Steven Shepherd

• PhD Social Psychology
• Professor (Assistant) at Oklahoma State University

In what ways can brands symbolize America's defining values, and for whom do these values resonate? Drawing from research on values (Schwartz 1994), the symbolic power of brands (Holt 2004, 2006; McCracken 1986), and system justification theory (Jost and Banaji 1994), the current research explores (1) what values define America's dominant ideology,...

Firearms are one the most contentious consumer products in the United States, with opinions on guns being strongly divided along liberal versus conservative lines. The current research leverages compensatory control theory (CCT; Kay et al. 2008) to show how the same underlying need to see the world as orderly and nonrandom can help explain both sid...

Despite the centrality of purchasing behavior and choice to the welfare debate, research has generally understood attitudes toward welfare at a broader level and as a function of rational or deliberative processes (e.g., self-interest, ideology). This project identifies the effect of egocentrism on welfare attitudes, finding that a welfare recipien...

Racial disparities exist in how different peer-to-peer (P2P) business activities are treated. Adapting from institutional theory, whiteness theory, and stereotyping research, we find across a series of experiments that P2P activities are rated more negatively and lower in normative legitimacy when their actors are perceived to be Black as opposed t...

Across three preregistered studies and five supplementary datasets, we predicted and found that conservatives were more inclined to complain than liberals due to conservative consumers feeling a greater sense of entitlement. This research contributes to the literature by introducing consumer entitlement as a novel explanation for ideological differ...

Understanding how initiatives to support Black-owned businesses are received, and why, has important social and economic implications. To address this, we designed three experiments to investigate the role of antiegalitarian versus egalitarian ideologies among White American adults. In Study 1 ( N = 199), antiegalitarianism (vs. egalitarianism) pre...

Numerous social categories are often seen as vulnerable to harm. In the context of firms causing harm to individuals, we seek to better explain when and why observers absolve firms of responsibility as opposed to holding them more accountable. We propose that when someone’s identity is thought to make them vulnerable to harm, identity visibility (h...

When and why might someone judge an ingroup transgressor more harshly than an outgroup transgressor? Taking a social functionalist perspective, we argue that morality is central to this phenomenon–the Black Sheep Effect–and that it is driven by social cohesion concerns. Using mediation and moderation methods across our studies, we find that people...

To call attention to and motivate action on ethical issues in business or society, messengers often criticize groups for wrongdoing and ask these groups to change their behavior. When criticizing target groups, messengers frequently identify and express concern about harm caused to a victim group, and in the process address a target group by critic...

Given how widespread business-related conspiracy theories have become, this research examines how associating a brand with a conspiracy theory shapes the consumer’s relationship with that brand. Our three studies show that when consumers believe a brand is involved in a conspiracy, this belief leads them to perceive the brand as having a Machiavell...

In recent years, much of the American public has venerated military veterans as heroes. Despite overwhelmingly positive public attitudes toward veterans, veterans have experienced higher rates of unemployment and underemployment than their nonveteran peers. The current research leverages theory and research on positive stereotypes to shed light on...

Brand sincerity (wholesome, family-oriented) is core dimension of brand personality; however, to what extent is LGBTQ representation congruent with brand sincerity? We argue that whether or not LGBTQ representation is considered “wholesome” or “family-friendly,” and how consumers respond to such representation, is dependent on political ideology. R...

Long-standing structural features of the military have created a culture and society that is dramatically different and disconnected from civilian society. Thus, veterans transitioning to civilian society face a number of challenges related to fulfilling basic psychological needs (e.g., need for structure and order, belonging) and civilians’ relian...

Brands often tell consumers that they have power, either directly through slogans such as Burger King’s famous “Have it your way” or by allowing them to exert control over the purchasing process (e.g., product and service customization). Yet, not everyone may feel competent enough to handle a sudden increase in empowerment. Would then variations in...

Past research offers mixed advice for marketers regarding the benefits of novel packaging. We find that special edition packaging, even when especially visually salient, impedes consumers’ search for the target product and leads to more negative evaluations of the shopping experience. Special edition packaging that retains (vs. abandons) familiar b...

In this chapter, we outline a program of research that has sought to understand how sociopolitical and religious systems overlap in their satiation of psychological needs and suggest that this overlap helps one explain a range of sociocultural phenomenon regarding the complex relationship between these systems. Compensatory control theory (CCT) pos...

The pursuit of passion in one's work is touted in contemporary discourse. Although passion may indeed be beneficial in many ways, we suggest that the modern cultural emphasis may also serve to facilitate the legitimization of unfair and demeaning management practices-a phenomenon we term the legitimization of passion exploitation. Across 7 studies...

Why are consumers drawn to spiritual products? Leveraging theorising regarding the psychological need to perceive the world as orderly and non-random, we posit that products imbued with religious/spiritual significance help manage concerns about randomness and uncontrollability (e.g. when a product is unreliable or exposes the consumer to random un...

We review conceptual and empirical contributions to system justification theory over the last fifteen years, emphasizing the importance of an experimental approach and consideration of context. First, we review the indirect evidence of the system justification motive via complimentary stereotyping. Second, we describe injunctification as direct evi...

Do references to God in political discourse increase confidence in the U.S. sociopolitical system? Using a system justification framework (Jost & Banaji, ), five studies provide evidence that, (1) increasingly governments symbolically associate the nation with God when public confidence in the social system may be threatened and (2) associating the...

Many brands sell their products with the promise that the consumer will experience happiness. Intuitively, appealing to people's desire to be happy should be universally well received. In two studies, we show that it is not necessarily the case by examining the moderating role of consumer religiosity. We further show that the moderating role of rel...

Trust scholars emphasize the importance of trust research given that trust is integral to societal functioning. However, evidence suggests there is a “dark side” to trust. We discuss a specific facet of the dark side of individuals’ trust in institutions, which we call compensatory institutional trust. We review theory and evidence suggesting that...

As our global community increases in complexity, crises and disasters-such as global financial meltdowns and natural disasters-increasingly have the ability to impact millions of lives. Because of the scale and complexity of these issues, they are seemingly beyond comprehension and personal control. As such, people may rely on the government as a p...

How do people cope when they feel uninformed or unable to understand important social issues, such as the environment, energy concerns, or the economy? Do they seek out information, or do they simply ignore the threatening issue at hand? One would intuitively expect that a lack of knowledge would motivate an increased, unbiased search for informati...

Research inspired by the compensatory control model (CCM) shows that people compensate for personal control threats by bolstering aspects of the cultural worldview that afford external control. According to the CCM these effects stem from the motivation to maintain perceived order, but it is alternatively possible that they represent indirect effor...

Chronically insecure individuals often behave in ways that result in the very social rejection that they most fear. We predicted that this typical self-fulfilling prophecy is not immutable. Self-affirmation may improve insecure individuals' relational security, and this improvement may allow them to express more welcoming social behavior. In a long...

Endorsing complementary stereotypes about others (i.e., stereotypes consisting of a balance of positive and negative characteristics) can function to satisfy the need to perceive one's social system as fair and balanced. To what extent might this also apply to self-perception, or self-stereotyping? The present research aimed to investigate the link...

It has been recently proposed that people can flexibly rely on sources of control that are both internal and external to the self to satisfy the need to believe that their world is under control (i.e., that events do not unfold randomly or haphazardly). Consistent with this, past research demonstrates that, when personal control is threatened, peop...

The freedom to emigrate at will from a geographic location is an internationally recognized human right. However, this right is systematically violated by restrictive migration policies. In three experiments, we explored the psychological consequences of violating the right to mobility. Our results suggest that, ironically, restricted freedom of mo...

The current study aimed to establish how trait forgiveness relates to broad personality factors as defined by the HEXACO model of personality, as opposed to the Big Five/Five-Factor models of personality. Since the HEXACO model differs from the Big Five model, different correlations were predicted to emerge, thus highlighting the importance of spec...