Offerings
The Humor Advantage: Humorous Bragging Benefits Job Candidates and Entrepreneurs
Jieun Pai, Eileen Chou & Nir Halevy
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
From job candidates to entrepreneurs, people often face an inherent tension between the need to share personal accomplishments and the need to avoid appearing arrogant. We propose that humorbragging -- incorporating self-enhancing humor into self-promoting communications -- can signal warmth and competence simultaneously, leading to instrumental benefits. Four studies explored humorbragging as a potential solution to the self-promotion paradox. Study 1 demonstrated that a humorbragging (vs. self-promoting) resume attracted more hiring interest from recruiters. Study 2 showed that perceived warmth and competence mediate the positive effect of humorbragging on hiring intentions. Study 3 found that humorbragging entrepreneurs achieved greater success securing funding compared to entrepreneurs who used other kinds of humor. Finally, Studies 4a to 4c established that the positive effect of humorbragging on hiring intentions is unique to self-enhancing humor. Overall, the current research establishes the instrumental benefits of humorbragging and explains why and when it functions as an effective impression management strategy.
Lost in digitization: The physical format of creative work affects authenticity perceptions
Oden Groth, Lauren Block & George Newman
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, forthcoming
Abstract:
The explosion in digitization means that individuals increasingly have the opportunity to choose between digital and physical versions of creative works -- for example, between eBooks and paperback books. However, despite the popularity of digital objects, many people continue to prefer physical equivalents. We suggest that one reason for this preference is that physical versions of works are felt to embody the essence of their creators. Across six studies, we find that physical versions of creative works are indeed seen as embodying the essence of the creator, and as a result, are perceived to be more authentic instantiations of the creative work as compared to digital versions. We also find that perceptions of authenticity and essence transfer are strongest for works by creators to whom we feel connected, and are attenuated when individuals are motivated to distance themselves from a creator.
Shrinkflation Aversion: When and Why Product Size Decreases Are Seen as More Unfair than Equivalent Price Increases
Ioannis Evangelidis
Marketing Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers worldwide have been struggling to keep up with rising costs of living. Although many firms have (directly) increased their prices, others have engaged in the practice of product downsizing -- decreasing the size or quantity of the product without changing its price. In this research, I investigate consumers’ beliefs about the fairness of product downsizing compared with equivalent price increases (i.e., holding the price per unit of product constant). Five preregistered experiments demonstrate that, whereas the vast majority of people judge price increases in response to cost increases as fair, this pattern is attenuated -- or even reversed -- for product downsizing. Consequently, the proportion of consumers who view product downsizing as unfair is greater than the proportion who view an equivalent price increase as unfair. This phenomenon, referred to as “shrinkflation aversion,” is predominantly driven by consumers’ beliefs that product downsizing (versus price increases) is a deceptive practice. Importantly, I provide empirical evidence for two key moderators of the phenomenon: (1) the transparency of the product change and (2) the presence (versus absence) of increases in the firm’s costs.
Nudges Increase Choosing but Decrease Consuming: Longitudinal Studies of the Decoy, Default, and Compromise Effects
Evan Polman & Sam Maglio
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research in marketing, psychology, economics, and decision making has long examined what people choose, when people choose, and why people choose. But almost no research has examined how long people consume their choices. Here, we examined an asymmetry between choosing an option and consuming it. Under the aegis of nudges, we conducted two randomized longitudinal experiments on how long people consumed a choice that was incentivized vis-à-vis a decoy effect, default effect, and compromise effect. We found that these nudges influenced choosing and consuming in opposite directions: Participants were more likely to choose the nudged option; however, they consumed it less compared to participants who chose an identical non-nudged option. Our research thus demonstrates that nudges could lead people to consume a nudged option less after choosing it, illuminating the potential for future research to examine the unexplored area of longitudinal, post-acquisition, post-nudge effects.
Proximity and Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from the Introduction of New Airline Routes
John (Jianqiu) Bai, Wang Jin & Sifan Zhou
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the causal relationship between proximity and knowledge diffusion by estimating the elasticity of core-based statistical area (CBSA) pair-level citations to variations in travel time induced by the introduction of new flight routes. The findings reveal that decreasing travel time between U.S. cities by 20% increases knowledge flow by 0.5%, which corresponds to an increase of over 15,000 citations at the aggregate level. Rather than boosting within-firm knowledge transfer, travel time reduction leads to a rise in knowledge spillovers primarily across firm boundaries, particularly among those that form joint ventures, have block holdings in each other, or form supply chain relationships. These effects are stronger among city pairs located farther away from each other, with higher absorptive capacity, in complex technology classes, and for newly developed technologies. Additional mechanism tests suggest that the most likely channel through which travel time reduction impacts knowledge spillover is by influencing the transfer of tacit knowledge via facilitating cross-CBSA inventor flow and information acquisition.