Richard Yalch

University of Washington | UW · Department of Marketing & International Business

Consumer Psychology in a Social Media World seeks to illustrate the relevance of consumer psychology theory and research to understanding the social media world that has rapidly become a key component in the social and economic lives of most individuals. Despite the rapid and widespread adoption of social media by consumers, research focused on ind...

Many consumers view their relationships with brands as part of their identity and this affects how they react to a brand's behavior that negatively impacts them. In assigning responsibility for negative outcomes, individuals often demonstrate a self-serving bias by assigning more responsibility to their partner and less to themselves. In three stud...

The associative network model of memory proposes that each node (construct) belongs to specific networks of associations. These networks include nodes that share associations with a third (common) construct but are not themselves directly associated (merely associated nodes). The present research proposes that automatic associations between such in...

Previous research conceptualized consumers' evaluations of self-referent advertisements as discrete episodic processing instances requiring the ad-hoc matching of ad and personal knowledge detail. The present research proposes that consumers with frequent (infrequent) experiences in a product category are primarily semantic (episodic) processors. C...

Polysemous brand slogans have multiple meanings that may convey several product attributes. We build on extant research by suggesting that some consumers automatically access multiple meanings of a polysemous brand slogan, whereas others access only a single, immediately available meaning. A novel measure of automatic access to secondary meaning (t...

Psycholinguistic and neuropsychological research shows that individuals differ in their ability to access the multiple meanings implied by polysemous expressions. Drawing on these stud- ies, a novel, computer-based measure of automatic access to secondary meaning (SMAART) is developed to distinguish individuals more likely to access only a single,...

This paper compares sharp versus round numbers in advertising claims. Round numbers have a salient conceptual basis (e.g., 10 years are a decade). Sharp numbers do not (e.g., 11 years). Estimates tend to be expressed with round numbers. An experiment is described that examines whether consumers make the false assumption that claims using sharp numb...

Online Consumer Psychology addresses many of the issues created by the Internet and goes beyond the topic of advertising and the Web to include topics such as customization, site design, word of mouth processes, and the study of consumer decision making while online. The theories and research methods help provide greater insight into the processes...

This article extends research linking shopping behavior to environmental factors through changes in emotional states. With time fixed or variable during a simulated shopping experiment, shoppers were exposed to music varying by degree of familiarity. Afterward, subjects reported their perceptions of shopping duration, their emotional states, and th...

Many television viewers process only the audio or visual channel. The generalizability of the picture superiority effect observed for print is studied by comparing product information presented aurally with similar information presented pictorially. The study supports a picture superiority effect that unexpectedly did not decline when the number of...

The life history of a qualitative research project an historical perspective group discussions the dynamics of small groups individual interviews projective tests and enabling techniques for use in market research current developments in qualitative research the analysis and interpretation process its not just what you say, its also the way you pre...

Although advertisers believe that jingles are an effective way to communicate advertising slogans and regularly use jingles, prior research on the use of music in advertising does not always substantiate this belief. An inadequate consideration of how individuals process jingles as opposed to verbal material presented with backgrond music partially...

Describes an experiment conducted comparing the effects of background and foreground music on clothing store shoppers. Concludes that choosing to play store music solely to satisfy customers' preferences may not be the optimal approach; instead music should be varied across areas of a store that appeal to different-aged customers.

After a review of research on the use of store music, an experiment was conducted comparing the effects of background and foreground music on clothing store shoppers. In-store interviews revealed a preference for foreground music but customers’ moods and unplanned purchases were not substantially enhanced by hearing foreground music. However, custo...

It was hypothesized that for females and children under the age of 11, the probability of choosing a unique product could be influenced by controlling the valence of the resulting dispositional attribution. A label was used to increase the availability of a positive attribution (“I will be unique”) versus a negative one (“I will be selfish”). Label...

A recently introduced model of the audience response to persuasive communications is discussed and used to develop hypotheses about the likely effects of a message quantification strategy. The predicted effects are tested in an experiment and the results are discussed in terms of communications and marketing implications.

This paper is a consideration of what the authors believe to be the most important question associated with the Jacoby/Hoyer miscomprehension study: Is the approximately 30% miscomprehension rate found likely to be a normative indicator one can expect for televised communication, or is it a biased estimate?

This paper is a consideration of what the authors believe to be the most important question associated with the Jacoby/Hoyer miscomprehension study: Is the approximately 30% miscomprehension rate found likely to be a normative indicator one can expect for televised communication, or is it a biased estimate?

Self-regulation is a complex process that involves consumers’ persistence, strength, motivation, and commitment in order to be able to override short-term impulses. In order to be able to pursue their long-term goals, consumers typically need to forgo immediate pleasurable experiences that are detrimental to reach their overarching goals. Although...

Self-regulation is a complex process that involves consumers’ persistence, strength, motivation, and commitment in order to be able to override short-term impulses. In order to be able to pursue their long-term goals, consumers typically need to forgo immediate pleasurable experiences that are detrimental to reach their overarching goals. Although...

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that rewards undermine or enhance intrinsic interest in a task to the extent that individuals interpret their behavior as being motivated by the reward. It was predicted that when subjects were denied the opportunity to develop and confirm this attribution, rewards would not produce an undermining...

Direct observation of free food sample distribution in a supermarket demonstrated that consuming the sample differently affected the purchases of obese and nonobese shoppers. The results are explained using recent research investigating the behavioral differences between overweight and normal weight humans.

Certain shortcomings are found in Beckwith and Lehmann's study of the problem of halo effects in multiattribute attitude models in marketing. The writers contend that the data used were inadequate to test properly for halo effects and thus an inappropriate model was developed.

Certain shortcomings are found in Beckwith and Lehmann's study of the problem of halo effects in multiattribute attitude models in marketing. The writers contend that the data used were inadequate to test properly for halo effects and thus an inappropriate model was developed.

A previously reported finding that a turnout increase stimulated by pre-election interviewing persists to subsequent elections was not replicated in a quasi-experiment involving two interview samples and three elections. The discrepancy is explained as a consequence of the present study's interviews concentrating on the specific candidates and issu...