Our Apples are Healthier than Your Apples: Deciphering the Healthiness Bias for Domestic and Foreign Products

This study extends previous research by exploring perceptions of healthiness in the international food marketplace. To this end, it aims to fill an important gap by shedding light on the role of country of origin in shaping perceptions of healthiness. The authors provide evidence that domestic and foreign food products elicit different perceptions of healthiness. Consumers choose domestic products because they perceive them as healthier and more natural. The effect holds across different samples and product categories (apples, tomatoes, bread, and yogurt). However, this healthiness bias vanishes when products are presented as posing health risks and when products are introduced with a dual identity (i.e., both foreign and domestic). Researching these health-related effects helps provide a better understanding of consumer attitudes toward domestic- versus foreign-made food products

Saved by the Past? Disease threat triggers nostalgic consumption

Recent research views nostalgia as a valuable resource that can be accessed in times of distress and discomfort. The present work complements this literature by examining novel and previously uncovered triggers and downstream consequences of nostalgia in the consumer domain: disease-threat and protective behavior. The current paper argues that nostalgia functions as such a psychological resource with buffering qualities and is used as a coping mechanism to maintain comfort when experiencing disease threat—the perception of a potential threat posed by an infectious disease. Using an archival data set and five experiments, the authors demonstrate that when facing a disease threat, but not an actual occurrence of disease, consumers experience a higher need for nostalgia and show an increased preference for nostalgic products. That is, internet searches for nostalgic products rise during flu season as well as COVID-19 pandemic (Study 1), disease threat induces increased levels of experienced nostalgia (Study 2), which translate into increased preferences for nostalgic products (Study 3 and Study 5), mediated by disgust (Study 4). Finally, the authors show the resource value of product-induced nostalgia, demonstrating the ironic effect that it can compensate for disease-protective behavior (Study 6). The results provide important practical implications for marketers and policy-makers who could focus on promoting nostalgic products or incorporating nostalgic cues in product design and communication that would generate positive consumer evaluations when the threat of illness or disease is salient

Acute stress can boost and buffer hedonic consumption:The role of individual differences in consumer life history strategies

Mixed findings on the relationship between acute stress and the tendency to engage in hedonic food consumption suggest that stress may both boost and buffer hedonic eating. The present research aims to contribute to reconciling these mixed findings by focusing on the role of individual differences in consumer life history strategies (LHS) –short-term, impulsive, reward-sensitive (fast) vs. long-term, reflective, goal-oriented (slow) self-regulatory strategies– that might drive hedonic eating. We propose and show that stress may boost hedonic consumption among fast LHS consumers, while the relationship is buffered (non-significant) among their slow LHS counterparts. Moreover, we find that this stress-induced eating among fast LHS consumers is also cue-driven such that fast (but not slow) LHS consumers show a higher sensitivity to scarcity cues signaling the desirability of a palatable food under conditions of stress. Finally, we find that a cue indicating a high caloric content of the food may curb the tendency for fast LHS consumers to engage in (over) consumption of hedonic foods under stress

Nudging health:Scarcity cues boost healthy consumption among fast rather than slow strategists (and abundance cues do the opposite)

We examine the effectiveness of specific nudges in the choice environment to foster healthy choice and consumption among consumers with fast vs. slow life history strategies (LHS)––short-term, impulsive, reward-sensitive (fast) vs. long-term, reflective, controlled (slow) foci––associated with low and high socio-economic status (SES), respectively. The results of two experiments, conducted in a field and an online setting, show that consumers with a fast, rather than slow, life-history strategy are more susceptible to scarcity cues, boosting choice and actual consumption of healthy foods when these cues are associated with the healthy option. Conversely, for slow LHS consumers, the evidence suggests that scarcity cues are less influential, and instead abundance cues tend to foster healthy choice. Finally, in line with the LHS logic, acute food craving mediates the impact of scarcity vs. abundance cues for fast, but not slow, strategists, while perceptions of socially validated trust in the food source fulfill this role for slow, but not fast, strategists

Entry mode deviation: a behavioral approach to internalization theory

We explore when and why decision makers choose international entry modes (e.g., hierarchies or markets) that deviate from internalization theory’s predictions. By applying a cognitive perspective on entry mode decision making, we propose that the performance of prior international activities influences decision makers’ behavior in different ways than assumed in internalization theory. More specifically, due to a representativeness bias, underperforming (overperforming) past ventures influence the decision to change (continue using) the previous entry mode choice, which may result in an entry mode deviation. In addition, the propensity to deviate from theoretical predictions is stronger when the experience is recent and/or salient due to an availability bias. In conclusion, we argue that internalization theory can benefit from incorporating more systematically important behavioral assumptions on how firms enter international markets. In so doing, we contribute to the recent conversation on how variations in human behavior influence internalization theory

What’s mine is a hologram? How shared Augmented Reality augments psychological ownership

Augmented Reality (AR) holograms are 3D digital objects projected into a customer’s physical environment through mobile technology. Applied as potential substitutes to physical products, AR holograms pose a unique challenge for conventional configurations of product ownership. Taking a socially situated cognition perspective, we demonstrate how customers’ shared experience of AR holograms leads to distinct perspectives on psychological ownership. In Study 1, we demonstrate how customisation of AR holograms lets customers feel psychological ownership of digital products. In Study 2, we highlight the mechanisms of social adaptation related to assimilation and differentiation that drive the relationship between customisation and psychological ownership of AR holograms in social settings. In Study 3, we illustrate how these mechanisms are influenced by the affordances of AR technology when customers switch between personal or shared devices. We discuss implications for theory and marketing practice of this potentially novel class of digital consumer products

Standardization of molecular monitoring of CML: results and recommendations from the European treatment and outcome study

Standardized monitoring of BCR::ABL1 mRNA levels is essential for the management of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. From 2016 to 2021 the European Treatment and Outcome Study for CML (EUTOS) explored the use of secondary, lyophilized cell-based BCR::ABL1 reference panels traceable to the World Health Organization primary reference material to standardize and validate local laboratory tests. Panels were used to assign and validate conversion factors (CFs) to the International Scale and assess the ability of laboratories to assess deep molecular response (DMR). The study also explored aspects of internal quality control. The percentage of EUTOS reference laboratories (n = 50) with CFs validated as optimal or satisfactory increased from 67.5% to 97.6% and 36.4% to 91.7% for ABL1 and GUSB, respectively, during the study period and 98% of laboratories were able to detect MR4.5 in most samples. Laboratories with unvalidated CFs had a higher coefficient of variation for BCR::ABL1(IS) and some laboratories had a limit of blank greater than zero which could affect the accurate reporting of DMR. Our study indicates that secondary reference panels can be used effectively to obtain and validate CFs in a manner equivalent to sample exchange and can also be used to monitor additional aspects of quality assurance.</p

A certified plasmid reference material for the standardisation of BCR-ABL1 mRNA quantification by real-time quantitative PCR

Serial quantification of BCR–ABL1 mRNA is an important therapeutic indicator in chronic myeloid leukaemia, but there is a substantial variation in results reported by diff