Making Recommendations More Effective Through Framings: Impacts of User- versus Item-Based Framings on Recommendation Click-Throughs

Companies frequently offer product recommendations to customers, according to various algorithms. This research explores how companies should frame the methods they use to derive their recommendations, in an attempt to maximize click-through rates. Two common framings—user-based and item-based—might describe the same recommendation. User-based framing emphasizes the similarity between customers (e.g., “People who like this also like…”); item-based framing instead em

Money in the bank: Feeling powerful increases saving

Across five studies, this research reveals that feeling powerful increases saving. This effect is driven by the desire to maintain one’s current state. When the purpose of saving is no longer to accumulate money but to spend it on a status-related product, the basic effect is reversed, and those who feel powerless save more. Further, if money can no longer aid in maintaining one’s current state because power is already secure or because power is maintained by accumulating an alternative resource (i.e., knowledge), the effect of feeling powerful on saving disappears. These findings are discussed in light of their implications for research on power and financial decision making

The effect of preference expression modality on self-control

The marketplace affords consumers various modalities to express their preferences (e.g., by pressing a button on a vending machine or making an oral request at a restaurant). In this article, we compare speaking to manual preference expression modalities (button-pressing, writing, and taking) and study their effect on self-control dilemmas. Based on studies of the Stroop task and on neuroscientific evidence, we predict that speaking is less likely than motor movement to evoke self-control. Our prediction relies on the observation that different expression modalities activate different regions of the anterior cingulate cortex and hence may influence the extent to which emotions rather than cognitions determine an individual’s decision. In six studies conducted both in the lab and the field, we show that speaking prompts more indulgent choice than manual modalities (studies 1a, 1b, 2, 3, and 4) but not when individuals speak in a foreign language (study 5). data source: non

Repeated exposure to the thin ideal and implications for the self: Two weight loss program studies

Exposure to thin models results in self-esteem shifts that influence people's motivation to diet. This research study applies a goal perspective to explain the effect of exposure to thin models on dieters' motivation to lose weight. Two (one-week) weight loss program studies that included treatment conditions in which participants were repeatedly exposed to either a thin model or to control conditions with either a neutral dieting-related cue (Study 1) or a normal-sized model (Study 2) were conducted. Female participants who were exposed to the thin model perceived their dieting goals as less attainable, engaged in more goal-inconsistent behavior (i.e., consuming unhealthy snacks), and had less success losing weight. The effect of exposure to thin models on weight loss success is mediated specifically by the perceived attainability of the thin ideal