The Different Effects of Benign Versus Malicious Envy on Self-Control

This research hypothesizes that benign envy, as compared to malicious envy, heightens people's private self-awareness, which in turn leads to improved self-control and greater consistency in sequential choice. Results from four experiments provide support for our predictions, contributing to the small but growing literature on consumer envy

Gender-Related Reactions to Inappropriate Sex Appeals in Advertising

This research investigates gender-based reactions to the use of inappropriate sexual appeals in advertising, under constrained processing capacity. In our first study, we hypothesize and find that men on average exhibit a more positive attitudinal response to inappropriate sex appeals than women when processing under constrained conditions (even though no differences are obtained under unconstrained conditions). Our second study provides support for the underlying process -and also demonstrates intra-gender variation -by showing that women with more liberal attitudes to sex per se react in a manner very similar to men; namely, they report more liking for a sex-based ad than a non-sex ad

Insincere Flattery Actually Works: A Dual Attitudes Perspective

This research uses a dual attitudes perspective to offer new insights into flattery and its consequences. The authors show that even when flattery by marketing agents is accompanied by an obvious ulterior motive that leads targets to discount the proffered compliments, the initial favorable reaction (the implicit attitude) continues to coexist with the discounted evaluation (the explicit attitude). Furthermore, the implicit attitude has more influential consequences than the explicit attitude, highlighting the possible subtle impact of flattery even when a person has consciously corrected for it. The authors also clarify the underlying process by showing how and why the discrepancy between the implicit and explicit attitudes induced by flattery may be reduced. Collectively, the findings from this investigation provide implications for both flattery research and the dual attitudes literature

Understanding impulsive eaters choice behaviors: The motivational influences of regulatory focus

This research attempts to understand the mechanism underlying the choice behavior of impulsive eaters. The authors propose a process according to which impulsive eaters (versus nonimpulsive eaters) spontaneously develop a promotion focus on exposure to hedonically tempting food, such as chocolate cake; their subsequent decision to consume the food is guided by this promotion orientation. Furthermore, the evoked promotion focus also influences subsequent choices in completely unrelated domains. A set of six experiments provides support for this mechanism and also examines its implications with regard to different ways of correcting impulsive eating behavior

The Influence of Base Rate and Case Information on Health-Risk Perceptions: A Unified Model of Self-Positivity and Self-Negativity

This research examines how consumers use base rate (e.g., disease prevalence in a population) and case information (e.g., an individual's disease symptoms) to estimate health risks. Drawing on construal level theory, we propose that consumers' reliance on base rate (case information) will be enhanced (weakened) by psychological distance. A corollary of this premise is that self-positivity (i.e., underestimating self-risk vs. other-risk) is likely when the disease base rate is high but the case information suggests low risk. In contrast, self-negativity (i.e., overestimating self-risk vs. other-risk) is likely when the disease base rate is low, but case information implies high risk. Six experiments provide convergent support for this thesis, using different operationalizations of construal level, base rate, and case risk across multiple health domains. Our findings inform the extant literature on health-risk perception and also provide theoretical implications for research on social comparisons, as well as that on the use of base rate versus case information

Effects of Construal Level on the Price-Quality Relationship

Drawing on construal level theory, this research proposes that consumers’ reliance on price (vs. feature-specific product attributes) for making quality inferences will be enhanced when the judgment is psychologically distant (vs. close). For example, the impact of price (attributes) on quality inferences should increase (decrease) when these inferences are made with regard to another person rather than oneself. A series of experiments provides support for this thesis. In addition, we (a) document a theoretically derived reversal of the core pattern, (b) reconcile the current findings with seemingly opposed results in the construal literature, and (c) rule out several alternative explanations for the obtained effects. The insights obtained in this work enrich our understanding of three different areas of research: the price-quality link, construal level theory, and the self-other distinction.

The Crossmodal Effect of Attention on Preferences: Facilitation versus Impairment

This article builds a conceptualization for the crossmodal effect of attention on preferences, predicting when and why an irrelevant auditory signal will facilitate or impair preferences for visually processed target products located in the direction of the signal. Extending perspectives on crossmodal attention, this conceptualization posits that the functional tendency to pay visual attention toward an auditory signal will translate to a facilitation effect on preferences. However, given a goal of signal avoidance, crossmodal functionality dictates a lowering of visual attention toward the signal, impairing preferences for targets in that direction. Finally, a twostage model of involuntary and voluntary attention is invoked to reconcile opposing predictions: an aversive noise is held to produce initial facilitation because of an involuntary appraisal mechanism, before a more deliberative attention-allocation process produces impairment. Results from five experiments support these predictions, contributing to the literature on crossmodal information processing and also that on preference formation. Suppose that you are standing in a supermarket aisle