Tobias Otterbring

Universitetet i Agder | UIA

In an era of transformation fueled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), human resistance to adopt this powerful technology has emerged as one of its most critical barriers. In a series of four studies involving almost 4,000 consumers, this research explores factors that contribute to consumer reluctance toward AI through theories related to algorithm a...

Detachment from nature is contributing to the environmental crisis and reversing this trend requires detailed monitoring and targeted interventions to reconnect people to nature. Most tools measuring nature exposure and attachment were developed in high-income countries and little is known about their robustness across national and linguistic group...

The presence of vines across diverse landscapes and peoples led to the production of different wine styles with a variety of sensory characteristics. In the 20th Century, these styles were sorted into Old (i.e., European) versus New World (i.e., from other continents) to facilitate communication. Geographic origin has been playing a prominent role...

Background Evidence regarding the link between digital food marketing and eating habits is lacking in the majority world, i.e., the world regions where most people live. This study sought to investigate i) self-reported exposure to digital food marketing, ii) associations between such exposure and socio-demographic characteristics, and iii) associa...

Whereas the environmental impact of buying luxury goods is debated, there is evidence that purchasing such products-often referred to as conspicuous consumption-can be more sustainable than hoarding cheaper alternatives because luxury goods are more durable and are often passed down through generations, resulting in fewer resources being consumed b...

Research has shown that hungry individuals are more impulsive, impatient, and prone to make indulgent food choices compared to their satiated counterparts. However, the literature is still mixed, with some studies showing such results while others fail to demonstrate hunger effects on consumers’ choice behavior. The current cross-sectional study (N...

This chapter presents a systematic literature review on consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies as a function of three key constructs: consumer gender, personality traits, and overconfidence aspects. After having introduced the topic of cryptocurrencies, we structure our review across these three fundamental building blocks by briefly describing the...

Beautism reflects the phenomenon of a widespread positivity bias that physically attractive people enjoy. This bias results in more attractive people receiving more positive social judgments, interactions, and economic outcomes. However, the literature has largely focused on third-party judgments of physical attractiveness, neglecting examinations...

Brands are increasingly using the metaverse to promote sales of products and services, but the social influence of avatars in that context is largely unknown. Grounded in social impact theory and impression management literature, this research investigates the impact of retail store employee avatar presence on consumer behavior. Two between- sub...

Digital marketing is one of the dimensions of the food environment that increasingly influences eating habits. It is one of the factors contributing to increased consumption of out-of-home foods, which has been associated with negative health outcomes. In this context, the objective of the study was to analyze the content of Instagram posts featuri...

Virtue signaling serves to express moral and ethical values publicly, showcasing commitment to social and sustainable ideals. This research, conducted with non-WEIRD samples to mitigate the prevalent WEIRD bias (i.e., the tendency to solely rely on samples from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies), examines whether the...

Studies suggest that individuals may display their food preferences as vehicles for seeking status: a universal motive across cultures. According to the dual model of status-seeking, individuals attain higher status either through dominance, which involves evoking fear and intimidation, or through prestige, which is achieved by offering valued skil...

This study investigates the impact of information framing (negative vs. positive) on the adoption of virtual reality (VR) tourism applications amidst various crisis events such as pandemics, natural disasters, political unrest, or terrorism. Using three experiments, we found that negatively framed information increases travel anxiety and the adopti...

This research examines whether prosumer-generated (vs. firm-generated) content fosters consumer engagement through content relevance and perceived content sponsorship. Four between-subjects experiments (N = 1048) show that prosumer-led (vs. firm-led) conversations, mediated by perceived content sponsorship and content relevance, generate higher eng...

Much research is based on findings obtained in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, largely by authors from English-speaking countries. As no systematic research has documented the magnitude of this WEIRD bias in food-related research, in general, and in sensory and consumer science, in particular, the curren...

Objective Examine the key elements that characterize social media advertisements targeted at adolescents by asking adolescents which features of Instagram ads promoting ultra-processed products make them designed to appeal to adolescents. Design Instagram ads promoting ultra-processed products and brands were selected from a database in which ads...

Using structure-mapping theory, this research examines the efficacy of fusion metaphors in health campaigns aimed at changing consumer attitudes. Two experiments show that using fusion metaphors can have unintended consequences: Although these metaphors are meant to highlight the negative attributes of a target product, such as tasty but unhealthy...

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic 1,2. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low pub...

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment may challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science society nexus across different cultural contexts,...

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public...

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public...

The future of retailing takes consumers to the metaverse. Yet, how these novel shopping experiences will look and feel remains largely unknown. Experts predict immersive metaverse shopping experiences will help build even deeper connections with customers. We conducted a virtual reality (VR) experiment (N = 127) into the effect of metaverse fidelit...

The current research examined the effectiveness of two social influence strategies—reciprocity and social validation—in promoting sustainable consumer behavior. In an initial behavioral field experiment (Study 1), consumers were either exposed to a reciprocity, social validation, or control message distributed in the changing rooms of a sporting go...

The current study sought to test whether the dark triad personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy can be indirectly linked to organic food consumption through consumers' levels of virtue signaling, status consumption, and praise from others. Based on a survey (N = 337) and structural equation modeling, we found consistent...

A preregistered meta-analysis, including 244 effect sizes from 85 field audits and 361,645 individual job applications, tested for gender bias in hiring practices in female-stereotypical and gender-balanced as well as male-stereotypical jobs from 1976 to 2020. A “red team” of independent experts was recruited to increase the rigor and robustness of...

Unlike previous generations of artificial intelligence (AI), AI assistants today can autonomously perform actions without human input or intervention. Several studies have proposed but not tested the notion that increased levels of AI autonomy may ultimately conflict with consumers' fundamental need for autonomy themselves. Across five experiments...

Love is a phenomenon that occurs across the world and affects many aspects of human life, including the choice of, and process of bonding with, a romantic partner. Thus, developing a reliable and valid measure of love experiences is crucial. One of the most popular tools to quantify love is Sternberg’s 45-item Triangular Love Scale (TLS-45), which...

Cryptocurrencies have ballooned into a billion-dollar business. To inform regulations aimed at protecting consumers vulnerable to suboptimal financial decisions, we investigate crypto investment intentions as a function of consumer gender, financial overconfidence (greater subjective versus objective financial knowledge), and the Big Five personali...

Current research in food science has explored the influence of front-of-package (FOP) labeling systems on consumer decision-making, yielding mixed results. We suggest that these inconsistent findings regarding FOP labeling effectiveness stem from a failure to consider a pivotal individual-level variable: consumer susceptibility to FOP labeling (CSF...

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of health-related cues as part of the digital marketing of ultrapro-cessed foods on Instagram among food companies in Uruguay. Methods: Cross-sectional exploratory study. All content posted by 118 Instagram accounts of companies promoting ultraprocessed foods in Uruguay over 6 months (from August 2020 to Februa...

Employee proactivity has been discussed as a key predictor of firm success and organizational performance. However, previous proactivity research has rarely focused on customers, and the few available proactivity studies from retail settings are either cross-sectional, solely based on subjective outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction) or restricted t...

Individuals can experience a lack of economic resources compared to others, which we refer to as subjective experiences of economic scarcity. While such experiences have been shown to shift cognitive focus, attention, and decision-making, their association with human morality remains debated. We conduct a comprehensive investigation of the relation...

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset – with data collected between 2020 and 2022 – to asse...

Previous research has revealed that consumers spend less (more) money when paying through cash (credit card). This effect has been attributed to the pain of paying, which is higher (lower) in the case of cash (credit card) payments. We tested the pain‐of‐paying phenomenon at a bar and collected objective data on almost 1000 beer transactions, inclu...

Purpose The present study aimed to investigate whether male consumers report weaker green consumption values than their female counterparts, and whether such a presumed sex difference, at least in part, can be explained by different levels of intrasexual competition. In other words, the study tested the notion that intrasexual competition acts as a...

Consumers often use their food choices as an impression management strategy to signal desirable aspects about themselves to others, especially in public places like restaurants and cafeterias, where the presence of others can promote certain consumption choices and preference patterns. In mating contexts, people prefer gender-typical traits and cha...

Purpose: The current research aimed to examine the prevalence of Instagram posts featuring ultra-processed products targeted at adolescents in Uruguay and hence investigate the frequency of such posts among a vulnerable consumer segment in a country that cannot be classified as WEIRD (i.e., Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic)....

Purpose Companies utilize increasingly capable Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to deliver modern services across a range of consumer service industries. AI autonomy, however, sparks skepticism among consumers leading to a decrease in their willingness to adopt AI services. This raises the question as to whether consumer trust in companies...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public...

Humans have a motivational system that influences cognition and behavior to minimize the risk of contact with pathogens. This research examines the relationship between cyberspace disease salience and mobility behavior at the macro and micro levels. Across two studies, we predict and find that people adjust their mobility behavior to minimize the r...

This chapter focuses on field studies in food settings and why such studies are important for the generalizability and perceived relevance of published research findings in the food domain. After a discussion of some potential downsides with solely sticking to lab and online studies capturing self-reported responses as well as a set of salient stre...

Intelligent machines are steadily replacing human workforce in retail and service. Although customers' short-term responses toward service robots are well understood, little is known about the potential long-term effects of replacing humans with robots in these settings. Drawing on social perception theory, the Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) mode...

Several studies have examined the role of birth order in shaping human personality, but fewer have tested this variable in relation to other pressing issues. We conducted a birth-order study on green consumption, which enabled us to detect a small-to-moderate effect size equivalent to r = 0.15 or d = 0.30 with sufficient statistical power (N = 335)...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment...

Bodily markers, often self-reported, are frequently used in research to predict a variety of outcomes. The present study examined whether men, at the aggregate level, would overestimate certain bodily markers linked to masculinity, and if so, to what extent. Furthermore, the study explored whether the amount of monetary rewards distributed to male...

Love is a worldwide known phenomenon that affects many aspects of human life, including considering a romantic partner with whom to bond. Thus, developing a reliable and valid measure of love experiences is crucial. One of the most popular tools to test love levels is Sternberg's 45-item Triangular Love Scale (TLS-45), which measures three love com...

Extant research has found that the addition of vegetables to a meal induces a “health halo,” thereby lowering the perceived calorie content of the entire dish. We investigated whether environmental stimuli that convey naturalness could trigger such a halo effect. Specifically, we tested whether meals accompanied by a natural, as opposed to an urban...

Background Body appreciation might serve as a protective factor for developing eating disorders and is associated with participation in physical activity. Less is known about whether various arenas for physical activity may be linked to body appreciation. Therefore, the current study sought to (1) identify potential associations between physical ac...

Digital marketing within the marketing mix of food companies has seen a rapid rise in the last decade as a consequence of the increased popularity of social media. However, few studies so far have analyzed the prevalence and persuasive power of digital marketing of ultra-processed products. The present study aimed at: (i) analyzing the content of I...

Nutritional warnings have gained popularity, particularly in the region of the Americas, to facilitate the identification of products with excessive content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases and encourage healthier food choices. Although warnings have been shown to be effective, an in-depth understanding of the reasons why some...

Although living standards in certain parts of the world have improved significantly in recent decades, these improvements have often been accompanied by environmental degradation that poses health risks to millions of people. Sustainable food choices play a critical role in addressing these environmental challenges. The current review summarizes ho...

Although living standards in certain parts of the world have improved significantly in recent decades, these improvements have often been accompanied by environmental degradation that poses health risks to millions of people. Sustainable food choices play a critical role in addressing these environmental challenges. The current review summarizes ho...

Design/methodology/approach: We conducted two high-powered field studies (N = 1,312) to test whether salesperson‐customer proximity influences consumers’ purchase behavior and store loyalty. Moreover, we investigated whether the short-term effects on purchase behavior were moderated by the extent to which the consumption context had a clear connect...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on s...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

Multiple studies have examined the extent to which consumers’ hunger levels predict their food choices and preference patterns. These investigations often involve making binary choices between hedonic foods (e.g., ice cream) that primarily serve to provide sensory pleasure, and utilitarian foods (e.g., bread) that mainly fulfill functional purposes...

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching...

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching...

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching...

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied ma...

This study investigated whether individuals’ preferences for masculine (vs. feminine) consumption options could be predicted by a biological sex cue (the 2D:4D digit ratio; a biomarker linked to prenatal testosterone exposure), and a psychological gender cue (self-perceived gender identity). Chinese participants (N = 216) indicated their preference...

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to digital food marketing. However, research on adolescents' recall, awareness, and opinions of this type of marketing has been scarce, especially with respect to qualitative work. Accordingly, the present study aimed to conduct an in-depth examination of adolescents' experiences with digital food marketing....

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behavior change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public h...

The calorie content of food plays a pivotal role in shaping consumers’ food choices. Previous research indicates that consumers often base their calorie judgments of food on seemingly superficial cues present in the environment in which they make their evaluations. For example, the addition of vegetables to a meal induces a “health halo,” thereby l...

Attachment theory has recently been recognized as a potentially fruitful avenue for studying consumer behavior. However, few studies have examined the relationship between attachment styles and consumer preferences. Based on literature suggesting that individuals with an anxious attachment style have a particularly strong need for attention, we con...

Governments worldwide are increasingly mandating the inclusion of graphic and textual warnings on the packages and advertisements of processed products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of nutritional warnings on the mental associations raised by ad...

Social identity and social capital are critical to human well-being and sustainable development. However, existing research on sustainable behavior typically treats these factors merely as taken-for-granted preconditions to environmental protection. This paper argues that they can also be direct outcomes of environment-oriented efforts, thus becomi...

Acute hunger leads to self-protective behaviour, where people keep resources to themselves. However, little is known about whether acute hunger influences individuals' inclination to engage in unethical behaviour for direct monetary gains. Past research in moral psychology has found that people are less likely to cheat for monetary than non-monetar...

Humans have a motivational system that influences cognition and behavior to minimize the risk of contact with pathogens whenever cues to disease emerge. The current research examines the relationship between cyberspace disease salience and mobility behavior at the macro and micro levels. Across three studies, we predict and find that people adjust...

Multiple studies employ consumers' intentions rather than actual purchases when assessing organic food consumption. These studies typically suggest a green bias in organic market share. Employing reactance and construal level theory, this research investigates the impact of one's social distance to the character depicted in ads (animal vs. human) a...

Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3) found that 74% of European Americans selected a pen with an uncommon (vs. common) color, whereas only 24% of East Asians made such a choice, highlighting a pronounced cross-cultural difference in the extent to which people opt for originality or make majority-based choices. The present high-powered study (N = 729) con...

Principally a result of unhealthy food choices, almost half of adults worldwide are overweight or obese. Current food retail practices bear some responsibility for such public health issues. We argue that numerous attempts to promote healthy eating have been unsuccessful for failing to account for our outdated evolved food selection mechanisms. Bui...