Self-persuasion as marketing technique: the role of consumers’ involvement

Purpose This paper aims to demonstrate that self-persuasion can be used as a marketing technique to increase consumers’ generosity and that the efficacy of this approach is dependent on consumers’ involvement with target behavior. Design/methodology/approach An experimental field-study was conducted to investigate the effects of self-persuasion versus direct persuasion attempts versus no persuasion attempts on consumers’ tipping behavior in a lunchroom. Additionally, in a lab experiment, the moderating role of involvement on self-persuasion versus direct persuasion was tested. Findings The results reveal that self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion attempts or no persuasive messages in increasing consumers’ generosity. This is moderated by consumers’ involvement with the target behavior. For consumers with high involvement, self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion, while no differences were found for consumers with moderate or low involvement. Practical implications The scope of self-persuasion is not limited to the inhibition of undesired behavior, but it also extends to the facilitation of desired behavior, which considerably broadens the scope of this technique. Self-persuasion might be used as a marketing technique to influence consumers’ purchase behavior. This might be particularly viable in situations in which consumers feel high involvement with products or behavior. Originality/value Recently, research in health psychology demonstrated that self-persuasion is a very effective way of inhibiting undesired, addictive behavior and being more successful than direct persuasion. Yet, insufficient knowledge is available about the efficacy of self-persuasion with regard to promoting other target behaviors. In particular, its potential as a marketing technique to influence consumers’ behavior and its boundary conditions are still understudied

The genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes

The genetic architecture of common traits, including the number, frequency, and effect sizes of inherited variants that contribute to individual risk, has been long debated. Genome-wide association studies have identified scores of common variants associated with type 2 diabetes, but in aggregate, these explain only a fraction of heritability. To test the hypothesis that lower-frequency variants explain much of the remainder, the GoT2D and T2D-GENES consortia performed whole genome sequencing in 2,657 Europeans with and without diabetes, and exome sequencing in a total of 12,940 subjects from five ancestral groups. To increase statistical power, we expanded sample size via genotyping and imputation in a further 111,548 subjects. Variants associated with type 2 diabetes after sequencing were overwhelmingly common and most fell within regions previously identified by genome-wide association studies. Comprehensive enumeration of sequence variation is necessary to identify functional alleles that provide important clues to disease pathophysiology, but large-scale sequencing does not support a major role for lower-frequency variants in predisposition to type 2 diabetes

Pre-service teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward obesity influence their judgments of students

Obese children experience disadvantages in school and discrimination from their teachers. Teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes have been identified as contributing to these disadvantages. Drawing on dual process models, we investigated the nature of pre-service teachers’ implicit and explicit attitudes, their motivation to respond without prejudice, and how attitudes influence their judgments of an obese student. Results showed that implicit anti-obesity bias might stem from an implicit positivity toward thinness rather than from an implicit negativity toward obesity. Explicit attitudes were mixed: positive attitudes toward achievement, a dislike of obese persons, and neutral attitudes concerning blame and health responsibility emerged. Implicit and explicit attitudes affected judgments of language proficiency and intelligence: pre-service teachers with more positive attitudes judged the obese student more favorably. The results of multiple regression analyses suggest that attitudes might exert a greater influence when pre-service teachers must draw inferences to derive the judgment

Towards more sustainable online consumption: The impact of default and informational nudging on consumers’ choice of delivery mode

The increasing CO2 emissions from e-commerce deliveries present a pressing environmental concern. If half of all consumers decided to have their online order delivered to a pick-up point instead of at home, this could vastly reduce CO2 emissions of e-commerce. This study investigated (a) whether nudging could help consumers shift towards pick-up point delivery as a more sustainable choice, and (b) which type of nudging would be most effective. An RCT was conducted with a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 1213). In an online store setting, participants selected a product and completed the check-out process – selecting between more and less sustainable delivery options. Their selection had real consequences as the gift would be delivered with the selected delivery method. Four different nudging conditions were contrasted: a default nudge, in which the most sustainable option (i.e., delivery to pick-up point) was selected automatically, and three decision-information nudges, in which CO2 emissions for the delivery options was displayed. The decision-information nudges varied in complexity, from high complexity (emissions in grams of CO2 for each delivery option) to medium (percentage of CO2 reduction for the most sustainable option) and low complexity (a green leaf next to the most sustainable option). Relative to control, the default nudge was the most effective at steering participants towards the most sustainable delivery choice, followed by the medium- and low-informational nudging conditions. In addition, instead of steering them towards the most sustainable delivery option, the high-informational nudge appeared to steer participants away from the two most polluting delivery options – thereby potentially saving more greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than the other conditions. In sum, this study provides substantial evidence for the use of behavioral strategies in quest towards more sustainable online consumption

The genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes

The genetic architecture of common traits, including the number, frequency, and effect sizes of inherited variants that contribute to individual risk, has been long debated. Genome-wide association studies have identified scores of common variants associated with type 2 diabetes, but in aggregate, these explain only a fraction of the heritability of this disease. Here, to test the hypothesis that lower-frequency variants explain much of the remainder, the GoT2D and T2D-GENES consortia performed whole-genome sequencing in 2,657 European individuals with and without diabetes, and exome sequencing in 12,940 individuals from five ancestry groups. To increase statistical power, we expanded the sample size via genotyping and imputation in a further 111,548 subjects. Variants associated with type 2 diabetes after sequencing were overwhelmingly common and most fell within regions previously identified by genome-wide association studies. Comprehensive enumeration of sequence variation is necessary to identify functional alleles that provide important clues to disease pathophysiology, but large-scale sequencing does not support the idea that lower-frequency variants have a major role in predisposition to type 2 diabetes