Linguistic Gender Marking and Categorization

Gender markers provide syntactic structure and a categorization schema to language. Brand name gender is a function of both formal, structural aspects of the brand name and semantic properties of the brand's product class. In the formal gender system of Spanish, consistent formal gender marking enhances brand recall, whereas semantic product associations drive brand evaluation. In the semantic gender system of English, formal cues determine initial brand name gender, but congruent semantic associations between brand name and product category drive improved brand evaluations and brand recall. Three studies across two languages demonstrate that gender's role as a categorization tool underlies these effects. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Improving consumer decisions : the conscious use of primes as performance enhancers

Through this article we examine ways through which consumers can take advantage of marketers’ priming attempts and make better decisions. Specifically, we investigate what happens when individuals are made aware of primes that may potentially improve their performance. Using an Embedded Figures Test, we demonstrate that individuals can be consciously primed into an analytic thinking mindset and perform better when they believe that the prime will enhance performance. Individuals are able to successfully ignore the prime when they believe that the prime hinders performance. Utilizing both holistic and analytic primes and by alternating the valence of the prime’s potential outcome, we are able to disentangle the conscious effects of primes from demand effects. We discuss how these findings may lead to and suggest avenues for future research

Uncovering the Coexistence of Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Hedonic Sequences

Most judgments consumers make are parts of sequences and hence unlikely to be free of context effects. Assimilation (contrast) refers to a positive (negative) relationship between the value people place on the context and the value they place on the target stimulus. A general presupposition for much of the work on assimilation and contrast is that one or the other, determined by various factors, occurs. We propose that assimilation and contrast can co-occur within a sequence of experiences and present a hierarchical Bayesian model separating these effects within a unique real-world data set. We find that while assimilation effects influence overall sequence means, contrast effects are simultaneously evident between adjacent items and after extremes within a sequence. This work is the first empirical demonstration of hedonic contrast using real-world data, and the only work thus far to identify and separate assimilation and contrast effects within the same sequence of evaluations.</p