Despite firms’ continued interest in using influencers to reach their target consumers, academic and practical insights are limited on what levers an influencer can use to enhance audience engagement using their posts. We demonstrate that posting stories with or about people whom they share close ties with—such as family, friends, and romantic partners—can be one effective lever. Content that incorporates close social ties can be effective for several reasons: it may increase perceptions of authenticity, enhance perceived similarity, increase the perception that the influencer possesses more warmth, and could satisfy viewers’ interpersonal curiosity. We analyze texts and photographs of 55,631 posts of 763 influencers on Instagram, and after controlling for several variables, we find robust support that consumers “like” posts that reference close social ties. Further, this effect enhances when first-person pronouns are used to describe special moments with these close ties. We supplement the Instagram data with an experimental approach and confirm the relationship between close ties and consumer engagement. Managerially, this is a useful insight as we also show that sponsored posts tend to be perceived negatively compared to non-sponsored posts, yet, embedding social ties on the sponsored posts can mitigate consumers’ negative responses.
{"title":"I Really Know You: How Influencers Can Increase Audience Engagement by Referencing Their Close Social Ties","authors":"J. Chung, Yuwei Ding, Ajay Kalra","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite firms’ continued interest in using influencers to reach their target consumers, academic and practical insights are limited on what levers an influencer can use to enhance audience engagement using their posts. We demonstrate that posting stories with or about people whom they share close ties with—such as family, friends, and romantic partners—can be one effective lever. Content that incorporates close social ties can be effective for several reasons: it may increase perceptions of authenticity, enhance perceived similarity, increase the perception that the influencer possesses more warmth, and could satisfy viewers’ interpersonal curiosity. We analyze texts and photographs of 55,631 posts of 763 influencers on Instagram, and after controlling for several variables, we find robust support that consumers “like” posts that reference close social ties. Further, this effect enhances when first-person pronouns are used to describe special moments with these close ties. We supplement the Instagram data with an experimental approach and confirm the relationship between close ties and consumer engagement. Managerially, this is a useful insight as we also show that sponsored posts tend to be perceived negatively compared to non-sponsored posts, yet, embedding social ties on the sponsored posts can mitigate consumers’ negative responses.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47054682","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}
Giovanni Luca Cascio Rizzo, Jonah A. Berger, Matteo De Angelis, R. Pozharliev
Influencer marketing has become big business. But while influencers have the potential to spread marketing messages and drive purchase, some posts get lots of engagement and boost sales, while others do not. What makes some posts more impactful? This work examines how sensory language (e.g., words like “crumble” and “juicy” that engage the senses) shapes consumer responses to influencer-sponsored content. A multimethod investigation, combining controlled experiments with automated text, image, and video analysis of thousands of sponsored social media posts, demonstrates that sensory language increases engagement and willingness to buy the sponsored product. Further, the studies illustrate that these effects are driven by perceived authenticity. Sensory language leads consumers to infer that influencers actually use the product they are endorsing, which increases perceived authenticity, and thus engagement and purchase. These findings shed light on how language shapes responses to influencer-sponsored content, deepen understanding of the drivers of authenticity, and suggest how to develop more impactful social media campaigns.
{"title":"How Sensory Language Shapes Influencer’s Impact","authors":"Giovanni Luca Cascio Rizzo, Jonah A. Berger, Matteo De Angelis, R. Pozharliev","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Influencer marketing has become big business. But while influencers have the potential to spread marketing messages and drive purchase, some posts get lots of engagement and boost sales, while others do not. What makes some posts more impactful? This work examines how sensory language (e.g., words like “crumble” and “juicy” that engage the senses) shapes consumer responses to influencer-sponsored content. A multimethod investigation, combining controlled experiments with automated text, image, and video analysis of thousands of sponsored social media posts, demonstrates that sensory language increases engagement and willingness to buy the sponsored product. Further, the studies illustrate that these effects are driven by perceived authenticity. Sensory language leads consumers to infer that influencers actually use the product they are endorsing, which increases perceived authenticity, and thus engagement and purchase. These findings shed light on how language shapes responses to influencer-sponsored content, deepen understanding of the drivers of authenticity, and suggest how to develop more impactful social media campaigns.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42930084","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}
Arjen van Lin, Aylin Aydinli, Marco Bertini, Erica van Herpen, Julia von Schuckmann
Abstract Retailer price promotions, and in particular multi-unit deals such as the ubiquitous “buy one, get one,” are often criticized as a cause of food waste, presumably because they lure households into buying more than they can realistically consume. In this research, the authors combine field data and experiments to provide the first systematic test of this claim. The field data, which span eight frequently purchased perishable foods, show no evidence of a positive relationship between single-unit or multi-unit price promotions and food waste. In fact, households that took advantage of a multi-unit deal reported wasting less than did households paying regular prices (RPs), but only when the quantity purchased was larger than usual. Given this result, and that households also reported consuming and freezing more, the authors hypothesize that promotion-induced overbuying triggers a concern for food waste that encourages waste prevention. One experiment finds support for this mechanism. A second experiment shows that the effect on food waste concerns is moderated by perishability and versatility but unaffected by convenience and healthiness. Overall, then, this research invites regulators and other professionals to rethink their stance on price promotions and work with retailers to design smart campaigns that motivate waste awareness and management.
{"title":"Does Cash Really Mean Trash? An Empirical Investigation into the Effect of Retailer Price Promotions on Household Food Waste","authors":"Arjen van Lin, Aylin Aydinli, Marco Bertini, Erica van Herpen, Julia von Schuckmann","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Retailer price promotions, and in particular multi-unit deals such as the ubiquitous “buy one, get one,” are often criticized as a cause of food waste, presumably because they lure households into buying more than they can realistically consume. In this research, the authors combine field data and experiments to provide the first systematic test of this claim. The field data, which span eight frequently purchased perishable foods, show no evidence of a positive relationship between single-unit or multi-unit price promotions and food waste. In fact, households that took advantage of a multi-unit deal reported wasting less than did households paying regular prices (RPs), but only when the quantity purchased was larger than usual. Given this result, and that households also reported consuming and freezing more, the authors hypothesize that promotion-induced overbuying triggers a concern for food waste that encourages waste prevention. One experiment finds support for this mechanism. A second experiment shows that the effect on food waste concerns is moderated by perishability and versatility but unaffected by convenience and healthiness. Overall, then, this research invites regulators and other professionals to rethink their stance on price promotions and work with retailers to design smart campaigns that motivate waste awareness and management.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":"404 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136274935","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}
This research shows that AI-based conversational interfaces can have a profound impact on consumer-brand relationships. We develop a conceptual model of verbal embodiment in technology-mediated communication that integrates three key properties of human-to-human dialogue – (1) turn-taking (i.e., alternating contributions by the two parties), (2) turn-initiation (i.e., the act of initiating the next turn in a sequence), and (3) grounding between turns (i.e., acknowledging the other party’s contribution by restating or rephrasing it). These fundamental conversational properties systematically shape consumers’ perception of an AI-based conversational interface, their perception of the brand that the interface represents, and their behavior in connection with that brand. Converging evidence from four studies shows that these dialogue properties enhance the perceived humanness of the interface, which in turn promotes more intimate consumer-brand relationships and more favorable behavioral brand outcomes (greater recommendation acceptance, willingness to pay a price premium, brand advocacy, and brand loyalty). Moreover, we show that these effects are reduced in contexts requiring less mutual understanding between the consumer and the brand. This research highlights how fundamental principles of human-to-human communication can be harnessed to design more intimate consumer-brand interactions in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.
{"title":"Machine Talk: How Verbal Embodiment in Conversational AI Shapes Consumer-Brand Relationships","authors":"Anouk S. Bergner, Christian Hildebrand, G. Häubl","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This research shows that AI-based conversational interfaces can have a profound impact on consumer-brand relationships. We develop a conceptual model of verbal embodiment in technology-mediated communication that integrates three key properties of human-to-human dialogue – (1) turn-taking (i.e., alternating contributions by the two parties), (2) turn-initiation (i.e., the act of initiating the next turn in a sequence), and (3) grounding between turns (i.e., acknowledging the other party’s contribution by restating or rephrasing it). These fundamental conversational properties systematically shape consumers’ perception of an AI-based conversational interface, their perception of the brand that the interface represents, and their behavior in connection with that brand. Converging evidence from four studies shows that these dialogue properties enhance the perceived humanness of the interface, which in turn promotes more intimate consumer-brand relationships and more favorable behavioral brand outcomes (greater recommendation acceptance, willingness to pay a price premium, brand advocacy, and brand loyalty). Moreover, we show that these effects are reduced in contexts requiring less mutual understanding between the consumer and the brand. This research highlights how fundamental principles of human-to-human communication can be harnessed to design more intimate consumer-brand interactions in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48263300","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}
The natural environment is deteriorating. However, humans have not slowed down their pace of resource depletion and environmental destruction. This research takes a particular path to understanding environmental consumption—through a focus on temporal perspective. Evidence from six studies demonstrates the positive effect of a cyclical temporal perspective, versus a linear temporal perspective, on consumers’ pro-environmental behavior. The research shows that individuals with a cyclical perspective are more likely to include the environment in the self, which leads to higher pro-environmental behavioral intentions and more pro-environmental behavior. This temporal perspective effect is attenuated for consumers already high on green values. The authors also examine a marketer-controlled moderator and show that consumers are more likely to purchase a pro-environmental product when they see a temporal-perspective-congruent promotional appeal. The research contributes to both the time perception and the environmental consumption literature and offers several practical implications for organizations to promote sustainable consumer behavior.
{"title":"Cyclical Time is Greener: The Impact of Temporal Perspective on Pro-Environmental behavior","authors":"Lan Xu, Shuangshuang Zhao, June Cotte, Nan Cui","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The natural environment is deteriorating. However, humans have not slowed down their pace of resource depletion and environmental destruction. This research takes a particular path to understanding environmental consumption—through a focus on temporal perspective. Evidence from six studies demonstrates the positive effect of a cyclical temporal perspective, versus a linear temporal perspective, on consumers’ pro-environmental behavior. The research shows that individuals with a cyclical perspective are more likely to include the environment in the self, which leads to higher pro-environmental behavioral intentions and more pro-environmental behavior. This temporal perspective effect is attenuated for consumers already high on green values. The authors also examine a marketer-controlled moderator and show that consumers are more likely to purchase a pro-environmental product when they see a temporal-perspective-congruent promotional appeal. The research contributes to both the time perception and the environmental consumption literature and offers several practical implications for organizations to promote sustainable consumer behavior.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45687032","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}
Do different loan application formats affect consumer loan requests? Six studies show that when consumers are asked to provide a preferred monthly payment (vs. loan amount), they request different principal amounts. This is because these loan application formats differ in the scale-compatible information they bring to consumers’ mind. When loan amounts are elicited, consumers think of and request the cost of the expenditure they seek to finance. When monthly payments are elicited, however, consumers think of their monthly budget slack to construct and then request monthly payments they perceive to be affordable. For lower cost loans with a given term and interest rate, the monthly payment (vs. loan amount) format results in larger principal requests. This effect reverses for higher cost acquisitions because individuals’ budget slack caps out around $500 per month. These studies provide insight into how consumer loan application formats can affect consumer borrowing, as well as the psychological underpinnings responsible for the effect. Theoretical, managerial, and consumer welfare implications of the findings are discussed.
{"title":"Loan Amount versus Monthly Payments: The Effect of Loan Application Formats on Consumer Borrowing Decisions","authors":"Alicia M. Johnson, D. Villanova, Ronn J. Smith","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Do different loan application formats affect consumer loan requests? Six studies show that when consumers are asked to provide a preferred monthly payment (vs. loan amount), they request different principal amounts. This is because these loan application formats differ in the scale-compatible information they bring to consumers’ mind. When loan amounts are elicited, consumers think of and request the cost of the expenditure they seek to finance. When monthly payments are elicited, however, consumers think of their monthly budget slack to construct and then request monthly payments they perceive to be affordable. For lower cost loans with a given term and interest rate, the monthly payment (vs. loan amount) format results in larger principal requests. This effect reverses for higher cost acquisitions because individuals’ budget slack caps out around $500 per month. These studies provide insight into how consumer loan application formats can affect consumer borrowing, as well as the psychological underpinnings responsible for the effect. Theoretical, managerial, and consumer welfare implications of the findings are discussed.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47990975","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}
Abstract Over the last 50+ years, there has been a huge rise in interest in consumer language research. This manuscript spotlights the emergence and evolution of this area, identifying key themes and trends, and highlighting topics for future research. Work has evolved from exploration of broad language concepts (e.g., rhetorics) to specific linguistic features (e.g., phonemes) and from monologues (e.g., advertiser to consumer) to two-way dialogues (e.g., consumer to service representative and back). We discuss future opportunities that arise from past trends, and suggest two important shifts that prompt questions for future research: the new shift towards using voice (vs. hands) when interacting with objects, and the ongoing shift towards using hands (vs. voices) to communicate with people. By synthesizing the past, and delineating a research agenda for the future, we hope to encourage more researchers to begin to explore this burgeoning area.
{"title":"The Emergence and Evolution of Consumer Language Research","authors":"Grant Packard, Jonah Berger","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Over the last 50+ years, there has been a huge rise in interest in consumer language research. This manuscript spotlights the emergence and evolution of this area, identifying key themes and trends, and highlighting topics for future research. Work has evolved from exploration of broad language concepts (e.g., rhetorics) to specific linguistic features (e.g., phonemes) and from monologues (e.g., advertiser to consumer) to two-way dialogues (e.g., consumer to service representative and back). We discuss future opportunities that arise from past trends, and suggest two important shifts that prompt questions for future research: the new shift towards using voice (vs. hands) when interacting with objects, and the ongoing shift towards using hands (vs. voices) to communicate with people. By synthesizing the past, and delineating a research agenda for the future, we hope to encourage more researchers to begin to explore this burgeoning area.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135340289","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}
Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, Bram Van den Bergh
How do consumers react to products assembled from existing components? Nine studies in both the lab and the field demonstrate that consumers evaluate products as more creative and more appealing when they consist of components that originally served entirely different functions. When consumers realize that the intended functionality of a component is not fixed, but versatile, they experience an aha! moment, which in turn enhances perceived product creativity and product appeal. This research bridges engineering and consumer research providing theoretical contributions to the product design and creativity literature. The findings of this research have substantive implications for designing sustainable products, especially for product upcycling, the process of transforming old or used components into new products.
{"title":"On Breaking Functional Fixedness. How the Aha! Moment Enhances Perceived Product Creativity and Product Appeal","authors":"Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, Bram Van den Bergh","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How do consumers react to products assembled from existing components? Nine studies in both the lab and the field demonstrate that consumers evaluate products as more creative and more appealing when they consist of components that originally served entirely different functions. When consumers realize that the intended functionality of a component is not fixed, but versatile, they experience an aha! moment, which in turn enhances perceived product creativity and product appeal. This research bridges engineering and consumer research providing theoretical contributions to the product design and creativity literature. The findings of this research have substantive implications for designing sustainable products, especially for product upcycling, the process of transforming old or used components into new products.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49366376","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}
Consumers often set budgets with the goal to minimize their spending. Contrary to this traditional interpretation, our research suggests that budgets can take on a different psychological meaning depending on whether the budget is for a personal- or gift-purchase. Across 11 studies, we find that consumers aim to spend below their budgets for personal-purchases (budget-minimizing), but aim to spend the entirety of their budgets for gift-purchases (budget-maximizing). We differentiate budget-maximizing from spending-maximizing, showing that gift-purchasers are more likely to prefer “at-budget” than “above-budget” purchases. We also show that gift-purchasers have weaker savings goals than personal-purchasers—a difference that mediates the effect on their budget-minimizing and -maximizing tendencies. We explore multiple reasons that could explain why savings goals are less prevalent among gift-purchasers and find an upstream role for price consciousness, guilt, and perceived specialness. Finally, we find that consumers’ preference for spending the entirety of their budgets on gifts was moderated by two separate factors: consumers’ budget-slack and -salience. Our research adds to the literatures on mental budgeting, gift-giving and self-other decisions.
{"title":"Divergent Effects of Budgeting for Gifts versus Personal Purchases","authors":"Yuna Choe, Christina Kan, Evan Polman","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucad011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Consumers often set budgets with the goal to minimize their spending. Contrary to this traditional interpretation, our research suggests that budgets can take on a different psychological meaning depending on whether the budget is for a personal- or gift-purchase. Across 11 studies, we find that consumers aim to spend below their budgets for personal-purchases (budget-minimizing), but aim to spend the entirety of their budgets for gift-purchases (budget-maximizing). We differentiate budget-maximizing from spending-maximizing, showing that gift-purchasers are more likely to prefer “at-budget” than “above-budget” purchases. We also show that gift-purchasers have weaker savings goals than personal-purchasers—a difference that mediates the effect on their budget-minimizing and -maximizing tendencies. We explore multiple reasons that could explain why savings goals are less prevalent among gift-purchasers and find an upstream role for price consciousness, guilt, and perceived specialness. Finally, we find that consumers’ preference for spending the entirety of their budgets on gifts was moderated by two separate factors: consumers’ budget-slack and -salience. Our research adds to the literatures on mental budgeting, gift-giving and self-other decisions.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44966666","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}
The attraction effect (AE) occurs when the addition of an inferior alternative (i.e., a decoy) to a choice set increases the choice share of the alternative to which it is most similar (i.e., a target), a phenomenon that violates the regularity principle. The AE occurs reliably when the attribute values are represented numerically, but not when the stimuli are perceptual. Such conceptual replication failures indicate a lack of clarity about the mechanisms that produce the AE. The present research develops a framework—the 3A framework—that specifies the distinct functions of ambiguity, accessibility, and applicability in the choice process. These factors, and their attendant mechanisms, explain when and why the AE emerges. They also specify conditions under which the AE is attenuated. Seven main experiments and four supplementary experiments examine when and why the AE emerges with perceptual stimuli, provide support for the 3A framework, and offer insights about how to produce the AE in choice contexts involving perceptual stimuli.
{"title":"Beyond Numbers: An Ambiguity-Accessibility-Applicability Framework to Explain the Attraction Effect","authors":"Sharlene He, B. Sternthal","doi":"10.1093/jcr/ucac055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac055","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The attraction effect (AE) occurs when the addition of an inferior alternative (i.e., a decoy) to a choice set increases the choice share of the alternative to which it is most similar (i.e., a target), a phenomenon that violates the regularity principle. The AE occurs reliably when the attribute values are represented numerically, but not when the stimuli are perceptual. Such conceptual replication failures indicate a lack of clarity about the mechanisms that produce the AE. The present research develops a framework—the 3A framework—that specifies the distinct functions of ambiguity, accessibility, and applicability in the choice process. These factors, and their attendant mechanisms, explain when and why the AE emerges. They also specify conditions under which the AE is attenuated. Seven main experiments and four supplementary experiments examine when and why the AE emerges with perceptual stimuli, provide support for the 3A framework, and offer insights about how to produce the AE in choice contexts involving perceptual stimuli.","PeriodicalId":15555,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47673475","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}
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