Brand New
Too Positive to Be Tweeted? An Experimental Investigation of Emotional Expression on Twitter and Instagram
Alexandra Masciantonio & David Bourguignon
Media Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The literature on emotional expression on Social Network Sites (SNSs) is still in its infancy. It is assumed that SNSs are subject to a positivity bias: individuals share positive aspects of their lives on SNSs rather than negative ones. However, sentiment analysis studies have shown that this bias might not be appropriate for all SNSs, particularly Twitter. This research aimed to understand how the emotions of a message impact the choice of the SNS used to publish it. Four pre-registered experimental studies were conducted (N = 449). Participants were presented with a message -- text and image -- and asked if it were most likely to be published on Twitter or Instagram. The emotional valence of this message was manipulated in experiments 1a and 1b, as well as emotional arousal in experiments 2a and 2b. The results indicated that Instagram was preferred for positive messages. But the platform was also chosen for messages displaying low negative emotions, such as boredom or lassitude. Twitter was associated with messages displaying highly negative emotions, such as anger or distress. This research emphasizes the social norms that govern both platforms and demonstrates the interdependence between SNSs architecture, user motivations, and social context.
It’s the journey, not just the destination: Conveying interpersonal warmth in written introductions
Kelly Nault, Ovul Sezer & Nadav Klein
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, July 2023
Abstract;
Professionals are often required to introduce themselves and engage in self-promotion in writing. Text-based self-promotion allows people to reach a wide audience but can make it difficult to convey warmth. Across seven studies (N = 2,533), we show that people conveyed greater warmth in written introductions when they emphasized their journey (i.e., the path taken to achieve their accomplishments) along with their outcomes (i.e., the accomplishments). In Studies 1a-1d, we used a real-world context and found that more journey-oriented LinkedIn introductions increased warmth perceptions, partly because these introducers were perceived as humbler. These results extended beyond naïve evaluators to human resources specialists. Studies 2–4 experimentally replicated these effects, additionally examining how information regarding the difficulty of outcomes affected perceptions and identifying communication medium as a boundary condition: journey information increased perceived warmth in text, but not video introductions. Adding journey information to written introductions conveys warmth and creates more favorable impressions.
Choose as Much as You Wish: Freedom Cues in the Marketplace Help Consumers Feel More Satisfied With What They Choose and Improve Customer Experience
Barbara Fasolo, Raffaella Misuraca & Elena Reutskaja
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumer satisfaction and customer experience are key predictors of an organization’s future market growth, long-term customer loyalty, and profitability but are hard to maintain in marketplaces with abundance of choice. Building on self-determination theory, we experimentally test a novel intervention that leverages consumer need for autonomy. The intervention is a message called a “freedom cue” (FC) which makes it salient that consumers can “choose as much as they wish.” A 4-week field experiment in a sporting gear store establishes that FCs lead to greater consumer satisfaction compared to when the store displays no FC. A large (N = 669) preregistered process-tracing experiment run with a consumer panel and a global e-commerce company shows that FCs at point-of-sale improve consumer satisfaction and customer experience compared to an equivalent message that does not make freedom to choose any amount salient. Perceived freedom mediates the effect. FCs do not change the time spent or clicks on the website overall but do change the focus of the choice process. FCs lead to greater focus on what is chosen than on what is not chosen. We discuss practical implications for organizations and future research in consumer choice.
When Goods Were Odds: Do People Evaluate the Same Option Differently If it Was Previously Uncertain?
Beidi Hu, Siyuan Yin & Alice Moon
University of Pennsylvania Working Paper, March 2023
Abstract:
Though consumers frequently face uncertainty, much of that uncertainty is eventually resolved (e.g., a person entered in a raffle eventually learns what prize they have received). How do people evaluate options (e.g., prizes) that result from uncertainty (e.g., an uncertain raffle)? Seven experiments (N = 10,956) reveal that people keep goods more often when they stem from uncertain prospects compared to when the same goods were always known. This effect emerged with an incentive-compatible decision (Study 1), a stock-trading scenario (Study 2), and choices between gambles and cash (Study 3). We propose this effect arises because goods resulting from uncertainty induce a perception of “winning” those outcomes (Study 4). Supporting this account, when people received the worst possible outcome from uncertainty, the effect was attenuated (Study 5). Further, when people instead obtained a monetary loss, the pattern reversed: People were less likely to hold onto a previously uncertain (versus always certain) loss (Study 6). Lastly, this effect carried over to products associated with the previously uncertain good (a subscription with a previously uncertain free trial; Study 7). These findings demonstrate that the influence of uncertainty persists even after its resolution, affecting how (sure) options resulting from uncertainty are evaluated.
Going with the crowd in volatile times: Exposure to environmental variability increases people's preference for popular options
Lishi Tan, Shankha Basu & Krishna Savani
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, forthcoming
Abstract:
More extreme temperature and precipitation events are defining features of climate change, and higher volatility in asset prices is a defining feature of globalization. Four experiments (two preregistered; total N = 2086) found that exposure to a high degree of variability in a given domain shifted people's preferences toward more popular products, that is, products rated by a larger number of consumers. This finding replicated across different experimental manipulations of variability, including graphs depicting either high or low variability in annual rainfall or temperature (Experiments 1 and 2), and in the experienced outcomes of dice rolls, which were manipulated to be perceived as having high or low variability (Experiment 3). The results generalized across different consumer choices, including services (Experiment 1) and products (Experiments 2 and 3). After exposure to higher variability, participants who received a more popular but lower rated option felt less anxious than those who received a less popular but higher rated option, indicating that choosing popular products serves to reduce the anxiety induced by higher variability (Experiment 4). This research highlights both a novel consequence of exposure to greater variability and a novel antecedent of people's preference for popular options.
Symbolically Simple: How Simple Packaging Design Influences Willingness to Pay for Consumable Products
Lan Anh Ton, Rosanna Smith & Julio Sevilla
Journal of Marketing, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although consumers often value minimalist aesthetics, little work has examined why and when simple packaging designs of consumable products enhance consumer outcomes. We theorize that simple packaging evokes a symbolic association where minimizing design complexity signals that the product contains few ingredients, which increases perceived product purity and willingness to pay (WTP). A field study examining a supermarket chain’s product packages (N = 1353) provided preliminary support for this increase in WTP and two boundary conditions. Six preregistered studies replicated these effects and tested the underlying process. Studies 1a-b found that the increase in WTP for simple packaging is driven by few-ingredients inferences increasing perceived product purity. Study 2 demonstrated the increase in WTP using an incentive-compatible design. Study 3 reinforced the proposed process via moderated mediation. Lastly, studies 4-5 tested the boundary conditions in the field study, finding that WTP for simple packaging decreases when the product is from a store (vs. non-store) brand and when consumers have an indulgence (vs. health) goal. These findings offer theoretical and managerial insight into minimalist aesthetics.