been assumed that repeated exposure leads to a direct affective response, more recent evidence suggests that prior exposure leads to processing fluency at the time of judgment. It is a misattribution about the source of this processing fluency that results in preference for the stimulus. To date, the majority of research on the processing fluency/attribution hypothesis has focused on when people will make fluency-based attributions, while assuming the amount of the processing fluency is a direct function of exposure. In this article, we propose that stimulus characteristics and presentation factors will interact with repetition to determine the amount of processing fluency associated with a stimulus at various levels of exposure. Four studies are used to test whether two-factor theory or dual-process theory provides a better account of the source of the processing fluency. Implications for logo design are discussed.

Sometimes It Just Feels Right: The Differential Weighting of Affect-Consistent and Affect-Inconsistent Product Information

Abstract: An affect-confirmation process is proposed to explain the conditions in which information that is similar in valence (i.e., evaluatively consistent) with a person's mood is weighted more heavily in product judgments. Specifically, the affect that participants experience as a result of a transitory mood state may appear to either confirm or disconfirm their reactions to product information, leading them to give this information more or less weight when evaluating the product as a whole. This affective confirmation typically occurs when hedonic criteria are considered more important in evaluation than utilitarian criteria. Four experiments confirmed implications of this conceptualization.

The Role of Sensory‐Specific Satiety in Attribute‐Level Variety Seeking

Abstract: The variety seeking theoretical paradigm offers little guidance regarding the attributes of a stimulus that are most likely to drive the desire to switch. We review 25 years of research in physiobehavior, arguing that it can be extended in a natural way to predict that consumers are more likely to switch between sensory attributes (e.g., flavor) than nonsensory attributes (e.g., brand). Specifically, we examine the work on sensory‐specific satiety, a term used to describe the phenomenon whereby the pleasantness of a food just eaten drops significantly while the pleasantness of uneaten foods remains unchanged. These findings lead to the thesis explored in this research that consumers are more likely to seek variety on sensory attributes, which is then tested across three studies comparing flavor switching to brand switching. Study 1 uses ACNielsen wand panel data for purchases of tortilla chips and cake mixes from almost 2,000 consumers over a three‐year period. Study 2 examines actual consumption behavior...

The Desperate Need for Replications

Abstract: An overemphasis on creativity for evaluating research has lead to a serious devaluation of replication studies. However, we need a total sample size of \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} ewcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} ormalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $N=153,669$ \end{document} to estimate a causal effect to two digits, which is quite rare for a single study. The only way to get accurate estimation is to average across replications. If the average sample size were as high as \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usep...

Consuming the American West: Animating Cultural Meaning and Memory at a Stock Show and Rodeo

Abstract: This ethnographic research examines consumers' cultural production at a cattle trade show and rodeo. Consumers recreate western cultural meanings and memories related to competition, naturalism, freedom/independence, and family tradition in their interactions with ranchers, booth exhibitors, animals, and artifacts of western history. Consumers' cultural production processes are documented at four levels: consumer behavior, situational positioning, subcultural interactions, and market interactions. Implications elaborate the significance of consumers' active, yet constrained production processes; the role of cultural meanings as market mediators; and issues in consuming another culture.

The Economics of Consumer Knowledge

Abstract: While approaches to measuring the state of a consumer's knowledge are well developed, much less is known about the relationship between knowledge and consumer choice and information search. The purpose of this article is to explore these relationships by treating consumer knowledge as human capital, which affects the full price of consumption and search activities. Using this framework, models are presented to explain life cycle consumption patterns, lifestyles, brand loyalty, choice of features, and search behavior. This economic perspective is compared and contrasted to other consumer research on these topics, including recent qualitative research that examines consumption behavior.

Two Ways of Learning Brand Associations

Abstract: Four studies show that consumers have not one but two distinct learning processes that allow them to use brand names and other product features to predict consumption benefits. The first learning process is a relatively unfocused process in which all stimulus elements get cross-referenced for later retrieval. This process is backward looking and consistent with human associative memory (HAM) models. The second learning process requires that a benefit be the focus of prediction during learning. It assumes feature-benefit associations change only to the extent that the expected performance of the product does not match the experienced performance of the product. This process is forward looking and consistent with adaptive network models. The importance of this two-process theory is most apparent when a product has multiple features. During HAM learning, each featurebenefit association will develop independently. During adaptive learning, features will compete to predict benefits and, thus, feature-benefit associations will develop interdependently. We find adaptive learning of feature-benefit associations when consumers are motivated to learn to predict a benefit (e.g., because it is perceived to have hedonic relevance) but find HAM learning when consumers attend to an associate of lesser motivational significance.

Reference Price and Price Perceptions: A Comparison of Alternative Models

Abstract: Reference price effects on consumer price perceptions are often explained by Helson's adaptation-level theory, in which the cognitive representation of reference price is the prototype of the relevant category. However, recent conceptualizations and empirical evidence suggest the possibility of an exemplar model, which may be specified using Volkmann's range theory or Parducci's range-frequency theory. In two experiments, these three contextual models of reference price effects are pitted against one another. Based on the MANOVA and model fitting, range-frequency theory accounted for reference price effects that the other theories could not, suggesting that consumers compare the target price against specific members of the category rather than the category prototype. A third experiment demonstrated that range and frequency effects are moderated by the stimulus presentation condition, suggesting that consumers place greater weight on extreme prices anchoring the range for internal reference prices than for external reference prices.

Trade-ins, Mental Accounting, and Product Replacement Decisions

Abstract: When a consumer who already owns a durable‐type product in a category faces the opportunity to upgrade to a new, higher‐quality product, the replacement purchase decision is driven by both normative economic factors and psychological factors. As a normative decision maker, s/he considers the purchase price of the new alternative, but s/he additionally considers the mental cost of retiring the old product before s/he has gotten his/her money’s worth out of it. During ownership of a product, a consumer mentally depreciates the initial purchase price, thus creating a “mental book value” for the product. The write‐off of this mental book value is felt as the mental cost of a replacement purchase. Based on the principles of mental accounting and mental depreciation, I provide a theoretical explanation for this mental cost and why an individual’s replacement purchase decision may be more sensitive to the mental cost than the marginal cost. When applied appropriately, mental accounting can serve a useful purpose...

The Moderating Effect of Knowledge and Resources on the Persuasive Impact of Analogies

Abstract: Four experiments were conducted to examine the persuasive impact of new product appeals containing an analogy. An analogy highlights the similarity in the benefits offered by a familiar base product and an unfamiliar target product. This device is found to be persuasive when ( a ) message recipients have the ability to map attribute relations from some base category to understand the benefits of a target product, and ( b ) they allocate the substantial resources needed to complete this mapping. In the absence of either of these conditions, the persuasive impact of an analogy is more limited. A variety of devices, including expertise with the base product, training in how to process base information, and a positive mood, are shown to improve the comprehension of an analogy and to enhance its persuasiveness.

Opportunities for Improving Consumer Research through Latent Variable Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract: This article discusses several advantages of latent variable structural equation modeling (LVSEM), and the potential it has for solving some fundamental problems hindering research in the field. The advantages highlighted include the ability to control for measurement error; an enhanced ability to test the effects of experimental manipulations; the ability to test complex theoretical structures; the ability to link micro and macro perspectives; and more powerful ways to assess measure reliability and validity. My hope is to sensitize researchers to some of the key limitations of currently used alternative methodologies, and demonstrate how LVSEM can help to improve theory testing and development in our discipline.

Moderators of Language Effects in Advertising to Bilinguals: A Psycholinguistic Approach

Abstract: This article examines a psycholinguistic model of bilingual concept organization and extends it to the processing of advertisements by bilingual consumers. The model suggests that second‐language (L2) messages result in inferior memory as compared with first‐language (L1) stimuli. These language asymmetries in memory are thought to occur because processing an L2 message at a conceptual level is less likely than processing an L1 message conceptually. Applying this notion to advertisements, this research examines picture‐text congruity as a potential moderator of language effects in memory. The results suggest that a high level of congruity between picture and text facilitates conceptual processing of L2 messages, increasing memory for second‐language ads and thereby reducing the impact of language asymmetries on memory.

A Consumer Perspective on Price‐Matching Refund Policies: Effect on Price Perceptions and Search Behavior

Abstract: Although price-matching refund policies are common in many retail environments, the impact of such policies on consumers has largely been ignored. This article reports the results of three studies that examine price-matching policies from a consumer perspective. Study 1 shows that consumers perceive price-matching policies as signals of low store prices and that the presence of a refund increases the likelihood of discontinuing price search. Contrary to the predictions based on signaling theory in information economics, studies 2 and 3 show that when search costs are low, the number of stores searched increases in the presence versus absence of a price-matching policy. When search costs are high, consumers appear to accept the price-matching signal at face value and search less in the presence of a refund. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical implications of the findings and suggesting directions for future research.

The Seventh Moment: Qualitative Inquiry and the Practices of a More Radical Consumer Research

Abstract: My intentions in this essay are fivefold: (1) to show how the discourses of qualitative inquiry and cultural studies in the seventh moment can be put to critical advantage by consumer researchers; (2) to discuss the cultural studies assumptions that define a consumer research agenda; (3) to offer a set of interpretive, methodological, and ethical criteria that can be used by consumer researchers; (4) to apply these criteria to a concrete case, a reading of the Hollywood “hood” films of the last decade; and thereby (5) to establish the relevance of this approach for the practices of critical consumer research. Throughout I use examples from the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s.

Consumer Research for Consumers

Abstract: This article outlines a consumer‐focused approach for the study of consumer behavior. I argue that much of the existing literature, by developing knowledge that focuses on the determinants of consumer purchasing, is implicitly biased toward a marketing perspective of consumer behavior. In contrast, I propose the need for a consumer‐focused approach that would advance knowledge aimed at helping consumers make wiser purchases. This approach should address the most important and challenging consumer decisions, describe consumer behavior in a manner that leads to prescriptions, consider the actions of other parties in the marketplace, and identify biases unique to or exacerbated by the consumer context. This article then illustrates what such a consumer‐focused approach would imply for consumer research in three areas: negotiations, financial services, and auctions.