Social Networking Obliterates Etiquette: Thumbs Drum in Rise of Multitasking Rudeness

This pilot study investigates selected etiquette issues that appear to have arisen with the prevalence of hand-held electronic communications. Researchers surveyed college undergraduates, graduates, and faculty about the appropriateness of multitasking when others are present, whether they thank people with a hand-written note, by telephone, or by email, and the appropriateness of their preferred means of saying thank you. This study raises questions about etiquette issues when using electronic communications

The Unpredictable Positive Effects of Sports Gambling: Gamblers Think Losing Feels Worse Than it Actually Feels

Implications statement Gamblers underestimate how much fun small wagers add to enjoying sports events. They think losing will feel worse than it really does. Simple reminder can correct this misprediction. Abstract When considering whether to gamble on a sporting event, people may ask themselves how winning or losing will affect their experience. In a series of four experiments, we find that people under-appreciate the positive effect of gambling on watching sporting events, in a way that causes them to under-value the opportunity to place a small stakes gamble. While participants predict that a gamble will enhance or diminish an experience depending on the outcome, we find that a small bet has an asymmetric hedonic effect, making sports events more enjoyable for people who wager and win, and not any less enjoyable for people who wager and lose. We demonstrate that people do not predict this asymmetry because that they fail to spontaneously consider the ongoing enjoyment experienced while watching an event, and that when asked to consider their experience during the game, they predict gambling will be more enjoyable. Extending our results into other types of gambles, we find that the hedonic benefit of gambling (and people’s hedonic mispredictions of it) occur even for other types of wagers, such as a betting on a series of coin flips

What Makes Negotiators Happy? The Differential Effects of Internal and External Social Comparisons on Negotiator Satisfaction

This paper examines the role of internal and external social comparisons in negotiator satisfaction. Internal comparisons involve another party to the negotiation (e.g., buyer compared to seller), while external comparisons focus on someone outside of the negotiation (e.g., buyer compared to other buyers). Negotiator satisfaction can influence a range of post-negotiation behavior, but relatively little is known about what makes negotiators more or less satisfied. In many contexts negotiators receive little objective feedback and lack benchmarks against which to judge their outcome. Prior work has modeled negotiator satisfaction as a function of utility maximization, expectancy disconfirmation, and internal social comparisons (social utility). In this paper we identify another particularly important driver of negotiator satisfaction, external social comparisons. Across five studies we demonstrate that external social comparisons affect satisfaction and that the effects of external social comparisons are qualitatively different from those of internal social comparisons. In particular, we find that downward external social comparisons increase satisfaction, while downward internal social comparisons decrease satisfaction. These results inform important prescriptions, and we discuss implications of these results for managing negotiator satisfaction

Adding Small Differences can Increase Similarity and Choice

Similarity plays a critical role in many judgments and choices. Traditional models of similarity posit that increasing the number of differences between objects cannot increase judged similarity between them. In contrast to these previous models, the present research shows that introducing a small difference in an attribute that previously was identical across objects can increase perceived similarity between those objects. We propose an explanation based on the idea that small differences draw more attention than identical attributes do and that people’s perceptions of similarity involve averaging attributes that are salient. We provide evidence that introducing small differences between objects increases perceived similarity. We also show that an increase in similarity decreases the difficulty of choice and the likelihood that a choice will be deferred. </jats:p

Asymmetric hedonic contrast: pain is more contrast dependent than pleasure

Research has shown that hedonic-contrast effects are a ubiquitous and important phenomenon. In eight studies (N = 4,999) and four supplemental studies (N = 1,809), we found that hedonic-contrast effects were stronger for negative outcomes than for positive outcomes. This asymmetric-contrast effect held for both anticipated and experienced affect. The effect makes risks that include gains and losses more attractive in the presence of high reference points because contrast diminishes the hedonic impact of losses more than gains. We demonstrated that the effect occurs because people are generally more attentive to reference points when evaluating negative outcomes, so drawing attention to reference points eliminates the asymmetric-contrast effect

New insights into emotion valence and loyalty intentions in relational exchanges

This research examines how emotion valence and future intentions arising from relational exchangeswithaservicefirmdependonaconsumer'slevelofgoalattainmentandlocusofcausality (firm vs. self) of relational outcomes. Drawing on the theories of goal-directed behavior and agency of causation, this study hypothesizes that levels of goal attainment and locus of causality influence the generation of positive emotions (gratitude), negative emotions (grudge and guilt), relational mediators (trust and commitment), and subsequent future intentions to remain loyal to the firm. Based on a controlled experiment with 284 subjects in a consumer-determined relationshipsetting,theresearchfindsthatemotionvalenceandfutureloyaltyintentionsarecontingent upon the fulfillment of relational objectives of individual consumers and the agency of causation for the outcome of the relational exchanges. In doing so, this study delineates the conditioning mechanism that directs how emotion valence influences behavioral intentions. The study contributes to the consumer behavior and services marketing literatures on consumption-based emotionsandhassignificantpracticeimplicationsforrelationalbehaviors

When Does Construction Enhance Product Value? Investigating the Combined Effects of Object Assembly and Ownership on Valuation

Recent findings have shown that even without the ability to customize a product, individuals pay more for goods that they assembled. In this paper we examine which components of this creation process account for this increase in valuation, and whether it operates equally for owners and non-owners of the self-assembled object. Based on the self-extension theory of ownership, we propose a psychological mechanism by which the assembly process strengthens the self-object association. In three experiments, we find that – although witnessing the assembly process or assembling a similar product can increase participants’ evaluation of, and attachment to, a product that they own – a greater and more consistent increase in valuation and attachment arises when owners assemble their product themselves. Seemingly, merely learning about the assembly process plays only a small role in enhancing value; for substantial increases in value, one must actually assemble the product oneself. Contrary to the previous findings on the effects of labour on willingness to pay, we find little effect of product assembly among non-owners of the product. We suggest that self-assembly encourages objects to be incorporated into the self, but that this occurs most effectively when one owns the product. Keywords: product assembly,This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.193

Consumers’ evaluation of allocation policies for scarce health care services: Vested interest activation trumps spatial and temporal distance

The allocation of scarce health care service resources often requires trade-offs between individual and collective outcomes (e.g., when some individuals benefit more strongly from a given policy th

The dynamics of deferred decision

AbstractDecision makers are often unable to choose between the options that they are offered. In these settings they typically defer their decision, that is, delay the decision to a later point in time or avoid the decision altogether. In this paper, we outline eight behavioral findings regarding the causes and consequences of choice deferral that cognitive theories of decision making should be able to capture. We show that these findings can be accounted for by a deferral-based time limit applied to existing sequential sampling models of preferential choice. Our approach to modeling deferral as a time limit in a sequential sampling model also makes a number of novel predictions regarding the interactions between choice probabilities, deferral probabilities, and decision times, and we confirm these predictions in an experiment. Choice deferral is a key feature of everyday decision making, and our paper illustrates how established theoretical approaches can be used to understand the cognitive underpinnings of this important behavioral phenomenon

The exploration of hotel reference prices under dynamic pricing scenarios and different forms of competition

The reference price, used by consumers to evaluate market prices, has tremendous relevance in dynamic pricing. Reconciling current heterogeneous theories and studies on reference prices, this paper analyzes the impact of hotel price sequences on consumers’ reference prices through a lab and a field experiment. Experiment 1 tests the importance of retrospective price evaluations, while Experiment 2 evaluates the impact of three forms of competition: (i) simultaneous behavior, where firms adjust prices simultaneously; (ii) leader-follower behavior, where one firm acts as the leader; and (iii) independent behavior, where each player takes its rival’s strategy as given and seeks to maximize its own profits. The results show that consumers decrease their reference price when competing hotels adjust their prices simultaneously. Relevant managerial implications are drawn for the hospitality industry, which is affected by the presence of online travel agencies that announce the daily rates offered by each competitor