Wants
Feeling Economically Stuck: The Effect of Perceived Economic Mobility and Socioeconomic Status on Variety Seeking
Sunyee Yoon & Hyeongmin Christian Kim
Journal of Consumer Research, February 2018, Pages 1141-1156
Abstract:
Five studies provide converging evidence for the joint effect of perceived economic mobility and socioeconomic status (SES) on compensatory behavior, such that low SES consumers who perceive low economic mobility (i.e., economically stuck consumers) seek more variety than other consumers. We trace this effect to these consumers' desire to compensate for their low sense of personal control. Furthermore, we show that these consumers' variety-seeking tendency disappears when their sense of control is boosted by other means or when the more varied option is not associated with a sense of control. Alternative explanations based on instrumental benefits, reactance, and affect were tested and did not account for the effect. Thus, the current research provides fresh insights to consumer research by contributing to the literature on compensatory behavior, variety seeking, and SES.
A big data analysis of the relationship between future thinking and decision-making
Robert Thorstad & Phillip Wolff
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We use big data methods to investigate how decision-making might depend on future sightedness (that is, on how far into the future people's thoughts about the future extend). In study 1, we establish a link between future thinking and decision-making at the population level in showing that US states with citizens having relatively far future sightedness, as reflected in their tweets, take fewer risks than citizens in states having relatively near future sightedness. In study 2, we analyze people's tweets to confirm a connection between future sightedness and decision-making at the individual level in showing that people with long future sightedness are more likely to choose larger future rewards over smaller immediate rewards. In study 3, we show that risk taking decreases with increases in future sightedness as reflected in people's tweets. The ability of future sightedness to predict decisions suggests that future sightedness is a relatively stable cognitive characteristic. This implication was supported in an analysis of tweets by over 38,000 people that showed that future sightedness has both state and trait characteristics (study 4). In study 5, we provide evidence for a potential mechanism by which future sightedness can affect decisions in showing that far future sightedness can make the future seem more connected to the present, as reflected in how people refer to the present, past, and future in their tweets over the course of several minutes. Our studies show how big data methods can be applied to naturalistic data to reveal underlying psychological properties and processes.
The Mere Urgency Effect
Meng Zhu, Yang Yang & Christopher Hsee
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
In everyday life, people are often faced with choices between tasks of varying levels of urgency and importance. How do people choose? Normatively speaking, people may choose to perform urgent tasks with short completion windows, instead of importance tasks with larger outcomes, because important tasks are more difficult and further away from goal completion, urgent tasks involve more immediate and certain payoffs, or people want to finish the urgent tasks first and then work on important tasks later. The current research identifies a mere urgency effect, a tendency to pursue urgency over importance even when these normative reasons are controlled for. Specifically, results from five experiments demonstrate that people are more likely to perform unimportant tasks (i.e., tasks with objectively lower payoffs) over important tasks (i.e., tasks with objectively better payoffs), when the unimportant tasks are characterized merely by spurious urgency (e.g., an illusion of expiration). The mere urgency effect documented in this research violates the basic normative principle of dominance - choosing objectively worse options over objectively better options. People behave as if pursuing an urgent task had its own appeal, independent of its objective consequence.
Less power, greater conflict: Low power increases the experience of conflict in multiple goal settings
Petra Schmid
Social Psychology, January/February 2018, Pages 47-62
Abstract:
Power facilitates goal pursuit, but how does power affect the way people respond to conflict between their multiple goals? Our results showed that higher trait power was associated with reduced experience of conflict in scenarios describing multiple goals (Study 1) and between personal goals (Study 2). Moreover, manipulated low power increased individuals' experience of goal conflict relative to high power and a control condition (Studies 3 and 4), with the consequence that they planned to invest less into the pursuit of their goals in the future. With its focus on multiple goals and individuals' experiences during goal pursuit rather than objective performance, the present research uses new angles to examine power effects on goal pursuit.
The Effects of Rarity on Indulgent Consumption: Non-Impulsives Indulge When Low Frequency Is Salient
Frank May & Caglar Irmak
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
While much research has investigated why and how impulsive individuals indulge, little research has explored the conditions under which non-impulsive consumers do. This research examines the effects of the salience of the notion "rare", or low frequency, on the tendency to indulge. The authors find that when the notion of rarity is salient, non-impulsive consumers' tendency to indulge increases, but it does not affect indulgence tendencies of impulsive consumers. This effect occurs because for non-impulsives, the actual act of indulging is a relatively rare occurrence - it is something that happens with low frequency. This means that they have formed a strong association between the concepts of "rare" and "indulge." Thus, for these individuals, making the concept "rare" salient activates the concept "indulge". Nine studies provide evidence for this association and its downstream consequences. Contributions emerge for the literatures on impulsivity and self-control.
If You are Going to Pay within the Next 24 Hours, Press 1: Automatic Planning Prompt Reduces Credit Card Delinquency
Nina Mazar, Daniel Mochon & Dan Ariely
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People often form intentions but fail to follow through on them. Mounting evidence suggests that such intention-action gaps can be narrowed with prompts to make concrete plans about when, where and how to act to achieve the intention. In this paper we pushed the notion of plan-concreteness to test the efficacy of a prompt under a minimalist automated calling setting, where respondents were only prompted to indicate a narrower duration within which they intent to act. In a field experiment this planning prompt significantly helped people to pay their past dues and get out of debt delinquency. These results suggest that minimalist automatic planning prompts are a scalable, cost-effective intervention.