Understanding the Social Gifts of Drinking Rituals: An Alternative Framework for PSA Developers

Binge drinking behavior has been described as the most significant health hazard on college campuses today. Using definitions of ritual behavior drawn from the literature, the authors conducted focus groups, depth interviews, and participant observations to explore the ritualized nature of alcohol beverage consumption among college students at two large universities. The themes that emerged provide an understanding of the rituals associated with college student drinking. With the drinking-as-ritual interpretation as a theoretical framework, the authors discuss how developers of public service announcements (PSAs) could capture and contextualize drinking rituals and thus make PSAs more relevant to the target audience. They provide examples of PSAs that could be tested

Exploring Patient-Provider Relationships in Preference-Based Health Care Choices

Patient-physician relationship models previously identified in research do not always capture the full range of consumers’ experiences as they engage in difficult, preference-based decisions. Examining the context of individuals seeking infertility treatment, we identify a new Peripheral Model of patient-physician relationship, whereby the physician’s role is perceived as rather inconsequential

The Roles of Extraordinary Beliefs in Consumption Rituals

People often ascribe to extraordinary beliefs (EBs), or those that laws of science cannot explain, or those that may even contradict science. Both the foundational literature in anthropology and recent work in consumer behavior affirm the assumption that rituals—structured, repeated, symbolic, and expressive activities—might be one context where extraordinary beliefs shape consumer experiences. To date, however, little understanding exists regarding the types of EBs that emerge in consumption-ritual contexts, and how they influence ritual participation. We examine over 30 years of articles in top-tier journals to address two questions: (1) Which EBs emerge as salient to consumer rituals? (2) How do EBs shape consumer ritual participation? In doing so, we illuminate the role of 15 EBs organized by four key functions. We reveal important gaps in understanding the interplay between EBs and consumer rituals and offer future research recommendations to address these gaps

Designing Hybrid Gifts

Hybrid gifting combines physical artefacts and experiences with digital interactivity to generate new kinds of gifts. Our review details how gifting is a complex social phenomenon and how digital gifting is less engaging than physical gifting for both givers and receivers. Employing a Research Through Design approach, we developed a portfolio of four hybrid gifting experiences: an augmented advent calendar; edible music tracks; personalised museum tours; and a narrated city walk. Our reflection addresses three concepts: hybrid wrapping where physical gifts become wrapped in digital media and vice versa; the importance of effortful interactions that are visible and pleasurable; and the need to consider social obligation, including opportunities for acknowledgement and reciprocation, dealing with embarrassment, and recognising the distinction between giving and sharing. Our concepts provide guidance to practitioners who wish to design future gifting experiences while helping HCI researchers engage with the concept of gifting in a nuanced way

Tinsel, Trimmings, and Tensions: Consumer Negotiations of a Focal Christmas Artifact

Our specific purpose in this paper is to explore households' negotiation practices as they co-create a key ritual artifact of the holiday-the Christmas tree. We find that four distinct pairs of tensions can shape consumers' co-creation of the Christmas tree: aesthetics vs. tradition, inclusiveness vs. risk, family fantasy vs. family reality, and authenticity vs. convenience. We identify and interpret the negotiation strategies that emerge as consumers seek to resolve these sets of tensions

Pursuing Parenthood: Integrating Cultural and Cognitive Perspectives on Persistent Goal Striving

This article argues that a fuller understanding of consumer persistence, or repeated attempts to achieve goals, is necessary and can be achieved by adopting an interdisciplinary perspective and integrating cultural and cognitive perspectives on consumer phenomena. Developing insights by examining experiences of informants pursuing parenthood using assisted reproductive technologies, we build on Bagozzi and Dholakia's ( 1999 ) model of goal striving to explore how cultural discourses inform consumers' cognitions. We analyze how both life-project framing discourses and culturally pervasive discourses affect consumers and demonstrate that a cultural perspective is a vital complement to cognitive models of persistence. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..