Rhiannon MacDonnell Mesler

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Lethbridge

This research explores how charities can harness individuals' desire for self‐enhancement in their advertisements to boost volunteerism. Two studies examine the effects of advertising which promote either horizontal differentiation (appeals to uniqueness, existing skills) or vertical differentiation (appeals to status, skill acquisition) and how th...

Emerging markets are a growing force, and the resulting increase in wealth—especially among the middle class—promotes conspicuous consumption with potentially negative impacts for societal and environmental well-being. Efforts to encourage ethical consumer behavior in emerging markets often meet various forms of consumer resistance. One reason that...

There has been a noticeable variance between countries in the growth rate of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Researchers attempted to understand this variance from two primary perspectives: the policies implemented to curb the spread of the virus [1] and the cross-country cultural differences [2]. However, little research to date has look...

Introduction This research integrates literature on masculinity stress—the distress experienced as the result of a perceived discrepancy with male gender norms—with research on goal conflict to examine preferences for plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). Men experiencing masculinity stress are likely to hold salient a goal of being masculine, whi...

In 2021, the United States government provided a third Economic Impact Payment (EIP) for those designated as experiencing greater need due to the COVID‐19 pandemic. With a particular focus on scarcity and ontological insecurity, we collected time‐separated data prior to, and following, the third EIP to examine how these variables shape consumer all...

The current research aims to clarify relationships between masculine gender role discrepancy, discrepancy stress, and traditional masculine identity on men's self-reported health-related behaviors. Participants (n = 459 MAge = 34.07 [SD = 12.06]; 56.6% UK, 29.4% US, 14% Canada) recruited through Prolific Academic completed a 2-part study, which tem...

Consumers exert considerable time, energy, and financial resources toward achieving weight and body shape goals. However, weight management behaviors often become maladaptive (i.e., more harmful than helpful) and lead to increased chances for negative mental and physical results. An online panel (n = 412; Mage = 45.49; SDage = 16.64; 61.4% female)...

Amidst the economic, political, and social turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting responses to government mandated and recommended mitigation strategies have posed many challenges for governments as they seek to persuade individuals to adhere to prevention guidelines. Much research has subsequently examined the tendency of individuals...

Childhood environments have lasting effects on individuals well into adulthood for a range of behaviours, and this holds true for food-related behaviours. In this study we ask how situational scarcity and individual self-control influence the relationship between early childhood financial adversity (ECFA) and unhealthiness of food choices. We propo...

We examine how first-person plural and second-person singular pronouns used in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) communications impact people's likelihood to follow stay-at-home recommendations. A 2 (first-person plural [“we”] vs. second-person singular [“you”]) by continuous trait self-control between-subjects experiment (N = 223) was used to ex...

This work explores the effects of masculinity stress—distress arising from a perceived discrepancy with male gender norms—on red meat consumption, which has potentially substantial individual, collective, and ecological consequences. Across three studies, we demonstrate a positive indirect effect of masculinity stress on red meat consumption throug...

The experience of downward changes in one’s financial situation is so common that most consumers will experience it during their lifetime such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Limited research, however, has examined the impact of economic hardship on consumers’ food-related behavior. Using a sample of Canadians and Americans (n = 519; Mage = 38.4;...

Nonprofit brands vary widely in their positioning to consumers, ranging from crisis and desperation to joy and optimism. The literature, however, provides limited direction for the many nonprofit organizations that seek to align their brand with positive emotions. Herein, we examine the relationship between affective displays (sad vs. happy) portra...

Are teachers' growth mindsets associated with the development of growth mindsets in their students? We know that teacher growth mindset (TGM) shapes the attributions teachers make about their students' abilities and can lead to assumptions about the role that perceived stable traits play in students' performance; however, to date, research has not...

To combat the global COVID-19 crisis, governments and health organizations rely on collective cooperation among every ordinary individual to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such physical distancing which includes, as examined in our study, staying at home. Thus, we ask the question: do individual differences in how individuals se...

While past research has suggested that consumers have fundamentally different responses to thinking about money versus time, the current work clarifies an important nuance in terms of how consumers construe these two resources. We demonstrate that, in the domain of charitable giving, money is construed relatively more concretely, whereas time is co...

At the heart of most performance management systems is a reward program. However, even when we are doing everything else right, rewards can go wrong. Here, we explore five ways that external incentives can damage performance, from destroying altruistic behavior to distracting people from the task. Fortunately, most of these downfalls are avoidable....

Purpose – Telework is an alternative work relationship with demonstrated positive benefits for individuals and society, yet it has not been implemented with enthusiasm by most organizations. This could be due to the lacking, consolidated evidence for management regarding whether or not telework is a good thing for the firm. The purpose of this pape...

Although consumers report positive attitudes toward ethical goods, their intentions and behaviors often do not follow suit. Just-world theory highlights the conditions under which consumers are most likely to prefer fair-trade products. This theory proposes that people are motivated to construe the world as a just place where people get what they d...

Across three studies, this research elucidates when loss- versus gain-framed messages are most effective in influencing consumer recycling by examining the moderating role of whether a more concrete or abstract mind-set is activated. First, in a field study, the authors demonstrate that loss frames are more efficacious when paired with low-level, c...

This study explored personality and motivational traits related to teleworker performance and satisfaction, including sociability, need for achievement and autonomy, diligence and organisation. Situational factors were also compared between teleworkers and non-teleworkers, such as number of children, job autonomy and job complexity. Implications fo...

Despite the increasing popularity of virtual teams in organizations, very little is known about how personality traits may differentiate effective virtual teams from effective face-to-face teams. This paper sought to examine if extraversion, oppenness to experience, and an individual's predisposition to be a team player would be differentially rela...