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Cultivating Optimism: How to Frame Your Future during a Health Challenge
... Following prior work (Briley, Rudd and Aaker 2017;Riemer and Shavitt 2011), we created a single index by subtracting the combined independent subscale from the combined interdependent subscale. Higher (lower) numbers on this index reflect endorsement of a more interdependent (independent) cultural self-construal. ...
... As a manipulation check, we asked participants in the consensus cue conditions to complete the open-ended item, "81% of 300 college-aged students shopping for headphones (Singelis 1994) comprised of 12 items measuring independence (e.g., "I act the same way no matter who I am with") and 12 items measuring interdependence (e.g., "It is important to me to respect decisions made by the group") which respondents answered on 7-point scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree; all items in web appendix A). As in the prior studies, and following past work (Briley et al. 2017), we created a single index by subtracting the independent subscale ( = .76) from the interdependent subscale ( = .84). ...
Marketers commonly use consensus cues about others’ behavioral choices (“Best Seller”) or their attitudes (“Top Rated”) when labeling products. This paper suggests that the effectiveness of these types of cues may differ across cultures in ways that carry implications for marketing practice. Prior research shows that in contexts that give rise to an interdependent cultural self-construal, choices are often responsive to social expectations rather than personal preferences. We propose that, because interdependents expect such behavioral conformity, cues that convey consensus about others’ choices may be less diagnostic and, thus, less persuasive than cues that convey consensus about others’ attitudes. Five studies examining cultural self-construal in multiple ways, along with two cross-national industry datasets, offer evidence consistent with this reasoning, suggesting that among interdependents, behavioral consensus cues can actually be less effective than attitudinal ones, reducing persuasion and willingness to pay. However, among independents, because attitudes are assumed to influence behavioral choices, whether the consensus cue is attitudinal or behavioral makes little difference.
... As is standard for research on health behavior (Achar et al., 2020;Chandran & Menon, 2004;Menon et al., 2002), we used several diseases because disease characteristics (e.g., infectious or non-infectious; acute or chronic) may influence health compliance by eliciting different levels of fear (Keller & Block, 1996) or affecting assessments of one's ability to cope with the disease (Block & Keller, 1995). We recruited participants from China and the US because culture, especially the individualism versus collectivism dimension, affects consumers' responses to health threats (Briley et al., 2017;Kim, Chen, et al., 2016;Kim, Sherman, et al., 2016). Finally, research shows that the way in which an entity is anthropomorphized can influence consumers' responses to the anthropomorphized entity (Reavey et al., 2018). ...
... Future research also might consider an interaction effect involving anthropomorphism, disease status, and self-construal. Briley et al. (2017) show that patients with independent self-construal are more likely to follow recommended treatments and are more optimistic about recovering if they adopt an initiator frame ("how will I act?") than if they adopt a responder frame ("how will I react?"), while the opposite is true for patients with interdependent self-construal. We speculate that disease anthropomorphism might interact with culture and other factors (e.g., initiator vs. responder frame) to influence the health-related behaviors of individuals who already have the disease. ...
The present article examines how disease anthropomorphism affects compliance with recommendations for preventing the disease. We find that consumers are more likely to comply with health recommendations when the disease is described in anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) terms because anthropomorphism increases psychological closeness to the disease, which increases perceived vulnerability. We demonstrate the effect of disease anthropomorphism on health compliance in seven studies with several diseases (COVID-19, breast cancer), manipulations of anthropomorphism (first person and third person; with and without an image), and participant populations (the US and China). We test the proposed pathway through psychological closeness and perceived vulnerability with sequential mediation analyses and moderation-of-process approaches, and we rule out alternative accounts based on known consequences of anthropomorphism and antecedents of health compliance. This research contributes to the theory and practice of health communication and to the growing literature on how the anthropomorphism of negative entities affects consumers' judgments and behaviors.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00891-6.
... For instance, Sandikci and Ger (2010) discuss how the aestheticization of Islamic veiling, within changing political and market environments, has transformed it into a legitimate choice that empowers consumers. Moisio and Beruchashvili (2010) explore how support groups like Weight Watchers provide vulnerable consumers with opportunities to reclaim their identity and improve their well-being through collective empowerment, in line with Parkinson et al. (2017) and Briley et al. (2017), which discuss how culturally appropriate frames act as responsive platforms catering to consumers requiring support and anonymity. Maciel and Wallendorf (2021) further highlight the empowerment of consumers with marginalized identities through politicized identity projects that utilize space to assert and valorize their identities against dominant cultural narratives. ...
This study explores marketplace diversity as an intersectional construct and a collective tool for challenging prevailing institutional logic and redefining markets. Using a bricolage of grounded theory and semiotic square analysis, we analyzed 29 in‐depth interviews with 18 fashion consumers and 11 fashion producers to understand how market actors define, negotiate, and challenge conflicting discourses of marketplace diversity. Drawing on the Market System Dynamics framework, we identified producer‐driven practices, “idealization” and “illusion,” which reinforce the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and consumer‐driven practices, “insurrection” and “inclusion,” which drive positive change in the marketplace. Findings offer a holistic perspective beyond the traditional dyadic view of producers and consumers, highlighting the meso‐ and macro‐level dynamics that shape market structures. The study's originality stems from its theoretical and methodological contributions to marketplace diversity discourse and intersectional complexities. Our findings provide practical insights for market actors aiming to foster genuine inclusion.
... Optimismo Según Carver & Scheier (2014) el optimismo es una forma de pensar que conlleva tener expectativas sobre el futuro que está relacionada a la motivación y, por lo tanto, muchas personas optimistas perseveran para obtener resultados positivos en su futuro. El origen del optimismo nace en los contextos del área de la salud (Carver & Scheier, 2014), así lo afirma (Briley et al., 2017) en su estudio, donde demuestra que el optimismo en individuos se puede evidenciar en sus decisiones vinculadas con la salud. ...
El presente estudio analizó el comportamiento del consumidor centennial ecuatoriano en el contexto del fast fashion, con el objetivo de identificar los factores que influyen en la comodidad de decisión de compra. Se realizó una investigación empírica con enfoque cuantitativo y alcance exploratorio, utilizando un muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia. Se aplicó un cuestionario estructurado con 4 preguntas descriptivas y 43 ítems medidos con una escala de Likert de 7 puntos. Los resultados fueron analizados a través del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM). Los resultados indicaron que la autoeficacia y la inspiración del consumidor son factores significativos que afectan positivamente la comodidad de decisión de compra. Como conclusión que las estrategias de marketing que se enfoquen en personalizar las experiencias de compra y utilizar imágenes motivadoras pueden mejorar la comodidad de decisión de compra en este grupo demográfico.
... The ability of people to visualise the healing process was the driving force behind this impact. These results were consistent with favourable health outcomes and choices regarding energy, endurance, therapy commitment, immunisation intentions, food adherence, and desire to participate in physically demanding activities across a range of health issues and populations (Briley et al., 2017). ...
... Özellikle bağımsızlık benliğinin yüksek olduğu kültürlerde ve bireysel anlamda inisiyatif kullanmayı benimsemiş bireylerde olaylara karşı iyimser tutum ve davranış sergileme oranı daha yüksektir. Bağımsız olarak bir duruma yaklaşıp ılımlı davranışlarla hayal edebilme ve pozitif sonuçlar elde etme amacıyla iletişim becerisini geliştirmeye odaklanırlar (Aaker et al., 2017). ...
This research is aimed to reveal the effects of variances by determining the relations and differences between the class level and departments which the students have chosen to study according to some variances of optimism such as class level and departments of students at faculty of sports sciences.
The quantitative research method is chosen to examine the effects of sports faculty students’ optimistic features. The population of the research consists of the total of 620 students who are registered to the departments of sports management, coaching training, recreation and physical education in the faculty of sports sciences at Akdeniz University. The research sample consists of 304 students and it is at 98 % reliability level. The datas are collected by using the survey method. The survey consists of two parts in order to collect the research data. The personal information (age, gender, origin, class monthly income status) is used in the first part and in the second part, the optimism scale which Colligan and others developed on purpose of determining the optimistic features of students. he data which is collected by the question form is analyzed and interpreted with SPSS statistical data analysis package program.
As a result, the optimistic features of sports faculty students which participate in this research are examined according to the variances such as departments, class level and monthly income status but any meaningful difference is not found in terms of these variances according to the statistics.
While the issue of behavioral change is of increasing interest to academics and practitioners, an understanding of its drivers remains limited. Consistent with the possibility that destabilizing events can trigger the implementation of beneficial changes in one's life, this research studies the COVID‐19 pandemic and its influence on the adoption of positive habits. More specifically, it focuses on positive health and lifestyle‐related behavioral changes observed within the confined population, as well as the antecedents of such changes. Two surveys conducted 1 month apart in an urban setting severely affected by the pandemic confirm the role of optimism toward the crisis as an antecedent to four changes: slowdown in pace of life, decluttering of personal space, reflection on consumption habits and adoption of healthy behaviors. Collective resilience, social support and anxiety are identified as determinants of optimism. Results suggest an evolution of certain relations including the increase of collective resilience effect on optimism over time.
In one experiment, we tested the influence of bringing to mind the memory of a special moment versus an ordinary moment from high school on gratitude and the relationship between gratitude and optimism. Participants were first asked to report how the current pandemic has affected their lives. After, participants were randomly assigned to either recalling a special moment from their high school years or recalling an ordinary event from the same life period. Participants then completed a battery of questionnaires assessing gratitude, optimism and some demographics. Results showed a positive influence of bringing to mind the memory of a special moment on gratitude. Gratitude was then positively related to optimism. Hence, the positive relationship between recalling a special event and optimism was mediated by gratitude. Our results showed that brief interventions might help individuals see a brighter future under the current difficult conditions of prolonged lockdowns.
We are honored, humbled, and excited to have been entrusted with the editorship of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ) as it enters its fifth decade of publication. Ushered into existence 40 years ago in June 1974, this journal was born in a time of intellectual ferment that has been likened to the “Mississippi River in flood stage” by founding editor Ronald Frank (1995, 486). Motivated by dissatisfaction with what were perceived as restrictive visions in other publication outlets and a shared conviction that there was a need to foster research that provided a deeper understanding of a fuller gamut of consumer behavior, the founders expressed bold ambitions. They sought to create a journal in which scholars interested in a spectrum of consumer behavior, construed in the broadest of terms, could be published. They intended that JCR should be “the first journal in which professionals sharing an interest in consumer behavior across disciplines send their material” (Frank 1974, i). And they believed that interdisciplinary research should be promoted. While the notion that the journal should publish impactful papers was largely implicit at the time of the founding, fostering high-impact research has become an explicit, complementary goal in the intervening years. Thus, the mandate we inherit is tripartite: publish work on the broad spectrum of consumer behavior, publish work that contributes to conversations across a range …
When consumers struggle with a difficult task, using a brand can help them perform better. The authors report four studies showing that brand use can enhance feelings of self-efficacy, which can lead to better task performance. Students scored higher on difficult Graduate Records Examination questions when they took the test using a Massachusetts Institute of Technology pen (Study 1) and showed better athletic performance when they drank water from a Gatorade cup during strenuous athletic exercise (Studies 2 and 3). These increases in task performance were mediated by feelings of self-efficacy (Studies 3 and 4). Furthermore, the results show that not everyone experiences the beneficial effect of brand use; it depends on the person's implicit self-theory. Across studies, users adopting entity theories ("entity theorists") showed increased self-efficacy and better task performance, whereas users adopting incremental theories ("incremental theorists") were unaffected by brand use.
Consumers often imagine themselves in a scene and engage in such self-imagery while processing information. The goals that they have when they engage in such imagery (e.g., a goal to construct a story of the experience vs. a goal to acquire information) can influence how the mental images they generate affect judgments. When pictures from very different perspectives are provided, those trying to imagine themselves in the scene in order to create a story of the experience have to shift visual perspectives in order to imagine the entire experience. This shift in visual perspective can increase processing difficulty and decrease evaluations of the product or service being described. When individuals are simply imagining them-selves acquiring information about the product or service, however, presenting information from different perspectives has a positive impact on evaluations. Four experiments confirmed these effects and the assumptions underlying their conceptualization.
Static models of culture’s influence have given way to a dynamic view, which identifies not only differences across cultures in people’s judgments and decisions, but also the situations and conditions in which these differences do or do not appear. Theory and evidence developed from a cognitive psychological perspective underlie this dynamic approach, including research emerging from the “dynamic constructivist” and “situated cognition” models. In the present review, we focus on findings that confirm the utility of this cognitively oriented approach, and briefly discuss the advantages and complementary nature of the “social collective” and neuroscience approaches to understanding culture.
This research examines the impact of media depictions of success (or failure) on consumers' desire for luxury brands. In a pilot study and three additional studies, we demonstrate that read- ing a story about a similar/successful other, such as a business major from the same university, increases consumers' expectations about their own future wealth, which in turn increases their desire for luxury brands. However, reading about a dissimilar successful other, such as a biol- ogy major, lowers consumers' preferences for luxury brands. Furthermore, we examine the role of ease of imagining oneself in the narrative as a mediator of the relation between direction of comparison, similarity, and brand preference.
People often make multiple choices at the same time, choosing a snack and drink or a cell phone and case, only to learn that some of their choices are unavailable. Do they take the available item (or items) or something else entirely? Culture-as-situated-cognition theory predicts that this choice is determined by one's accessible cultural mind-set. An accessible collectivist (vs. individualist) mind-set should heighten sensitivity to an emergent relationship among items chosen together so that having some is not acceptable if not all can be obtained. Indeed, we found that Latinos (but not Anglos) refuse chosen items if not all can be obtained (Study 1a). Further, making a collectivist mind-set accessible reproduces this between-groups difference (Study 1b), increases people's willingness to pay to complete sets (Study 1b), and shifts choice to previously undesired items if no set-completing option is provided (Studies 2-4). Finally, we found that increased sensitivity to an emergent relationship among chosen items mediates these effects (Studies 3 and 4).
Argue that attribution patterns reflect implicit theories acquired from induction and socialization and hence differentially distributed across human cultures. In particular, the authors tested the hypothesis that dispositionalism in attribution for behavior reflects a theory of social behavior more widespread in individualist than collectivist cultures. Study 1 demonstrated that causal perceptions of social events but not physical events differed between American and Chinese students. Study 2 found English-language newspapers were more dispositional and Chinese-language newspapers were more situational in explanations of the same crimes. Study 3 found that Chinese survey respondents differed in weightings of personal dispositions and situational factors as causes of recent murders and in counterfactual judgments about how murders might have been averted by changed situations. Implications for issues in cognitive, social, and organizational psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article describes 3 studies that explore the role of mindsets in the context of stress. In Study 1, we present data supporting the reliability and validity of an 8-item instrument, the Stress Mindset Measure (SMM), designed to assess the extent to which an individual believes that the effects of stress are either enhancing or debilitating. In Study 2, we demonstrate that stress mindsets can be altered by watching short, multimedia film clips presenting factual information biased toward defining the nature of stress in 1 of 2 ways (stress-is-enhancing vs. stress-is-debilitating). In Study 3, we demonstrate the effect of stress mindset on physiological and behavioral outcomes, showing that a stress-is-enhancing mindset is associated with moderate cortisol reactivity and high desire for feedback under stress. Together, these 3 studies suggest that stress mindset is a distinct and meaningful variable in determining the stress response.
I examined the influence of cultural meaning systems on the perception of self among Japanese and American (United States) college students. Given the importance of social context to the Japanese self as compared with the U.S. self, I used two types of free-response format: the noncontextualized Twenty Statements Test (TST), and a contextualized questionnaire asking subjects to describe themselves in various situations. Consistent with prior research, on the TST, Japanese subjects listed fewer abstract, psychological attributes than did American subjects, referring more to social role and behavioral context. On the contextualized format, however, this trend was reversed. Japanese scored higher on abstract, psychological attributes than did Americans, who tended to qualify their self-descriptions. In addition, on the TST, Japanese surpassed Americans in the number of highly abstract, global self-references. Results point to the impact of divergent cultural conceptions of the person rather than differences in cognitive ability on the perception of self in these two cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Introduces the concept of possible selves (PSs) to complement current conceptions of self-knowledge. PSs represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link beteen cognition and motivation. PSs are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats; they give the specific self-relevant form, meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics. It is suggested that PSs function as incentives for future behavior and to provide an evaluative and interpretive context for the current view of self. The nature and function of PSs and their role in addressing several persistent problems (e.g., the stability and malleability of the self, the unity of the self, self-distortion, the relationship between the self-concept and behavior) are discussed. (143 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
L'application de la théorie de l'autodétermination au domaine de la psychothérapie est particulièrement pertinente, car l'un des principaux rôles de la thérapie est d'encourager le client à être autonome dans l'exploration, la définition, l'initiation et le maintien du processus de changement. Dans le présent article, nous nous penchons sur le travail expérimental, les études sur le terrain et les essais cliniques qui illustrent l'application de la théorie de l'autodétermination à la psychothérapie. Les études ont révélé l'importance de l'autonomie du client dans l'acquisition et le maintien des bienfaits du traitement. De plus, les expérimentations suggèrent que le soutien du thérapeute en matière d'acquisition d'autonomie augmente les chances de réussite du traitement et favorise le maintien des résultats. Nous expliquons certains des processus qui favorisent l'autonomie, y compris le rôle de la prise de conscience, l'importance de l'exploration et de la mise au défi des paramètres externes et d'introjection, l'attention portée au contenu de l'objectif basé sur le besoin, ainsi que l'attitude à adopter par le thérapeute pour une approche axée sur le processus et non sur le résultat.
There are at least 2 general paths to a feeling of control. In primary control, individuals enhance their rewards by influencing existing realities (e.g., other people, circumstances, symptoms, or behavior problems). In secondary control, individuals enhance their rewards by accommodating to existing realities and maximizing satisfaction or goodness of fit with things as they are. It is argued that American psychologists' exclusive focus on primary control reflects a cultural context in which primary control is heavily emphasized and highly valued. In Japan, by contrast, primary control has traditionally been less highly valued and less often anticipated, and secondary control has assumed a more central role in everyday life. Japanese and American perspectives and practices are contrasted in childrearing, socialization, religion and philosophy, work, and psychotherapy. These comparisons reveal some key benefits, and some costs, of both primary and secondary approaches to control. The comparisons suggest that an important goal, both for individuals and for cultures, is an optimally adaptive blend of primary and secondary control. (116 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Americans live in a political, social, and historical context that values personal freedom and choice above all else, an emphasis that has been amplified by contemporary psychology. However, this article reviews research that shows that in non-Western cultures and among working-class Westerners, freedom and choice do not have the meaning or importance they do for the university-educated people who have been the subjects of almost all research on this topic. We cannot assume that choice, as understood by educated, affluent Westerners, is a universal aspiration. The meaning and significance of choice are cultural constructions. Moreover, even when choice can foster freedom, empowerment, and independence, it is not an unalloyed good. Too much choice can produce a paralyzing uncertainty, depression, and selfishness. In the United States, the path to well-being may require that we strike a balance between the positive and negative consequences of proliferating choice in every domain of life. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
The information we receive in the course of daily life experience is often
transmitted both verbally and visually. Two different processing strategies are
postulated to underlie the integration of this information, the activation of which
may be influenced by (a) chronic individual differences in the disposition to
process information visually vs. verbally, (b) situational factors that influence the
relative accessibility of these strategies in memory, and (c) characteristics of the
information to be processed. Research in both social and consumer psychology is
discussed in terms of the conceptual framework we propose.
To test whether physiological satiation as measured by the gut peptide ghrelin may vary depending on the mindset in which one approaches consumption of food.
On 2 separate occasions, participants (n = 46) consumed a 380-calorie milkshake under the pretense that it was either a 620-calorie "indulgent" shake or a 140-calorie "sensible" shake. Ghrelin was measured via intravenous blood samples at 3 time points: baseline (20 min), anticipatory (60 min), and postconsumption (90 min). During the first interval (between 20 and 60 min) participants were asked to view and rate the (misleading) label of the shake. During the second interval (between 60 and 90 min) participants were asked to drink and rate the milkshake.
The mindset of indulgence produced a dramatically steeper decline in ghrelin after consuming the shake, whereas the mindset of sensibility produced a relatively flat ghrelin response. Participants' satiety was consistent with what they believed they were consuming rather than the actual nutritional value of what they consumed.
The effect of food consumption on ghrelin may be psychologically mediated, and mindset meaningfully affects physiological responses to food.
This paper provides support for the notion that images, once formed, are a distinct form of internal representation, processed differently than other forms of internal representation. In two experiments, subjects decided as quickly as possible whether or not named animals had given properties. When imagery was not used, people verified properties more quickly in accordance with how strongly associated the property was with the animal in question. When images of the whole animal were consulted, in contrast, subjects were faster in accordance with increasing size of the property, and not with increasing association strength. However, if subjects imaged only the local region where a property ought to be found, and did not consult an image of the whole animal, the size of a property no longer influenced verification time. These results and their implications for the debate over imagery vs. propositional representation were discussed.
Research on mindset theory (Gollwitzer & Bayer 1999) observed that people in an implemental mindset show an orientation towards positive illusionary self-evaluationsw, hereas people in a deliberative mindset opt for accurate self-evaluations. In the present study, we tested whether these self-evaluative orientations and the associated search for certain types of self-relevant information (feedback)are moderated by low versus high self-views. With high self-view participants we observed the hypothesized mindset effects on information search, but we obtained the reverse pattern for low self-view participants. The latter finding points to self-defensiveness in low self-view individuals. Implications are discussed in terms of the consequences of accurate versus positive illusionary self-evaluations for the successful control of goal pursuits, and individual differences in mindset effects.
The more accurately people assess their comprehension, the more likely they are to engage in study behaviors that precisely target gaps in their learning. However, comprehension regulation involves more than knowing when to implement a new study strategy; it also involves deciding which strategy will most effectively resolve one's confusion. In two experiments, we explored how people's motivational orientations influence which study strategies they select to regulate their comprehension. In Experiment 1, people who were motivated to vigilantly protect against potential mistakes (i.e., prevention-focused individuals) were more likely to adopt a rereading strategy than people who were motivated to eagerly pursue new learning opportunities (i.e., promotion-focused individuals). In Experiment 2, this difference in strategy use emerged specifically in response to confusing sentences that had been inserted into the text. Furthermore, by using rereading strategies to resolve their confusion, prevention-focused individuals performed better than promotion-focused individuals on a comprehension test and a transfer task.
Consumers evaluate brand extensions by judging how well they fit with the parent brand. We examine this process across cultures. We predict that consumers from Eastern cultures, characterized by holistic thinking, perceive higher brand extension fit and evaluate brand extensions more favorably than do Western consumers, characterized by analytic thinking. Study 1 supports the existence of these cultural differences, with study 2 providing support for styles of thinking (analytic vs. holistic) as the drivers of cultural differences in brand extension evaluations. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
Existing research and widespread commercial usage suggest that appeals urging consumers to imagine the product experience have powerful effects on product preferences. Three studies examined the mediating role of imagery accessibility and demonstrated that the difficulty of imagery generation can reverse the generally observed positive effects of imagery appeals. When participants were low in imagery abilities or when the product was not presented in a vivid way, imagery appeals were not only ineffective but even had a negative effect on product preferences. Providing evidence for its subjective nature, this imagery fluency effect was more likely for individuals attuned to their internal experiences. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
In a cohort of gay men responding to the threat of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), dispositional optimism was associated with less distress, less avoidant coping, positive attitudes as a coping strategy, and fewer AIDS-related concerns. Men who knew they were seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were significantly more optimistic about not developing AIDS than men who knew they were seronegative for HIV. This AIDS-specific optimism was related to higher perceived control over AIDS and to active coping among seropositive men only and to health behaviors in both serostatus groups. There was no relation of optimism to risk-related sexual behavior. It is concluded that optimism is psychologically adaptive without necessarily compromising health behavior. It is also concluded that it is useful to distinguish between event-based optimistic expectations and dispositional optimism.
Mood experience is comprised of at least two elements: the direct experience of the mood and a meta-level of experience that consists of thoughts and feelings about the mood. In Study 1, a two-dimensional structure for the direct experience of mood (Watson & Tellegen, 1985) was tested for its fit to the responses of 1,572 subjects who each completed one of three different mood scales, including a brief scale developed to assist future research. The Watson and Tellegen structure was supported across all three scales. In Study 2, meta-mood experience was conceptualized as the product of a mood regulatory process that monitors, evaluates, and at times changes mood. A scale to measure meta-mood experience was administered to 160 participants along with the brief mood scale. People's levels on the meta-mood dimensions were found to differ across moods. Meta-mood experiences may also constitute an important part of the phenomenology of the personal experience of mood.
This article describes a scale measuring dispositional optimism, defined in terms of generalized outcome expectancies. Two preliminary studies assessed the scale's psychometric properties and its relationships with several other instruments. The scale was then used in a longitudinal study of symptom reporting among a group of undergraduates. Specifically, respondents were asked to complete three questionnaires 4 weeks before the end of a semester. Included in the questionnaire battery was the measure of optimism, a measure of private self-consciousness, and a 39-item physical symptom checklist. Subjects completed the same set of questionnaires again on the last day of class. Consistent with predictions, subjects who initially reported being highly optimistic were subsequently less likely to report being bothered by symptoms (even after correcting for initial symptom-report levels) than were subjects who initially reported being less optimistic. This effect tended to be stronger among persons high in private self-consciousness than among those lower in private self-consciousness. Discussion centers on other health related applications of the optimism scale, and the relationships between our theoretical orientation and several related theories.
• There are at least 2 general paths to a feeling of control. In primary control, individuals enhance their rewards by influencing existing realities (e.g., other people, circumstances, symptoms, or behavior problems). In secondary control, individuals enhance their rewards by accommodating to existing realities and maximizing satisfaction or goodness of fit with things as they are. It is argued that American psychologists' exclusive focus on primary control reflects a cultural context in which primary control is heavily emphasized and highly valued. In Japan, by contrast, primary control has traditionally been less highly valued and less often anticipated, and secondary control has assumed a more central role in everyday life. Japanese and American perspectives and practices are contrasted in childrearing, socialization, religion and philosophy, work, and psychotherapy. These comparisons reveal some key benefits, and some costs, of both primary and secondary approaches to control. The comparisons suggest that an important goal, both for individuals and for cultures, is an optimally adaptive blend of primary and secondary control. (116 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• There are at least 2 general paths to a feeling of control. In primary control, individuals enhance their rewards by influencing existing realities (e.g., other people, circumstances, symptoms, or behavior problems). In secondary control, individuals enhance their rewards by accommodating to existing realities and maximizing satisfaction or goodness of fit with things as they are. It is argued that American psychologists' exclusive focus on primary control reflects a cultural context in which primary control is heavily emphasized and highly valued. In Japan, by contrast, primary control has traditionally been less highly valued and less often anticipated, and secondary control has assumed a more central role in everyday life. Japanese and American perspectives and practices are contrasted in childrearing, socialization, religion and philosophy, work, and psychotherapy. These comparisons reveal some key benefits, and some costs, of both primary and secondary approaches to control. The comparisons suggest that an important goal, both for individuals and for cultures, is an optimally adaptive blend of primary and secondary control. (116 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Five experiments document that the mere circularity and angularity of a brand logo is powerful enough to affect perceptions of the attributes of a product or company. It is theorized and shown that circular-versus angular-logo shapes activate softness and hardness associations, respectively, and these concepts subsequently influence product/company attribute judgments through a resource-demanding imagery-generation process that utilizes the visuospatial sketchpad component of working memory. There are no logo shape effects on attribute judgments when the visuo-spatial sketchpad component of working memory is constrained by irrelevant visual imagery, when people have a lower disposition to generate imagery when processing product information, and when the headline of the ad highlights a product attribute that differs from the inference drawn from the logo shape. Further, there are shape effects even when the shape is incidentally exposed beforehand using a priming technique rather than being a part of the logo itself, demonstrating the gen-eralizability of our findings. When taken together, the results have implications for working memory, consumer imagery, and visual marketing.
A meta-analysis of health communications examines the influence of 22 tactics and six individual characteristics on intentions to comply with health recommendations. The analysis indicates that message tactics have a significant influence on intentions toward health-related recommendations even after the authors account for individual differences. In addition, the authors examine when message tactics interact with individual characteristics to determine intentions. The results, which are based on 60 studies involving nearly 22,500 participants, show that there is significant opportunity to tailor health communications more efficiently to different market segments.
I describe a test of linear moderated mediation in path analysis based on an interval estimate of the parameter of a function linking the indirect effect to values of a moderator—a parameter that I call the index of moderated mediation. This test can be used for models that integrate moderation and mediation in which the relationship between the indirect effect and the moderator is estimated as linear, including many of the models described by Edwards and Lambert (200710.
Edwards, J.R., & Lambert, L.S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12, 1–22.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]View all references) and Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (200743.
Preacher, K.J., Rucker, D.D., & Hayes, A.F. (2007). Assessing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185–227.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references) as well as extensions of these models to processes involving multiple mediators operating in parallel or in serial. Generalization of the method to latent variable models is straightforward. Three empirical examples describe the computation of the index and the test, and its implementation is illustrated using Mplus and the PROCESS macro for SPSS and SAS.
Regulatory fit is experienced when people pursue a goal in a manner that sustains their regulatory orientation. Previous research on promotion and prevention orientations has found that regulatory fit increases people’s perception that a decision they made was “right,” which in turn transfers value to the decision outcome, including being willing to pay more for a product than those who chose the same product without regulatory fit (Higgins, 2000; Higgins et al., in press). We predicted that the effect of regulatory fit on monetary value could be generalized to locomotion and assessment orientations. Participants were willing to pay over 40% more for the same book-light when it was chosen with a strategy that fit their regulatory orientation (assessment/“full evaluation”; locomotion/“progressive elimination”) than when it was chosen with a non-fit strategy.
Previous research found that positive fantasies about an idealized future yield low energy to pursue the fantasized future. We examined how positive fantasies about the resolution of a crisis (i.e., a lack of pain medication in Sierra Leone, the risk of flooding after Hurricane Irene) influence people's agreement to donate to charitable efforts directed at crisis resolution. In three studies, positive fantasies dampened the likelihood of agree-ing to donate a relatively large amount of money, effort, or time, but did not affect the likelihood of agreeing to donate a relatively small amount of these resources. The effect of positive fantasies was mediated by perceiving the donation of larger (but not smaller) amounts of resources as overly demanding. These findings suggest that charitable solicitations requesting small donations might benefit from stimulating positive fantasies in po-tential donors, but those requesting large donations could be hurt.
Mental simulations enhance the links between thought and action. The present research contrasted mental simulations that emphasize the process required to achieve a goal versus the outcome of goal achievement. For 5 to 7 days prior to a midterm examination, college freshmen mentally simulated either the process for doing well on the exam (good study habits) or simulated a desired outcome (getting a good grade) or both. A self-monitoring control condition was included. Results indicated that process simulation enhanced studying and improved grades; the latter effect was mediated by enhanced planning and reduced anxiety. Implications of process and outcome simulations for effective goal pursuit are discussed.
Prior research has demonstrated that imagining hypothetical future events may render those events subjectively more likely. The suggestion has been made that this effect is due to the increased availability in memory of the events imagined. To test directly this explanation in a health context, the present study examined the effects of both ease and difficulty of imagining contracting a disease on subjects' beliefs that the event would occur. Subjects were asked to imagine contracting a disease described either as having certain easy-to-imagine symptoms or difficult-to-imagine symptoms. Following this, subjects rated their ease of imagination and estimated the likelihood of contracting the disease. The results revealed that judgments of ease or difficulty of imagination paralleled judgments of the likelihood of contracting the disease. Those subjects who rated the disease as easy-to-imagine judged the disease as more likely to occur, whereas those who experienced difficulty in imagining the disease rated it as less likely to occur. The results are interpreted in terms of the availability heuristic and give direct support for and extend this principle by showing that trying to imagine difficult-to-construct or cognitively inaccessible events reduces likelihood estimates. Implications for preventive health programs are discussed.
Recovery from surgery can be facilitated by adaptive coping or it can be inhibited by maladaptive coping. Coping itself can be influenced by personal and social coping resources. Within a longitudinal design, 174 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were surveyed before the event and interviewed afterwards. Presurgical personal and social resources, such as optimistic self-beliefs and social support, were examined along with social and ruminative ways of coping in terms of a variety of recovery outcomes. Wony, emotional states, mental activity, and physical activity were chosen as indicators of recovery. It was found that personal and social resources predicted recovery and that coping mediated presurgery resources and postsurgery readjustment. Covariance structure analysis revealed that seeking social support was an adaptive way of coping. It was positively associated with perceived self-efficacy and with recovery indicators, whereas rumination was negatively associated with both resources and outcomes.
Consumers trying to watch or restrict what they eat face a battle each day as they attempt to navigate the food-rich environments in which they live. Due to the complexity of food decision making, consumers are susceptible to a wide range of social, cognitive, affective, and environmental forces determined to interrupt their intentions to restrict their dietary intake. In this article, we integrate literature from diverse theoretical perspectives into a conceptual framework designed to offer a better understanding of the antecedents, interruptions, and consequences of dietary restraint. We outline a path for researchers to investigate how restraint behaviors in the eating domain influence a wide variety of consumer psychological phenomena. It is our hope that a collective examination of this literature provides a lens that directs future research on food decision making and dietary restraint and empowers consumers to invest their cognitive and behavioral resources towards healthy eating behaviors.
Psychosocial resources are individual differences and social relationships that have beneficial effects on mental and physical health outcomes. The exact processes whereby psychosocial resources beneficially affect well-being and physical health outcomes have, until recently, been largely unknown. We examine chronic negative and positive affect, approach versus avoidant coping processes, and neural responses to threat as likely mediators. These, in turn, regulate psychological, autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune responses, the likely proximal factors that lead to differential health outcomes. The origins of psychosocial resources are in the early environment, genetic predispositions, and their interaction. We conclude with consideration of whether psychosocial resources can be taught and a discussion of issues remaining to be addressed by future research.
The cognitive and motor behavior that people perform in the course of pursuing a goal can induce a mind-set that persists to influence the strategy they use to attain very different goals in unrelated situations. Although the strategies governed by a mind-set are typically applied consciously and deliberately, they are performed without awareness of the reasons for their selection. Research in both social psychology and consumer behavior exemplifies the impact of mind-sets on comprehension, judgments, and decision making, thus providing evidence of the scope and diversity of their effects.
This article reports the development and validation of a 10-item international Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) Short Form (I-PANAS-SF) in English. A qualitative study (N = 18) and then an exploratory quantitative study (N = 407), each using informants from a range of cultural backgrounds, were used to identify systematically which 10 of the original 20 PANAS items to retain or remove. A same-sample retest study (N = 163) was used in an initial examination of the new 10-item international PANAS's psychometric properties and to assess its correlation with the full, 20-item, original PANAS. In a series of further validation studies (N = 1,789), the cross-sample stability, internal reliability, temporal stability, cross-cultural factorial invariance, and convergent and criterion-related validities of the I-PANAS-SF were examined and found to be psychometrically acceptable.
This paper extends current thinking on the relationship between consumers and the retail environment by assessing a theory of consumer–environment interaction that reinterprets arousal and dominance, two dimensions of the PAD model (Mehrabian, Albert, Russel, James A., An approach to environmental psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.), as appraisal dimensions (affective expectations). According to the new account, the more specific the task, the less tolerant consumers are about discrepancies between expected and experienced arousal and dominance. The study evaluated the effects of matching or mismatching appraisals on judgments of emotional dimensions as participants shopped within a virtual store environment. Appraisals were manipulated by combining two goal conditions (goal specificity vs. goal ambiguity) with two levels of store arousal (high vs. low) to produce four separate hypothetical states: hedonic fit (ambiguous goal and high arousal), utilitarian fit (specific goal and low arousal), rational control (ambiguous goal and low arousal), and emotional submissiveness (specific goal and high arousal). When perceptual and cognitive appraisals matched (i.e., hedonic or utilitarian fit), participants judged pleasure to be significantly greater than when expectations mismatched (i.e., rational control or emotional submissiveness). Affective expectations concerning arousal and dominance thus are a strong determinant of consumer predisposition toward the environment.
A critical feature of many undesirable life events is that they often shatter the victim's perception of living in an orderly, meaningful world. Many authors have suggested that following such outcomes, the search for meaning is a common and adaptive process. This paper explores the validity of that claim by considering data from a recent study of 77 adult women who were victimized as children: survivors of father-daughter incest. In the process, several central questions regarding the search for meaning are addressed. How important is such a search years after a crisis? Over time, are people able to make sense of their aversive life experiences? What are the mechanisms by which individuals find meaning in their negative outcomes? Does finding meaning in one's victimization facilitate long term adjustment to the event? Finally, what are the implications of an inability to find meaning in life's misfortunes?
This book provides a conceptual integration of this work. It proposes a general theoretical formulation of the way that the sort of information acquired in the course of daily life is comprehended and represented in memory, and how it is later used as a basis for judgments and behavioral decision. In doing so, it takes into account both the spontaneous comprehension of information about specific persons and events and the more deliberative, goal-directed interpretation of information that occurs when information is acquired in a social context. In addition, it considers not only the representation of this information in memory but also the way information is later used as a basis for judgments and decisions. A major emphasis throughout the volume is on the construction and use of narrative representations of knowledge and the way visual images influence the formation of these representations and the judgments that are based on them. The role of affective reactions in this cognitive activity is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Control and efficacy are ideally suited as "bridges" or linking constructs for social scientists working at different levels of analysis. Control and efficacy depend on the fit between individuals and the social systems in which they are embedded, and control and efficacy have measurable effects on neurotransmitter levels and endocrine responses. This article presents an interdisciplinary perspective on control and efficacy. The authors survey the history of control-related constructs in psychology, from their roots in animal learning to the present cognitive focus on beliefs about control. They then point out connections "up" to the sociological level and "down" to the physiological level. They propose a taxonomy of 6 useful constructs organized into 3 perspectives: motivational, cognitive, and systemic. Such a multilevel, multidisciplinary approach may be particularly useful for approaching large real-world problems such as improving schools or neighborhoods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The consequences of having an illness have two crucial types of stakes: for self and for family. Therefore, the current research examines the effectiveness of health messages that present consequences for the self or family, focusing specifically on the dual role played by emotions in serving these stakes: as a provider of resources and of information. The authors theorize that (a) the valence dimension of discrete emotions influences resources, thereby fostering or hindering the processing of aversive health information, whereas (b) the self/otherrelatedness dimension of discrete emotions provides information that interacts with the focal referent in the message (self or family) to determine compatibility. In experiments 1-3, the authors demonstrate that when individuals are primed with a positive emotion (e.g., happiness, peacefulness), the compatibility between the referent and the discrete emotion fosters the processing of health information. When the primed emotion is negative (e.g., sadness, anxiety), however, compatibility hinders processing of the message. In experiment 4, the authors track emotions pre- and post-exposure to a health message to demonstrate that the effect observed occurs due to an increase in the negative emotional state in compatible situations when processing disease-related information. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for increasing the effectiveness of health-related messages.
According to the processing fluency model, advertising exposures enhance the ease with which a brand can be recognized and processed. This increased perceptual fluency in turn leads to more favorable attitudes toward the brand. The present research extends the processing fluency model to examine the effect of conceptual fluency on attitudes. In three experiments, the authors show that when a target comes to mind more readily and becomes conceptually fluent, as when it is presented in a predictive context (e.g., a bottle of beer featured in an ad showing a man entering a bar), or when it is primed by a related construct (e.g., ketchup following an advertisement of mayonnaise), participants develop more favorable attitudes toward the target. Positive valence of fluent processing is thought to underlie these processing fluency effects. When conceptual fluency is associated with negative valence (e.g., hair conditioner primed by a kill-lice shampoo), less favorable attitudes are observed (exp. 4).
This paper presents a cognitive model of the planning process. The model generalizes the theoretical architecture of the Hearsay-II system. Thus, it assumes that planning comprises the activities of a variety of cognitive “specialists.” Each specialist can suggest certain kinds of decisions for incorporation into the plan in progress. These include decisions about: (a) how to approach the planning problem; (b) what knowledge bears on the problem; (c) what kinds of actions to try to plan; (d) what specific actions to plan; and (e) how to allocate cognitive resources during planning. Within each of these categories, different specialists suggest decisions at different levels of abstraction. The activities of the various specialists are not coordinated in any systematic way. Instead, the specialists operate opportunistically, suggesting decisions whenever promising opportunities arise. The paper presents a detailed account of the model and illustrates its assumptions with a “thinking aloud” protocol. It also describes the performance of a computer simulation of the model. The paper contrasts the proposed model with successive refinement models and attempts to resolve apparent differences between the two points of view.
This paper explores a judgmental heuristic in which a person evaluates the frequency of classes or the probability of events by availability, i.e., by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. In general, availability is correlated with ecological frequency, but it is also affected by other factors. Consequently, the reliance on the availability heuristic leads to systematic biases. Such biases are demonstrated in the judged frequency of classes of words, of combinatorial outcomes, and of repeated events. The phenomenon of illusory correlation is explained as an availability bias. The effects of the availability of incidents and scenarios on subjective probability are discussed.
Mental simulation provides a window on the future by enabling people to envision possibilities and develop plans for bringing those possibilities about. In moving oneself from a current situation toward an envisioned future one, the anticipation and management of emotions and the initiation and maintenance of problem-solving activities are fundamental tasks. In the program of research described in this article, mental simulation of the process for reaching a goal or of the dynamics of an unfolding stressful event produced progress in achieving those goals or resolving those events. Envisioning successful completion of a goal or resolution of a stressor--recommendations derived from the self-help literature--did not. Discussion centers on the characteristics of effective and ineffective mental simulations and their relation to self-regulatory processes.