Showing papers in "Journal of Consumer Research in 2017"

Crowdsourcing consumer research

Abstract: Data collection in consumer research has progressively moved away from traditional samples (e.g., university undergraduates) and toward Internet samples. In the last complete volume of the Journal of Consumer Research (June 2015-April 2016), 43% of behavioral studies were conducted on the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The option to crowdsource empirical investigations has great efficiency benefits for both individual researchers and the field, but it also poses new challenges and questions for how research should be designed, conducted, analyzed, and evaluated. We assess the evidence on the reliability of crowdsourced populations and the conditions under which crowdsourcing is a valid strategy for data collection. Based on this evidence, we propose specific guidelines for researchers to conduct high-quality research via crowdsourcing. We hope this tutorial will strengthen the community's scrutiny on data collection practices and move the field toward better and more valid crowdsourcing of consumer research.

Single-paper meta-analysis: Benefits for study summary, theory testing, and replicability.

Abstract: A typical behavioral research paper features multiple studies of a common phenomenon that are analyzed solely in isolation. Because the studies are of a common phenomenon, this practice is inefficient and foregoes important benefits that be obtained only by analyzing them jointly in a single paper meta-analysis (SPM). To facilitate SPM, we introduce metaanalytic methodology that is user-friendly, widely applicable, and specially tailored to the SPM of the set of studies that appear in a typical behavioral research paper. Our SPM methodology provides important benefits for study summary, theory-testing, and replicability that we illustrate via three case studies that include papers recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. We advocate that authors of typical behavioral research papers use it to supplement the single-study analyses that independently discuss the multiple studies in the body of their papers as well as the "qualitative meta-analysis" that verbally synthesizes the studies in the general discussion of their papers. When used as such, this requires only a minor modification of current practice. We provide an easy-to-use website that implements our SPM methodology.

MTurk Character Misrepresentation: Assessment and Solutions

Abstract: This tutorial provides evidence that character misrepresentation in survey screeners by Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers (“Turkers”) can substantially and significantly distort research findings. Using five studies, we demonstrate that a large proportion of respondents in paid MTurk studies claim a false identity, ownership, or activity in order to qualify for a study. The extent of misrepresentation can be unacceptably high, and the responses to subsequent questions can have little correspondence to responses from appropriately identified participants. We recommend a number of remedies to deal with the problem, largely involving strategies to take away the economic motive to misrepresent and to make it difficult for Turkers to recognize that a particular response will gain them access to a study. The major short-run solution involves a two-survey process that first asks respondents to identify their characteristics when there is no motive to deceive, and then limits the second survey to those who have passed this screen. The long-run recommendation involves building an ongoing MTurk participant pool (“panel”) that (1) continuously collects information that could be used to classify respondents, and (2) eliminates from the panel those who misrepresent themselves.

Keeping It Real in Experimental Research—Understanding When, Where, and How to Enhance Realism and Measure Consumer Behavior

Abstract: In this article, we consider why employing realistic experimental designs and measuring actual behavior is important and beneficial for consumer research. More specifically, we discuss when, where, and how researchers might go about doing this in order to increase the veracity and believability of their work. We analyze the choice of independent variables (IVs) along the experimental-realism dimension, ranging from artificial to realistic, and the choice of dependent variables (DVs) along the behavioral-measures dimension ranging from hypothetical intention to actual behavior. Importantly, we also map various goals of consumer research along these two dimensions to highlight when it is most appropriate to enhance the realism and behavioral measures of an experiment. Using a number of illustrative examples from research in the extant literature, we specifically highlight how consumer researchers can increase experimental realism and utilize actual-behavior measures in their experiments in order to improve both the fidelity of the research and the likelihood that the research provides insight into real consumer behavior.

Selling pain to the saturated self

Abstract: How can we comprehend people who pay for an experience marketed as painful? On one hand consumers spend billions of dollars every year to alleviate different kinds of pain. On the other hand, millions of individuals participate in extremely painful leisure pursuits. In trying to understand this conundrum, we ethnographically study a popular adventure challenge where participants subject themselves to electric shocks, fire and freezing water. Through sensory intensification, pain brings the body into sharp focus, allowing individuals to rediscover their corporeality. In addition, painful extraordinary experiences operate as regenerative escapes from the self. By flooding the consciousness with gnawing unpleasantness, pain provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness. Finally, when leaving marks and wounds, pain helps consumers create the story of a fulfilled life. In a context of decreased physicality, market operators play a major role in selling pain to the saturated selves of knowledge workers, who use pain as a way to simultaneously escape reflexivity and craft their life narrative.

Unveiling What Is Written in the Stars: Analyzing Explicit, Implicit, and Discourse Patterns of Sentiment in Social Media

Abstract: Deciphering consumer’s sentiment expressions from Big Data (e.g., online reviews) has become a managerial priority to monitor product and service evaluations. However, Sentiment Analysis, the process of automatically distilling sentiment from text, provides little insight regarding the language granularities beyond the use of positive and negative words. Drawing on Speech Act Theory, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the implicit and explicit language used by consumers to express sentiment in text. An empirical text mining study using more than 45,000 consumer reviews, demonstrates the differential impacts of activation levels (e.g., tentative language), implicit sentiment expressions (e.g., commissive language), and discourse patterns (e.g., incoherence) on overall consumer sentiment (i.e., star ratings). In two follow-up studies, we demonstrate that these speech act features also influence the readers’ behavior and are generalizable to other social media contexts such as Twitter and Facebook. We contribute to research on consumer sentiment analysis by offering a more nuanced understanding of consumer sentiments and their implications

Products as Pals: Engaging with Anthropomorphic Products Mitigates the Effects of Social Exclusion

Abstract: Feeling left out has been shown to trigger primal, automatic responses in an attempt to compensate for threats to social belongingness. Such responses typically involve reconnection with other human beings. However, four experiments provide evidence that exposure to or interaction with anthropomorphic consumer products (i.e., products featuring characteristics of being alive through design, interaction, intelligence, responsiveness, and/or personality) can also satisfy (at least partially) social needs, ultimately mitigating previously documented effects of social exclusion. Specifically, interacting with anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) products following social exclusion reduces 1) the need to exaggerate the number of one’s current social connections, 2) the anticipated need to engage with close others in the future, and 3) the willingness to engage in prosocial behavior. These effects are driven by a need for social assurance, rather than positive affect. Moreover, an important boundary condition exists: drawing attention to the fact that an anthropomorphic product is not actually alive (i.e., the product does not provide genuine human interaction) limits its ability to fulfill social needs. Thus, in a time when consumer products are becoming increasingly anthropomorphic in design and function, the results reveal potentially important consequences for human-to-human relationships.

Meaningful Mediation Analysis: Plausible Causal Inference and Informative Communication

Abstract: Statistical mediation analysis has become the technique of choice in consumer research to make causal inferences about the influence of a treatment on an outcome via one or more mediators. This tutorial aims to strengthen two weak links that impede statistical mediation analysis from reaching its full potential. The first weak link is the path from mediator to outcome, which is a correlation. Six conditions are described that this correlation needs to meet in order to make plausible causal inferences: directionality, reliability, unconfoundedness, distinctiveness, power, and mediation. Recommendations are made to increase the plausibility of causal inferences based on statistical mediation analysis. Sweetspot analysis is proposed to establish whether an observed mediator-outcome correlation falls within the region of statistically meaningful correlations. The second weak link is the communication of mediation results. Four components of informative communication of mediation analysis are described: effect decomposition, effect size, difference testing, and data sharing. Recommendations are made to improve the communication of mediation analysis. A review of 166 recently published mediation analyses in the Journal of Consumer Research, a reanalysis of two published datasets, and Monte Carlo simulations support the conclusions and recommendations.

Asking Questions with Reflexive Focus: A Tutorial on Designing and Conducting Interviews

Abstract: Interviews have been a key primary data source for research published in the Journal of Consumer Research. This tutorial aims to walk readers through the design and execution of interview-based empirical research on consumers and consumption.

Color Saturation Increases Perceived Product Size

Abstract: This research demonstrates a visual phenomenon with broad implications for consumers: the perceived size of products depends on the saturation of their color. Results from six experiments, employing objects and products with various shapes and hues, show that increasing color saturation increases size perceptions. This influence is explained by the tendency for saturated color to capture attention, which, in turn, is explained by the arousal that saturated color stimulates. This research also demonstrates several downstream outcomes of the effect of saturation on size perceptions: Evaluations are more favorable—and willingness to pay is higher—for products with high (low) saturation when usage goals call for large (small) size. Additionally, participants choose more of a product to fill a container with higher saturation. Further, the saturation of an object’s color affects the perceived size of its surroundings, such that when a product with high (vs. low) saturation is used as a benchmark, the environment is perceived to be comparatively smaller (vs. larger). Implications for aesthetics, design, sensory marketing, and related topics are discussed. Lastly, to aid future color research, an appendix outlines general challenges and recommendations in connection with the conceptualization, manipulation, and measurement of color.

Paths to Respectability: Consumption and Stigma Management in the Contemporary Black Middle Class

Abstract: When confronted with racial stigma, how do people manage it? What specific arrangements of objects and tactics do they mobilize to make everyday life more tolerable (if not more equal)? The politics of respectability (respectability) is one such arrangement. Respectability makes life more tolerable by offering a counternarrative that disavows stigma through status-oriented displays. This strategy of action emerged alongside mass consumer culture in the late 19th century, but what relevance does it have to those who are stigmatized in contemporary consumer culture? Based on ethnographic interviews and observations with middle-class African Americans, respectability remains an important strategy that has undergone profound changes since its origins while still operating in similar ways. In the late 20th century it fractured into two related but distinct counternarratives: (1) “discern and avoid,” which seeks distance from whatever is stigmatized, and (2) “destigmatize,” using black culture as a source of high status. Perceptions of how well either counternarrative manages stigma depend on how ideology, strategy, and consumption are connected via specific sociohistorical features of place and individual power resources. I illustrate those connections through four cases that show perceived success and perceived failure for each counternarrative.

Blue and Red Voices: Effects of Political Ideology on Consumers’ Complaining and Disputing Behavior

Abstract: Political ideology plays a pivotal role in shaping individuals’ attitudes, opinions, and behaviors. However, apart from a handful of studies, little is known about how consumers’ political ideology affects their marketplace behavior. The authors used three large consumer complaint databases from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Federal Communication Committee in conjunction with a county-level indicator of political ideology (the 2012 US presidential election results) to demonstrate that conservative consumers are not only less likely than liberal consumers to report complaints but also less likely to dispute complaint resolutions. A survey also sheds light on the relationship between political ideology and complaint/dispute behavior. Due to stronger motivations to engage in “system justification,” conservative (as opposed to liberal) consumers are less likely to complain or dispute. The present research offers a useful means of identifying those consumers most and least likely to complain and dispute, given that political ideology is more observable than most psychological factors and more stable than most situational factors. Furthermore, this research and its theoretical framework open opportunities for future research examining the influence of political ideology on other marketplace behaviors.

Social Acceptance and Word of Mouth: How the Motive to Belong Leads to Divergent WOM with Strangers and Friends

Abstract: Consumers are increasingly sharing product experiences with strangers and friends online. Despite the prevalence of word of mouth (WOM), little is known about how and why WOM differs based on whether people are talking to strangers or friends. The current article theorizes that one important motivation for WOM is social acceptance. To fulfill this motivation, people form and maintain existing relationships with others. Building on research in interpersonal relationships, we theorize that when communicating with strangers, people attempt to self-enhance to attract strangers into forming relationships with the self; when sharing with friends, on the other hand, people attempt to connect emotionally in order to maintain existing ties. A series of seven studies provide backing for this simple yet encompassing framework. Results of the current article provide insights into the motivations behind WOM, synthesize prior findings, and show that people systematically share different content with strangers versus friends. The current work makes theoretical contributions to research in interpersonal communication, social influence, and WOM, and holds practical implications for marketers interested in understanding consumer word of mouth.

Routines Disrupted: Reestablishing Security through Practice Alignment

Abstract: Routines are the taken-for-granted practices that form the rhythm of everyday life, making people feel secure. How do consumers manage when their routines are disrupted? Practice theorists assert that practices are important to understanding consumption and stress their shared, repetitive, and conventional nature. When practices are stable, they are performed effortlessly, producing feelings of ease and trust in a predictable world. People are often unaware of the embodied competencies, or practical understandings, involved in the performance of these practices. However, practical understandings become apparent when elements of practices are misaligned. Our findings advance Giddens’s (1984) theorization of ontological security by showing how the interplay between practical and discursive understandings and material configurations works to produce different ontological states that we call embedded security, embedded insecurity, discursive insecurity, acclimating security, and new embedded security. We also show how households subtly rework the underlying constitutive rules that anchor important practices in place within practice alignment.

Will the Consistent Organic Food Consumer Step Forward? An Empirical Analysis

Abstract: The organic food market has reached a significant value in developed countries, but market shares vary substantively between product categories. This article investigates general patterns in the sequence of adoption of organic products based on a major Danish retailer’s panel scanner data. All registered transactions over 20 months from 8,704 randomly selected customers with a loyalty card are analyzed using a hidden Markov model, capturing the dynamics in consumers’ purchases. The model identifies latent states representing identifiable, accessible, and actionable dynamic customer segments, and captures the movements between states or segments. A pattern emerges that is consistent with the theory of behavioral spillover and inconsistent with the theory of moral licensing, including a tendency to buy organic products in an increasing number of product categories over time. The order in which organic products are adopted is inversely related to the behavioral costs of adopting them. The employed approach provides a firm basis for personalized communication aiming to increase cross-selling of organic products, increase the sale of less popular organic products, and accelerate movements from segments buying few organic products to segments buying organic more consistently.

A Ticket for Your Thoughts: Method for Predicting Content Recall and Sales Using Neural Similarity of Moviegoers

Abstract: Skilled advertisers often cause a diverse set of consumers to feel similarly about their product. We present a method for measuring neural data to assess the degree of similarity between multiple brains experiencing the same advertisements, and we demonstrate that this similarity can predict important marketing outcomes. Since neural data can be sampled continuously throughout an experience and without effort and conscious reporting biases, our method offers a useful complement to measures requiring active evaluations, such as subjective ratings and willingness-to-pay (WTP) scores. As a case study, we use portable electroencephalography (EEG) systems to record the brain activity of 58 moviegoers in a commercial theater and then calculate the relative levels of neural similarity, cross-brain correlation (CBC), throughout 13 movie trailers. Our initial evidence suggests that CBC predicts future free recall of the movie trailers and population-level sales of the corresponding movies. Additionally, since there are potentially other (i.e., non-neural) sources of physiological similarity (e.g., basic arousal), we illustrate how to use other passive measures, such as cardiac, respiratory, and electrodermal activity levels, to reject alternative hypotheses. Moreover, we show how CBC can be used in conjunction with empirical content analysis (e.g., levels of visual and semantic complexity).

How and Why Conversational Value Leads to Happiness for Experiential and Material Purchases

Abstract: This work presents convergent evidence that experiential purchases are more conducive to interpersonal conversations than are material purchases—that is, experiences have higher conversational value, which helps explain why they afford consumers greater happiness than do objects (Van Boven and Gilovich 2003). Further, two experiments demonstrate that factors known to differ between experiential and material purchases—closeness to the self, social approval, and purchase uniqueness—help explain why experiences are preferred as a topic of conversation over objects, and suggest a social motivation for talking more about experiences. Indeed, when the motivation to build a relationship with the conversation partner is removed, the preference to share about experiences (vs. objects) disappears. Together, these findings add to and help integrate the growing literature on the relation between purchase type (material vs. experiential) and purchase-related happiness.

So Close I Can Almost Sense It: The Interplay between Sensory Imagery and Psychological Distance

Abstract: Across the five sensory modalities we examine an unexplored difference in imagery: psychological distance. In particular, we propose that imagined senses can be psychologically more proximal or distal based on the maximum physical distance typically required for a stimulus to be sensed. Specifically, we propose that imagined senses that require close proximity to the body in order to be sensed (i.e., taste, touch) will feel more psychologically proximal than senses that do not require such close proximity (i.e., hearing, sight). We obtain support for our theoretical framework across a pilot study, four lab studies, and one field study by examining how images evoked using different sensory modalities differentially influence variables shown in past research to vary along psychological distance: (1) the imagined distance between the consumer and the stimulus, (2) product perceptions on other dimensions of psychological distance, and (3) persuasion when matched with other dimensions of psychological distance.

Consumer Responses to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Contribution Type

Abstract: While companies contribute in different ways to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues they support, little is known about the effects of varying CSR contribution types on consumers’ evaluations of the contributing company. This paper examines consumer reactions to two basic contribution types – money versus in-kind – in the CSR domain of disaster relief to demonstrate, through five studies, that while consumers evaluate a company more favorably when it makes in-kind rather than monetary contributions of equivalent value to CSR issues that are perceived to be less controllable, the pattern reverses when the company’s contributions are made to CSR issues that are perceived to be more controllable. This interaction between contribution type and perceived issue controllability is more likely to manifest when controllability is accessible in the minds of consumers. The underlying process is driven by the extent to which the disparate emotionality of each contribution type matches the intensity of felt emotion evoked by CSR issues of varying perceived controllability, producing processing fluency.

Power Distance Belief, Power, and Charitable Giving

Abstract: Three studies examined the relation between power distance belief (PDB), the tendency to accept and expect inequalities in society; power, the control one has over valued resources; and charitable giving. Results suggested that the effect of PDB depends on the power held by the donor. In low-PDB contexts, people high (vs. low) in psychological power tend to be more self-focused (vs. other-focused), and this leads them to be less charitable. In high-PDB contexts, however, people high (vs. low) in psychological power tend to be more other-focused (vs. self-focused), and this leads them to be more charitable. The authors also explore several boundary conditions for these relationships and conclude with the implications of these findings.

Consuming for an Imagined Future: Middle-Class Consumer Lifestyle and Exploratory Experiences in the Transition to Adulthood

Abstract: This study examines middle-class consumption and lifestyle during the transition to adulthood in the United States. Based on analysis of qualitative data from interviews with emerging adults between adolescence and settled adulthood, we argue that middle-class emerging adulthood is marked by a focus on exploratory experience consumption: the consumption of novel experiences with cultural capital potential. This tacit, embodied orientation is rooted in a habitus developed during entitled childhoods but is also shaped by an anticipated shortage of opportunities for exploration after they marry and have children. Accordingly, middle-class emerging adults voraciously consume exploratory experiences in the present with their imagined future selves in mind. The class basis for this orientation is examined through our analysis of interviews with working-class emerging adults whose lifestyles are characterized not by exploratory experience consumption but by a desire for the familiar, a fear of the unknown, and a longing for stability. The discussion focuses on how the middle-class consumer orientation toward exploratory experiences reinforces class (dis)advantage, life trajectories, and inequality.

Social Exclusion and Consumer Switching Behavior: A Control Restoration Mechanism

Abstract: This study examines the effects of social exclusion on consumers’ brand and product switching behavior. Five studies were conducted, which revealed that consumers who perceive themselves as being chronically or temporarily excluded exhibit more switching behavior than their peers who do not feel socially excluded. This effect is mediated by a decreased sense of control after social exclusion. The effect disappears when the incumbent option possesses the function of maintaining social belongingness (e.g., when the incumbent option is socially conformed or symbolizes social connection).

To Profit or Not to Profit? The Role of Greed Perceptions in Consumer Support for Social Ventures

Abstract: An increasing number of social ventures are for-profit companies (i.e., for-profit social ventures) that seek to advance a social cause while making a profit. In a series of seven studies, this research investigates consumer support for organizations as a function of their social mission and profit orientation. The impact of profit orientation on consumer support depends on the prominence of the organization’s social mission. For organizations with a prominent social mission, profits are interpreted as a signal of greed; absent a prominent social mission, a for-profit orientation can instead imply greater competence. As a result, consumer support of for-profit social ventures suffers in comparison to both nonprofits and traditional for-profits—a downside to the organizational benefits of for-profit social ventures identified in prior research. In addition, this research investigates organizational factors—including excessive organizational spending, profit perceptions, and operational efficiency cues—that alter greed perceptions and consequently support for for-profit social ventures. Together, this research sheds light on consumer reaction to organizations that support social causes, with implications for the social venture marketplace, including the nonprofit versus for-profit quandary faced by social entrepreneurs.

It’s Too Pretty to Use! When and How Enhanced Product Aesthetics Discourage Usage and Lower Consumption Enjoyment

Abstract: Marketers invest a lot of resources in product aesthetics and design, but does this strategy always lead to favorable consumer outcomes? While prior research suggests enhanced aesthetics should have a uniformly positive influence on pre-usage evaluations and choice, the present research examines the downstream effects of nondurable product aesthetics on consumption behavior and post-consumption affect. First, we document an inhibiting effect of aesthetics on actual consumption. We find that highly aesthetic products elicit greater perceptions of effort in their creation, and that consumers have an intrinsic appreciation for such effort. Because the consumption process indirectly destroys the effort invested to make the product beautiful, people reduce consumption of such products because usage would entail destroying something they naturally appreciate. Second, we show that in cases where individuals do consume a beautiful product, they exhibit lower consumption enjoyment and increased negative affect. These negative post-consumption outcomes are mediated in parallel by concerns over having actually destroyed the effort that made the product beautiful as well as the decrements in beauty that become visible when aesthetic products are made less attractive through consumption. Across a series of studies, we challenge the common assumption that enhanced aesthetics always lead to positive consumer outcomes.

Self-Expression Cues in Product Rating Distributions: When People Prefer Polarizing Products

Abstract: Previous research has shown that material goods can help people self-express, either because the products are themselves self-expressive (e.g., a band T-shirt) or because the products are associated with a desired group. This article examines a new signal of self-expressiveness: whether the product is polarizing—that is, whether some people strongly like the product and other people strongly dislike the product. Eight studies examine how polarization and its associated indicator in the online domain (a bimodal distribution of user star ratings) affects consumer preferences. The results indicate that polarizing products are perceived to be more self-expressive and to serve as stronger indicators of one’s tastes and personality. As a result, people find products with bimodal rating distributions to be more desirable when they experience temporary or chronic low self-concept clarity. Further, people evaluate products with bimodal distributions more favorably in consumption contexts in which self-expression is important. These effects emerge when the bimodal distribution pertains to a self-expressive attribute (e.g., style) but not when it pertains to a non-self-expressive attribute (e.g., quality). Last, the effect is especially strong when people have the motivation to express an individual- rather than group-level identity. Hence, polarizing products are seen as vehicles for individual self-expression.

Uncertainty Increases the Reliance on Affect in Decisions

Abstract: How do psychological states of uncertainty influence the way people make decisions? We propose that such states increase the reliance on affective inputs in judgments and decisions. In accord with this proposition, results from six studies show that the priming of uncertainty (vs. certainty) consistently increases the effects of a variety of affective inputs on consumers’ judgments and decisions. Primed uncertainty is shown to amplify the effects of the pleasantness of a musical soundtrack (study 1), the attractiveness of a picture (study 2), the appeal of affective attributes (studies 3 and 4), incidental mood states (study 6), and even incidental states of disgust (study 5). Moreover, both negative and positive uncertainty increase the influence of affect in decisions (study 4). The results additionally show that the increased reliance on affective inputs under uncertainty does not necessarily come at the expense of a reliance on descriptive attribute information (studies 2 and 5), and that the increased reliance on affect under uncertainty is distinct from a general reliance on heuristic or peripheral cues (study 6). The phenomenon may be due to uncertainty threatening the self, thereby encouraging a reliance on inputs that are closer to the self and have high subjective validity.

Social-Recognition versus Financial Incentives? Exploring the Effects of Creativity-Contingent External Rewards on Creative Performance

Abstract: The present work examines the role of creativity-contingent monetary versus social-recognition rewards on creative performance and provides new insights into the underlying motivational processes through which these rewards affect consumer creativity. A series of five studies demonstrate that within the context of creativity contingency, monetary rewards induce a performance focus, while social-recognition rewards induce a normative focus. Such performance (normative) focus in turn enhances (attenuates) approach motivation to be original and hence leads to higher (lower) originality in a creative task. Thus, this work not only advances the current understanding of how and why two types of widely used creativity-contingent external rewards may have contrasting effects on creative performance, but it also offers important practical insights to managers who utilize reward systems in cultivating consumer creativity in their innovation platforms.

Fill up Your Senses: A Theory of Self-Worth Restoration through High-Intensity Sensory Consumption

Abstract: It is well known that individuals engage in reactive consumption to address self-discrepancy and self-threat and that this consumption may either be symbolically related to the nature of the threat or occur in an unrelated domain. This research proposes a theory for self-worth restoration through the consumption of high-intensity sensory stimuli. Four studies demonstrate that not only do individuals facing self-threat prefer high-intensity sensory consumption (HISC) but also that this consumption restores their self-worth. This propensity for HISC is negated after individuals are allowed to engage in additional self-affirmation tasks. The findings are documented in both the visual domain (as evidenced by a preference for more intense and saturated colors) and the auditory domain (as evidenced by a preference for louder audio levels). The consumption of high-intensity sensory stimuli elevates individuals’ arousal levels, which in turn minimizes rumination on thoughts related to the threat and thus restores one’s self-worth. The distractive nature of HISC and its subsequent impact on self-worth restoration is shown to operate regardless of the valence of the sensory consumption. Finally, the propensity for HISC is negated after individuals experience an arousal-elevating threat, providing additional support for the underlying process.

Creating a Consumable Past: How Memory Making Shapes Marketization

Abstract: Consumer researchers tend to equate successful marketization—the transition from a socialist to a capitalist economy—with the consensual acquiescence to an idealized definition of the socialist past. For this reason, little research has examined how memories about socialism influence marketization over time. To redress this gap, we bring prior consumer research on commercial mythmaking and popular memory to bear on an in-depth analysis of the marketization of the former German Democratic Republic. We find that, owing to a progressive sequence of conflicts between commercialized memories of socialism promoted by marketing agents and countermemories advocating socialism as a political alternative, definitions of the past, and by extension, capitalism’s hegemony are subject to ongoing contestation and change. Our theoretical framework of hegemonic memory making explains relationships among consumption, memory making, and market systems that have not been recognized by prior research on consumption and nostalgia.