Article

The Impact of Crowding on Calorie Consumption

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Abstract

Consumer behavior is often influenced by subtle environmental cues, such as temperature, color, lighting, scent, or sound. We explore the effects of a not-sosubtle cue-human crowding-on calorie consumption. Although crowding is an omnipresent factor, it has received little attention in the marketing literature. We present six studies showing that crowding increases calorie consumption. These effects occur because crowding increases distraction, which hampers cognitive thinking and evokes more affective processing. When consumers process information affectively, they consume more calories. We show the specific reason for the increase in calories. When given a choice between several different options, people select and eat higher-calorie items, but when presented with only one option, people eat more of the same food item. We document this process, rule out alternative explanations, and discuss theoretical and managerial implications. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

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... Environmental cues and the behaviours of people in the immediate environment (social influence) also influence food choice, food consumption, and purchasing. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] JHD 2024:9(1):614-645 RESEARCH Popularity cues and setting norms for specific context can influence consumers to consume or purchase healthier products and not so for regular products. 36,39 In a virtual supermarket study, when products in different categories were communicated to the participants as being popular (popularity cue), consumers were more likely to choose healthier products when these are combined with a popularity cue. ...
... [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] JHD 2024:9(1):614-645 RESEARCH Popularity cues and setting norms for specific context can influence consumers to consume or purchase healthier products and not so for regular products. 36,39 In a virtual supermarket study, when products in different categories were communicated to the participants as being popular (popularity cue), consumers were more likely to choose healthier products when these are combined with a popularity cue. 36 Otto et al. (2020) found that setting norms for specific contexts (provincial norms) can nudge consumers to purchase lower-calorie food. ...
... 38 Hock et al. (2018) found that exposure to crowded environments-regardless of the number of people as long as they were in close proximity-led to increased calorie consumption. 39 Crowding increased distraction and may have hampered consumers' ability to process information effectively. Individuals presented with different options selected and consumed higher-calorie items, but tended to eat more of the same food item when presented with only one option. ...
Article
Most literature suggests that people can be influenced when choosing what to purchase or eat. Product availability, labelling and marketing, pricing, and portion size may all influence food choices. Environmental cues and the position of products on shelves, near checkouts, and in vending machines can also affect food choices and eating behaviours. Understanding the effects of these factors on human behaviour, and how they are affected by personal factors such as knowledge, values, motivations, and health goals, may provide avenues to nudge consumers towards healthy choices, and reinforce theoretical primers that support consumers to set appropriate goals for their well-being even when nudges promote consumption of less healthy foods
... Contrary to the predominant view of adverse density effects, in recent studies, Aydinli et al. (2021) finds that when consumers perceive the stores to be crowded, they tend to buy relatively more hedonic products and national brands. Andrews et al. (2015) and Hock and Bagchi (2018) demonstrated a positive role of crowdedness on consumers' use of mobile ads and caloric consumption based on findings from both field and laboratory experiment data. Overall, there is accumulating evidence for a positive density effect on eating behavior (Hui and Bateson, 1991;Pons et al., 2006;Hock and Bagchi, 2018;Hwang Su and Mattila, 2020;Aydinli et al., 2021), but since most research has been carried out in Western countries, it is not clear whether the positive impact of physical density will necessarily be present in other regions of the world (such as China in East Asia), and several gaps remain in the marketing literature, calling for a more profound analysis. ...
... Andrews et al. (2015) and Hock and Bagchi (2018) demonstrated a positive role of crowdedness on consumers' use of mobile ads and caloric consumption based on findings from both field and laboratory experiment data. Overall, there is accumulating evidence for a positive density effect on eating behavior (Hui and Bateson, 1991;Pons et al., 2006;Hock and Bagchi, 2018;Hwang Su and Mattila, 2020;Aydinli et al., 2021), but since most research has been carried out in Western countries, it is not clear whether the positive impact of physical density will necessarily be present in other regions of the world (such as China in East Asia), and several gaps remain in the marketing literature, calling for a more profound analysis. For instance, questions remain on whether findings found in laboratories and a fast-food restaurant can be generalized to other restaurant types, whether the crowding effect varies by region or culture, and whether other factors of social influence (e.g., group size) may moderate the impact. ...
... can be distracting and could affect the cognitive information processing of customers, thus provoking higher food spending and calories ordered (Hock and Bagchi, 2018). Specifically, when consumers are exposed to crowded restaurants, they are more likely to be distracted and make food choices more emotionally (based on affective reactions) and less rationally (based on cognitive information; Andrews et al., 2015;Hock and Bagchi, 2018;Petty et al., 1983;Hwang Su and Mattila, 2020;Aydinli et al., 2021). ...
Article
Prior research has documented that crowdedness or high-density environments relate to stress and defensive responses of consumers, including reduced satisfaction and avoidance motivations from laboratory evidence. The current study builds on the results of previous studies to investigate how crowdedness may influence consumers' food spending and choice in natural restaurant settings. Through collaboration with a major restaurant chain in China, we gained access to a proprietary dataset that covers over 3.8 million actual dining orders made in 2015 and 2016. Applying a high-dimensional fixed effects model, we demonstrate that high levels of physical density can provoke higher food spending and nutrients ordered in restaurant environments, and the impact is robust across subsamples and measures of physical density. Cross-city analyses illustrate heterogeneous responses of customers to physical density, which can be partly explained by cultural differences. Heterogeneity analyses illustrate that customers with lower per person spending are affected more by elevated levels of physical density. Additionally, we show that the effect of physical density can be moderated by the size of dining parties.
... In contrast, despite the importance of the surrounding environment in individuals' consumption experiences (Chua et al., 2015;Hightower et al., 2002), research examining how environmental factors affect pay-what-you-want payments is scant (Roy & Das, 2022;Sharma et al., 2020). The current research seeks to extend this body of knowledge by investigating a particular kind of ambient environmentsocial crowding, which is defined as a high density of people gathering together in a given area (Hock & Bagchi, 2018;. We focus on social crowding for two reasons. ...
... Social crowding arises from a high density of individuals gathering together in a fixed area (Hock & Bagchi, 2018;. Since restrictions on people's personal space are often regarded as aversive (Huang et al., 2018;Stokols, 1972), crowding can contribute to a variety of negative consumer responses, such as lowered product/service evaluation (Noone & Mattila, 2009;O'Guinn et al., 2015), impaired corporate image (Jang et al., 2015), decreased customer satisfaction (Liu & Ma, 2019;Machleit et al., 2000) and reduced revisit intention (Papadopoulou et al., 2023). ...
... Another strand of literature has documented a variety of psychological effects of crowding, such as heightened social withdrawal (Evans & Lepore, 1993;, a prevention-oriented regulatory focus ), activation of low-level construals , greater future-orientation (Sng et al., 2017) and more affective processing (Hock & Bagchi, 2018;. More relevant to this research, many studies have demonstrated that crowding has a control-debilitating effect (Aiello & Calesnick, 1978;Consiglio et al., 2018;Hui & Bateson, 1991;Shen et al., 2023). ...
Article
Despite the pervasiveness of pay-what-you-want pricing in the travel and hospitality industry, tourism scholars have devoted little effort to investigating the effectiveness of this pricing scheme. The current research examines the joint effect of social crowding (crowded vs. non-crowded) and self-construal (interdependent vs. independent) on tourists' pay-what-you-want payments. The results indicate that crowding lowers payment amounts among individuals high in interdependent self-construal, but such an effect is not observed among people high in independent self-construal. Furthermore, the mediation analysis shows that self-dehumanization is the psychological mechanism underlying the negative crowding effect. The research findings help tourism operators to realize when and why social crowding lowers people's pay-what-you-want payments, thus enhancing the effectiveness of pay-what-you-want pricing.
... Retail crowding leads to lower customer satisfaction and shopping duration (Hui and Bateson, 1991;Eroglu et al., 2005) and reduces customers' willingness to pay for in-store products (O'Guinn et al., 2015). Crowding and visual complexity are also associated with poor shopping experiences (Machleit et al., 2000;Eroglu et al., 2005), increased distractions (Hock and Bagchi, 2018), reduced ability to process information (Hock and Bagchi, 2018), and purchase intentions (Esmark and Noble, 2016). ...
... Retail crowding leads to lower customer satisfaction and shopping duration (Hui and Bateson, 1991;Eroglu et al., 2005) and reduces customers' willingness to pay for in-store products (O'Guinn et al., 2015). Crowding and visual complexity are also associated with poor shopping experiences (Machleit et al., 2000;Eroglu et al., 2005), increased distractions (Hock and Bagchi, 2018), reduced ability to process information (Hock and Bagchi, 2018), and purchase intentions (Esmark and Noble, 2016). ...
Article
Full-text available
In digital environments, the demand for larger devices (e.g., larger smartphones) has been growing continuously, indicating users’ spatial needs in digital interfaces. This study explores the need for space in digital interfaces in relation to claustrophobic tendencies. The findings from two studies consistently report that (1) stronger claustrophobic tendencies toward physical spatial constraints are positively associated with a stronger need for digital space. The results also demonstrate that (2) people with elevated claustrophobic tendencies and a stronger need for digital space perceive stronger spatial constraints on digital interfaces, and (3) claustrophobic tendencies and need for digital space have stronger effects on spatial constraints with a more complex grid design. Interestingly, the findings suggest that (4) claustrophobic tendencies are more closely associated with spatial needs from attentive tasks (e.g., reading a long document), than device-related spatial needs (e.g., large screen preferences), implying that such claustrophobic tendencies are more likely to influence cognitive tasks on digital devices. Overall, the findings indicate that claustrophobic tendencies may be utilized beyond medical purposes and may assist researchers and business practitioners understand users’ spatial needs in fast-changing digital environments.
... This contributes to establishing ecological validity and highlights the practical implications of our findings. Prior research has shown that one's preference for sugar reflects how healthy their diet is (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). The greater one's preference for sugar, the less healthy his/her diet. ...
Article
Full-text available
Consumer motivational states significantly affect their healthy food choices. Previous research mainly focused on the influence of directly health-related motivations on these choices, neglecting the impact of the fundamental human drive for happiness. Our research addressed this gap by exploring how the pursuit of meaning, a fundamental motivation for achieving happiness, impacts healthy food choices. Using a cross-lagged panel design, a real behavioral study, and two lab experiments, we found that individuals who pursue meaning show a heightened preference for healthy foods. This effect is mediated by future temporal focus. Furthermore, reward-seeking moderates the above mediating mechanism. Specifically, the mediating role of future temporal focus exists only among individuals with low reward-seeking tendencies. These findings not only expand our understanding of how the pursuit of meaning influences healthy food choices but also enhance time perspective theory by identifying the mediating role of future temporal focus. The research also provides valuable insights for marketers and policymakers aiming to promote healthy food choices and enhance long-term consumer well-being.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
People largely perceive their environment visually and visual impressions are often available before those of the other senses. Therefore, how retail environments are visually designed is an important driver of retailers’ success by guiding consumer behavior and contributing to a generally pleasant atmosphere. Eye-catching designs can draw attention and unique design concepts can communicate a brand’s image. Popular examples are the Hans im Glück restaurant chain and the Apple Stores with their brand-specific visual concepts. Many retailers also make use of social media-ready visual design elements and, for example, house selfie walls or even design “instagrammable” structures such as Bikini Mall Berlin, which installed a wall of plants and flowers with a swing in front that not only allowed visitors to take pretty pictures but also staged brands. In this chapter, we explore how visual design elements such as lighting, color, and product arrangements affect consumer behavior. We provide guidance on how to integrate visual design elements in stores and also discuss the role of in-store technologies in shaping customer experiences.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
If brick-and-mortar retail were a company stock, most analysts would probably recommend that investors should sell it. Currently, improved online shop systems, faster logistics, and a generation of consumers who spend a significant amount of their time online are all driving the increasing share of online purchases. This also holds for products that managers long assumed would be exclusively sold in stationary retail stores. The consequences are obvious in many cities: Empty city centers and vanishing retail stores increasingly characterize the urban landscape. Despite decades of dead sayings, physical stores are not dead. On the contrary, for example, roughly 90% of retail revenues in Germany are generated in physical stores and major US retailers such as Target and Walmart have announced multi-billion-dollar investments in their physical stores in an effort to improve customer experience and target new markets. One reason that stationary retail is alive and well is that physical stores have an unbeatable advantage over online retail. They can create multisensory experiences by providing consumers with sensory stimulation across their various senses. We provide insights into the latest research findings on sensory marketing relating to vision, sound, and scent as well as their interaction—with some surprising results.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
After more than 40 years of research on the use of music in retail environments, there is no doubt that music influences consumer behavior at the point of sale. A meta-analytic review of 25 studies covering a range of different types of music has shown that music has a positive influence on consumers’ shopping experience and buying behavior. Indeed, marketing practice has long recognized this effect and taken advantage of it. Not surprisingly, music has become one of the most frequently used stimuli in the atmospheric design of retail environments. This is not only due to music’s potential to elicit favorable consumer responses but also because it is relatively easy and inexpensive to implement in retail environments. In this chapter, we discuss how different properties of music such as tempo and volume affect consumer behavior and provide an overview of guiding questions for the use of music in retail environments.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
The previous chapters described the relevance and impact of individual sensory stimuli on consumer behavior. In retail, however, the reality is considerably more complex. Consumers inevitably perceive retail environments and products in a multisensory way (i.e., simultaneously with all their senses). Thus, the presence of one sensory stimulus (e.g., scent) can influence how consumers react to another stimulus (e.g., music). Specifically, stimuli that appeal to different sensory modalities reinforce or complement one another, thereby influencing the perception and evaluation of the retail environment, the retailer, individual products, or even brands. Combining a scent with specific background music can, for example, lead to an enhanced shopping experience compared to using scent or music in isolation. In general, a multisensory approach has stronger effects on consumers than simply adding other stimuli appealing to the same sensory modality. The chapter highlights the concept of multisensory congruence, where stimuli that fit well together enhance evaluations of the retail environment, products, and brands. Additionally, we discuss the concept of crossmodal correspondences, illustrating how perceptions in one sensory modality can influence perceptions in another sensory modality.
... Distractions, in general, can amplify affective components in decision-making (Hock et al. 2018;Rubin, Hildebrand, and Malloy-Diniz 2022) and often lead consumers to adopt quick heuristic decision-making strategies instead of engaging in more complex rational processes, increasing susceptibility to impulsive decisions (Casey, Slugoski, and Helmes 2014). The sources of consumer distraction can be examined from two perspectives. ...
Article
Visual attention as a highly complex system is considered a scarce source. This study investigates the distraction effect (specifically, mobile phone usage unrelated to purchasing decisions) on visual attention during consumers’ decision-making processes of the Mobile native generation. An eye-tracking experiment utilizing 2-AFC tasks was used for the product choice procedure. The findings revealed no significant differences in gaze behavior in distracting and non-distracting conditions. Interestingly, the results indicate the significant effect of consumer distraction on the relationship between visual attention and product preference. A stronger tendency for a value-based gaze and attentional bias effect under distraction conditions was evidenced. The results of this research highlight the importance of further developing theories of attention in consumer decision-making in terms of the need to re-evaluate the effects of factors on visual attention in distraction-rich environments, particularly regarding mobile technology.
... Crowding is defined as a large concentration of people inside a defined space (Consiglio, De Angelis, & Costabile, 2018). Moreover, crowding has posed numerous difficulties for service providers, including decreased customer satisfaction and an increase in complaints (IPK International, 2017), as well as a variety of psychological effects, including altered consumer preferences (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). Occasionally, businesses are turning to atmospherics such as scents in an effort to forge stronger emotional connections between consumers and the spaces they are in (Canniford et al., 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
An airport terminal facilitates passengers’ travel from land to air. This study examines the influences of airport service quality in terms of airport terminal tangible facilities, service reliability, responsiveness of physical structure, safety assurance, and spatial empathy on the passenger’s overall airport experience as to the level of agreement on satisfaction, airport reuse, and destination revisit. The survey was conducted among 380 inbound and outbound passengers and employed a descriptive research method to determine the level of agreement of passengers, and to measure the relationship between airport service quality and their overall airport experience. Results indicate that the majority of the respondents are female, between the ages of 21 and 35 years old, traveling with family and friends. There were no substantial differences in responses on the overall airport experience when compared according to the respondent’s profile. Moreover, results imply a significant relationship between airport services and overall airport experience. The majority of respondents generally agree that airport security was visible and helpful, and they would utilize this airport again if they were to fly from or to Leyte. Some of the proposed recommendations of this study include improving internet connectivity, providing service-related training among service employees, and adding more comfortable seats. Further research can be conducted at an airport facility with a more diversified passenger profile, as the respondents of this study are all Filipino citizens in a domestic airport setting. Keywords: airport terminal, service quality, destination revisit, satisfaction, airport reuse
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
After more than 40 years of research on the use of music in retail environments, researchers agree that music has positive effects at the POS. A meta-analytic review of 25 studies covering a range of different types of music has shown that music has a positive influence on consumers’ shopping experience and buying behavior. Indeed, marketing practice has long recognized this effect and taken advantage of it. Not surprisingly, music has become one of the most frequently used stimuli in the atmospheric design of retail environments. This is not only due to music’s potential to elicit favorable consumer responses, but also because it is relatively easy and inexpensive to implement in retail environments.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
The previous chapters described the relevance and impact of individual sensory stimuli on consumer behavior. In retail, however, the reality is considerably more complex. Consumers inevitably perceive retail environments and products in a multisensory way (i.e., simultaneously with all their senses). Thus, the presence of one sensory stimulus (e.g., scent) can influence how consumers react to another stimulus (e.g., music). Specifically, stimuli that appeal to different sensory modalities reinforce or complement one another, thereby influencing the perception and evaluation of the retail environment, the retailer, individual products, or even brands. Combining a scent with specific background music can, for example, lead to an enhanced shopping experience compared to using scent or music in isolation. In general, a multisensory approach has stronger effects on consumers than simply adding other stimuli appealing to the same sensory modality.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
If brick-and-mortar retail were a company stock, most analysts would probably recommend that investors should sell it. Currently, improved online shop systems, faster logistics, and a generation of consumers who spend a significant amount of their time online are all driving the increasing share of online purchases. This also holds for products that managers long assumed would be exclusively sold in stationary retail stores. The consequences are obvious in many cities: Empty city centers and vanishing retail stores increasingly characterize the urban landscape. Lockdowns due to Covid-19 fueled this development. Consumers who were initially skeptical about online retail were ultimately almost forced to “just give it a try.” And—lo and behold—they soon discovered that even buying products such as clothing and shoes online is not too difficult. While researchers and practitioners are still debating whether these pandemic-related effects on consumer behavior are permanent, next generation technologies like augmented reality (AR), the metaverse, and other technological innovations are fueling online retailing even further.
... Crowded retail environments also have a distracting effect due to customers' cognitive resources being directed toward the social environment. Consequently, consumers' self-control is reduced, which favors the choice of hedonic products (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
Chapter
You have probably often entered a room and immediately noticed a typical scent. The targeted use of scents has long since ceased to be an exception. Companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, Motel One, and Singapore Airlines routinely use ambient scents in their sales and service environments. In doing so, the companies pursue two primary goals. On the one hand, the use of ambient scents is intended to create a pleasant atmosphere. On the other hand, their use aims at communicating a distinctive and likeable brand identity.
... Dadurch wird beispielsweise die Selbstkontrolle bei der Produktwahl herabgesetzt. Kunden wählen daher zum Beispiel eher hedonische Produkte (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). ...
... To achieve this goal, consumer behaviour scholars explored interventions aimed at reducing high-calorie diets or incentivising healthy eating behaviours (Geng et al., 2018;Jia et al., 2020). While some of these studies focus on alterable environmental cues (Hock and Bagchi, 2018;Stöckli et al., 2016;Vartanian et al., 2017;Machin et al., 2021), there is a dearth of research examining important contextual factors that may change consumers' food choices and dietary intentions, such as occasion-setting cues in food appeals (Gonz alez et al., 2012;Hildebrand et al., 2019). ...
Article
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Purpose This study aims to empirically investigate how the interaction effect of occasion-setting cues and consumers’ cognitive styles (e.g. field dependence levels) influences their food intake intention. Design/methodology/approach In this research, several scenario simulation studies were conducted to verify the hypotheses. A total of 646 participants were recruited for the experiments, and samples were obtained through well-established online research platforms. Findings In the occasion-setting cue advertisement condition, field-dependent (vs field-independent) consumers displayed increased cravings for food and purchase intention, with mental simulation playing a mediating role and cognitive load playing a moderating role. Research limitations/implications The influence of others (e.g. servers and other consumers) was not taken into consideration in this study. Future research can extend this study by conducting field experiments. Practical implications The research conclusions can help various organisations reduce consumers’ food overconsumption intention and encourage healthier food choices by adjusting occasion-setting cues in marketing stimuli and identifying the target consumers’ cognitive styles. Originality/value Based on embodied cognition theory, this study reveals the influence and internal mechanism of the interaction effect between occasion-setting cues and individual cognitive style on eating desire.
... Previous studies examined a range of psychological consequences driven by social crowdedness, for instance, the sensory overload (Milgram 1970), hostility (Griffitt and Veitch 1971), consuming foods with higher calories (Hock and Bagchi 2018), prefer less saturated colored products (Chen, Li, 2022). When one senses his or her space is potentially threatened, it probably would give rise to the avoidance motivation (Cain and LeDoux 2008), in this way people tend to protect themselves (Lang and Bradley 2008;Tooby and Cosmides 1990). ...
Article
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In a modern society with high population density, consumers usually face crowded consumption environment. Meanwhile, the choices they can make are more and more abundant. Is there any correlation between social crowdedness and the preference for different types of products? This research investigates whether social crowdedness, defined as the number of people in a given area—impacts consumers’ propensity to choose functional products rather than hedonic products. We propose that social crowdedness increases the likelihood of preference for functional products rather than hedonic products. This effect occurs because density settings make consumers experience a loss of perceived control, which in turn makes them engage in interpretive cognition, exhibit a desire for structured and meaningful products, and practical function of the product as a compensatory method to help them regain control. Two studies provide support for this hypothesis. Study 1 confirms the relationship between social crowdedness and the product type preference. Study 2 examined the mediating role of perceived control as the underlying mechanism, which is, social crowdedness gives rise to a feeling of loss of perceived control, to fill up this, consumers seek products with more practical and useful function feature rather than hedonic and pleasure-oriented products as compensation to fill the gap. This study expands the research in the fields of social crowdedness from consumer behavioral perspectives. Also, the research may contribute to the marketing planning of different types of commodities in various environments.
... For example, Cornil and Chandon (2013) provided football fans with four foods (tomatoes, grapes, chocolate candies, chips) and measured consumption of each food (in grams, total calories, and macronutrients). Other studies involving multiple foods include Winterich and Haws (2011) and Hock and Bagchi (2018). The compatibility of eating multiple foods together could also be measured (and reported, facilitating future reconciliation and replication) or manipulated, to shed light on whether these are multiple foods typically offered and eaten together in real life and if this compatibility matters. ...
Article
Full-text available
Food consumption and its physiological, psychological, and social antecedents and outcomes have received considerable attention in research across many disciplines, including consumer research. Although researchers use various methods to examine food decision-making, many insights generated stem from observing eating choices in tightly controlled lab settings. Although much insight can be gained through such studies (or “lab eating”), it is apparent that many factors differ between such settings and everyday consumption (or “free-living eating”). This article highlights key differences between “lab eating” and “free-living eating,” discusses ways in which such differences matter, and provides recommendations for researchers regarding how and when to narrow the gap between them, including by enriching lab studies in ways inspired by free-living eating. Besides suggesting how researchers can conduct studies offering a deeper understanding of eating patterns, we also highlight practical implications for improving food consumption for consumers, marketers, and policymakers.
... For example, the nature and the number of the tablemates influences food intake and, typically, the greater the degree of knowledge of the tablemate, the greater the degree of relaxation of the person and consequently the ease in consuming food (Stroebele & De Castro, 2004), with family seeming to be the most important meal commensal . Moreover, the greater the degree of crowding in an environment, the greater the number of calories ingested (Hock & Bagchi, 2018). Additionally, the amount of time available to consume the meal can affect what is eaten: subjects in a rush tend towards more unhealthy dietary intake, thus influencing our food behaviours (Cohen et al., 2015). ...
Article
Italy was the first European country struck by the COVID-19 epidemic and experienced a national lockdown. This study explored the effect of lockdown on the perception of any meals prepared and/or conducted at home (home meals) and investigated which variables played a role in this. A group of Italians (n=3,060) not suspected/diagnosed as having COVID-19 (18-91 years old; 33% males) completed an online survey during the first lockdown (April 2020). Liking for home meals either increased (51% of the population) or did not vary (43%), while it decreased for only 6% of respondents. Total meal intake similarly either increased (51%) or remained unchanged (33%). Core variables describing meal perception (Liking for meal, Pleasure in meal preparation, Meal duration, Meal Time, Overall food intake, Snack intake) were positively associated with each other. Two clusters with different perceptions of home meals were found, characterised by an increased appreciation (Cl1, 61%) and an unchanged appreciation (Cl2, 39%), respectively. In the acute phase of lockdown, increased meal pleasure was associated with home togetherness (not living alone), cooking with others more often, having high cooking dynamism (use of different kitchen tools, engaging in online food-related activities like using online recipe/website for cooking, use of ready-to-eat meal delivery), and being young, a student or a worker (Cl1). Conversely, Cl2 showed an unchanged meal pleasure, and it was mostly associated with living alone (before and during lockdown), being elderly, retired, widowed, having a low degree of cooking-related activities and dedicating a small weekly budget to food. Variables strictly describing the meal were discussed. Lockdown did not homogenously affect the population in terms of meal pleasure, and high enjoyment of meals was related to high meal involvement. Younger subjects seemed to be more resilient and appreciated meals more due to high cooking dynamism, food-related activities and togetherness. Public health policies could consider these outputs to set up interventions that use meal-dedication activities to increase meal pleasure in vulnerable targets or in subjects experiencing poorly appreciated diets in similar future stressful situations.
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Sensory marketing has garnered significant attention from researchers due to its ability to effectively influence consumer behavior at a subconscious level. However, existing reviews are constrained by either limited scope or methodology, often focusing on specific senses, or domains, or using solely quantitative or qualitative methods. This offers an opportunity to comprehensively synthesize the existing literature and provide direction for future research. Building on this, the present study examines 535 articles assembled, arranged, and assessed using the SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol for a thorough review of sensory marketing literature spanning four decades (1984–2023). The review employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to summarize the diverse research and provide detailed insights from the existing body of literature. The quantitative approach, utilizing keyword co‐occurrence analysis identifies five thematic clusters—sensory cues as communication strategy, sensory experiences in technologically advanced era, taste perception and food consumption, visual perception, and olfactory perception. Furthermore, the qualitative review technique, utilizing the Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology (TCCM) framework reveals prevalent theories and primary research contexts, along with distinctive characteristics and methodologies. Based on these analyses suggestions for potential areas of future research have been stated.
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Background: We aim to study whether social loneliness, as a psychological variable, and social crowding, as an environmental variable, jointly influence people’s preference for an anthropomorphic product. Specifically, this study aims to test two hypotheses; whether social loneliness increases the preference for an anthropomorphic product and whether this effect is influenced by social crowding. Methods: Two experiments were conducted to test the two hypotheses. When manipulating the anthropomorphim of a product, social loneliness, and social crowding, we strictly followed the procedure of prior literature. Results: We obtained two findings. First, participants showed a stronger preference for the anthropomorphic product when they were socially lonely than when not. Second, when participants were socially crowded, their preferences for the anthropomorphic product did not increase even when they were socially lonely. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that people’s preference for an anthropomorphic product is jointly determined by social loneliness and social crowding. To make better use of anthropomorphism in product design, designers should consider both consumers’ social loneliness and stores’ social crowdedness.
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Purpose Based on the construal level theory, this research study examines the interactive effect between social crowding and corporate social responsibility (CSR) statement type on consumers' purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two empirical experiments on a total of 508 subjects. Findings There is an interactive effect between social crowding and CSR statement type on consumers' purchase intention. Specifically, in high social crowding situations, concrete CSR statements lead to consumers' higher purchase intention, while in low social crowding situations, abstract CSR statements lead to consumers' higher purchase intention. Self-construal and processing fluency play a moderating and mediating role in the mechanism. Originality/value This research study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the interaction between social crowding and CSR statements, enriching the field of consumer behavior research on social crowding. Additionally, it offers practical insights for enterprises on how to present CSR information in crowded situations.
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Purpose Driven by artificial intelligence technology, chatbots have begun to play an important customer service role in the online retail environment. This study aims to explore how conversational styles improve the interaction experience between consumers and chatbots in different social crowding environments, and the moderating role of product categories is considered. Design/methodology/approach Three studies are conducted to understand the influences of conversational styles, social crowding and product categories on consumer acceptance, assessed using situational experiments and questions. Findings In a low social crowding environment, consumers prefer chatbots with a social-oriented (vs. task-oriented) conversational style, while in a high social crowding environment, consumers prefer a task-oriented (vs. social-oriented) conversational style, and warmth and competence mediate these effects. The moderating effect of product categories is supported. Originality/value This study expands the application of the stereotype content model to improve the interaction experience level between consumers and chatbots in online retail. The findings can provide managerial suggestions for retailers to select a chatbot's conversational style and promote a more continuous interaction between consumers and chatbots.
Chapter
People largely perceive their environment visually. Visual impressions are often available before those of the other senses, for example, due to the fact that one may be outside the range of acoustic or olfactory signals. Therefore, how retail environments are visually designed is an important driver of retailers’ success by guiding consumer behavior and contributing to a generally pleasant atmosphere. Eye-catching designs can draw attention and unique design concepts can communicate a brand’s image. Popular examples are the Hans im Glück restaurant chain and the Apple Stores with their brand-specific visual concepts. Apart from a visual representation of the brand, retailers can further use in-store design elements like secondary placements at the point of sale (POS) and colored (price) tags to direct customers’ in-store shopping route and draw attention to specific offers.
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The current research examines the relationship between crowding and consumers’ responsiveness to sales promotions. Six studies show that the experience and feeling of crowdedness reduce the impact of sales promotions, demonstrating that consumers’ product/service purchase intention changes to a lesser extent in response to such promotions. This effect is found to be driven by consumers shifting their attention from the external environment to their internal feelings and thoughts when experiencing crowdedness. As a result, consumers rely more on their internal feelings and thoughts than on external cues in judgment, and consequently their purchase intention becomes less susceptible to external sales promotion information. In addition, this effect is found to be attenuated in situations where product attitudes are detached from consumers’ own preferences, such as in the context of gift choices, and when the experience of crowding is not aversive (e.g., watching an exciting football game in a bar).
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In the last two years, consumers have experienced massive changes in consumption – whether due to shifts in habits; the changing information landscape; challenges to their identity, or new economic experiences of scarcity or abundance. What can we expect from these experiences? How are the world's leading thinkers applying both foundational knowledge and novel insights as we seek to understand consumer psychology in a constantly changing landscape? And how can informed readers both contribute to and evaluate our knowledge? This handbook offers a critical overview of both fundamental topics in consumer psychology and those that are of prominence in the contemporary marketplace, beginning with an examination of individual psychology and broadening to topics related to wider cultural and marketplace systems. The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Psychology, 2nd edition, will act as a valuable guide for teachers and graduate and undergraduate students in psychology, marketing, management, economics, sociology, and anthropology.
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Overcrowding in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals) has become a widely identified problem in today's healthcare. This research documents whether and how social crowding affects consumers' self‐perceived health risks in healthcare environments and its downstream effect. One pilot study (secondary data analysis), seven laboratory experiments, and a field survey (Study 6) demonstrated that social crowding increased individuals' self‐perceived health risks through a lack of control (Studies 1–6), thereby leading to overspending on the healthcare products (Study 5). Furthermore, the mediating process was moderated by choice and disease symptom severity (Studies 3 and 4). The findings of this research theoretically enrich our understanding of how social crowding interacts with individual disease symptoms and the services provided in the healthcare environment, and practically provide important implications for healthcare practitioners in managing consumers' health risks and consumption behavior.
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COVID-19 has posed a massive challenge for destination marketers to restore safety perceptions among tourists after the onslaught of the pandemic. The objective of the current study is to develop an integrated model linking social and technical elements via socio-technical theory helping in theory development and tourism recovery. Destination marketing researchers agree on the importance of STTs to restore faith among tourists However, there is a lack of theory in the studies related to tourism recovery. Socio-technical theory, which attributes the interdependence of technical systems and social systems for maximizing organizational productivity is used by the current study to help understand the tourism recovery process. This study uses the elements of socio-technical theory in a structural equation model (SEM) to help destination marketers better understand the effect of technology in attaining tourism recovery. Based on self-selection sampling, we collected the data via a web survey from makemytrip.com, the modeling in this study was done via variance-based structural equation modeling. The study results demonstrate a strong effect of Smart Tourism Technologies (STTs) in reducing the impact of pandemics on tourists’ perceptions.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how crowding without violating personal space influences consumers’ channel selection and the underlying mechanism of this process. Crowded environment is ubiquitous and affects consumers’ behaviors. However, less attention has been paid to whether and how crowding influences consumers’ preference for purchasing channels. Design/methodology/approach There were three studies to test the validity of the theorized model, including two laboratory experiments and a field study. The variance analyses and mediation analyses were used to give more insights into the analytical process. Findings This study proposes that crowding makes consumers lose their perceived control, leading them to form certain compensatory behavior through the conversion between online and offline purchasing channels – the type of goods moderates the process of compensatory behavior. Practical implications The results of this study are helpful for retailers to design effective strategies to allocate resources into online or offline channels and to choose the appropriate types of product to promote. Originality/value Environmental clues have been widely studied in previous marketing research. Crowding, as a common environmental clue, has only been noticed in recent years. This study examines the impact of crowding on consumers’ channel preference. The results of three studies have confirmed that consumers have higher preference for offline shopping when they are in a crowded environment and found the intrinsic mechanism and the marginal scenario of this process.
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This article reviews studies on perceived crowding conducted in marketing research over the past decade. The findings of these studies are organized into three perspectives: the effects of perceived crowding on consumers’ cognition and emotion, the effects of perceived crowding on consumers’ utilitarian and value-expressive behaviors, and perceived crowding as a cue for inference. The review confirmed that studies on perceived crowding have been extended from in-store behavior research to consumer information processing and decision making. We also point out three issues for future research: the need for more detailed discussion of crowding as a cue for inference, the limited number of studies that address today’s in-store research and perceived crowding, and the lack of discussion of perceived crowding research through the stages of purchase decision making. This comprehensive review of empirical studies on perceived crowding explain this concept in marketing and summarize findings that are useful for understanding crowded retail environments and consumer behavior.
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Charitable activities emphasizing distant recipients or places often struggle to attract contributions because consumers tend to be more willing to help others who are spatially closer to them. Therefore, identifying methods to promote prosocial intentions toward distant recipients is critical, and the present study considers the implications of social crowding, as a common environmental factor, for evoking such prosocial intentions. Four studies conducted online and in the laboratory demonstrate that consumers are more likely to feel a stronger social connection to recipients of help in uncrowded (vs. crowded) environments, which, in turn, increases their helping intentions. This influence of social crowding on prosocial intentions is also moderated by spatial distance such that the effect is more significant when the charitable project targets distant (vs. closer) recipients.
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Some studies have shown that dynamic information can attract attention and promote engagement, whereas others have found that it interferes with attention and negatively affects decisions. Currently, some online stores use dynamic displays to present promotional information on product pages. However, to the best of our knowledge no research has been conducted on how the dynamic display of promotional information affects purchase intentions. This study examined the link between dynamic promotion displays on online product pages and purchase intentions. Studies 1 and 2 proved that dynamic (vs. static) promotion displays reduced the purchase intention for high-involvement products, while the effect was not significant for low-involvement products. Studies 3A and 3B revealed that attention distraction played a mediating role in the negative effect. Study 4 showed that a negative effect existed in the low-scarcity condition, while it was reversed in the high-scarcity condition.
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The modern marketplace has made consumers’ lives better in many ways, offering a multitude of affordable conveniences and luxuries. Why, then, is the prevalence of physical and mental health deficits higher than any other time in history? Here, we articulate an evolutionary mismatch perspective—the idea that the environment we live in has changed dramatically in a short period of time, but the human body and mind have not changed. Consumers’ evolved body and mind are interacting with the modern world as if it were an ancestral environment that existed thousands of years ago, leading to many negative outcomes. We discuss three evolutionary mismatches that contribute to or compound consumer vulnerability to disease and dissatisfaction with life. We review emerging research and propose future directions that inform effective strategies to mitigate illness and enhance wellbeing.
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This article synthesizes recent findings on antecedents of healthy eating. We discuss consumer-related and environment-related forces that influence consumers’ healthy food choices and emphasize the duality of these forces so that they can facilitate but also prevent healthy eating. Specifically, our review documents how consumer lay beliefs, goals, and habits shape eating patterns. We further document the impact of environment-related forces on healthy consumption—focusing on intervention strategies and environmental changes (i.e., the trend towards online retail channels). Finally, we discuss three salient tensions (i.e., an innate craving for unhealthy food, a focus on single decisions, and a selective focus on self-control dilemmas) that emerge when taking a holistic view on existing research.
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Purpose Although academics and retail managers share a common belief that crowded stores generate more sales, there is a growing concern about the negative impact of retail crowding on customer relationship management (CRM). This research aims to understand the underlying processes driving the effect, and it explores potential moderators that may mitigate the negative effects on consumer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This research employs a meta-analysis on retail crowding effects and potential moderators. Findings The integrative model of retail crowding reveals that social needs, crowd similarity, crowd expectation and uncertainty avoidance mitigate the negative retail crowding effects on satisfaction. Research limitations/implications The authors advance the retailing literature by synthesizing recent studies on retail crowding. The findings also provide a clearer understanding of the mediating role of negative emotions in the relationship between retail crowding and satisfaction. Practical implications This research offers guidance for retail managers on how to mitigate the harmful effects of crowding on customer satisfaction. Originality/value This research contributes to the retailing literature and offers guidance for retailers on how to mitigate the harmful effects of crowding on cvustomer satisfaction. Our moderation analyses provide insights into how and when crowding drives consumer satisfaction.
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This paper is about social space and material objects for sale within that space. We draw primarily on Goffman's (1971) concepts of use space and possession territories to predict that as the social density of a given space increases, inferences of the subjective social class and income of people in that space fall. Eight studies confirm that this is indeed the case, with the result holding even for stick figures, thus controlling for typical visual indicators of social class such as clothing or jewelry. Furthermore, these social class inferences mediate a relationship between social density and product valuation, with individuals assessing both higher prices and a greater willingness to pay for products presented in less crowded contexts. This effect of inferred class on product valuation is explained by status motivated individuals desire to associate with higher status people. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to reveal the link between social density, status inferences and object valuations. As such it makes a novel contribution to what has come be known in sociology as the topological turn: a renewed focus on social space.
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As all chefs know, great food can have a transformational impact. A great deal of recent research has gone into using the new techniques from molecular gastronomy and gastrophysics to create innovative meals with delicious original textures and flavours. These novel creations have elicited much excitement from food critiques and diners alike. Much stands to be gained if these developments were to be matched by a better understanding of how the pleasure of food comes about in the brain. This review summarises the current state-of-the-art of the science of pleasure and specifically the brain’s fundamental computational principles for eating and the pleasures evoked. It is shown how the study of food has advanced our understanding of the unitary pleasure system that is used for all pleasures. As such, these novel insights may come to serve as a guide for chefs of how to combine science and art in order to maximise pleasure—and perhaps even increase happiness.
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That music affects human beings in various ways has probably been presumed as long as people have played music. Many marketing practitioners already accept this notion, given that music is increasingly used as a stimulus in the retail environment as well as in radio and television advertising. Yet, fewer than 20 published empirical studies in marketing have music as their focus. The author reviews the small body of marketing literature, surveys relevant literature outside marketing, and provides research propositions to guide future studies.
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Might the mere crowdedness of the environment affect individuals’ choices and preferences? In six studies, the authors show that social crowdedness not only leads to greater accessibility of safety-related constructs, but also results in individuals showing a greater preference for safety-oriented options (e.g., preferring to visit a pharmacy to a convenience store), being more receptive towards prevention (rather than promotion) framed messages, and being more risk averse with real money gambles. Supporting the authors’ underlying avoidance motivation perspective, these effects are mediated by participants’ net-prevention focus and are attenuated when the crowd in question consists of in-group members. Both practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
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Individuals’ physical closeness to one another can either increase or decrease their preference for distinctive products. When individuals perceive their proximity to others to be voluntary, they are likely to interpret it as an indication of their affiliation motivation. Consequently, in a product choice task, they choose options that others consider desirable. When people perceive that their close proximity to others results from circumstances beyond their control, however, they feel that their personal space is violated and experience a need for to express their individuality. In this case, they are more likely to choose products that distinguish themselves from others.
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Research has shown that an increase in perceived crowding in a retail store (created from either human or spatial density) can decrease the level of satisfaction that shoppers have with the store. The three studies reported here examine the retail crowding-satisfaction relationship to deter- mine the extent to which it is a simple, direct relationship. Specifically, we consider the possibil- ity that the crowding-satisfaction relationship is mediated by emotional reactions that are expe- rienced while shopping. In addition, moderating variables such as prior expectations of crowding, tolerance for crowding, and store type are examined for their influence on the crowd- ing-satisfaction relationship. The results of two field studies indicate that whereas emotions only partially mediate the relationship, the decrease in shopping satisfaction due to crowding is moderated by expectations of crowding and personal tolerance for crowding. A laboratory ex- periment replicated the field studies and shows, in addition, that although ceiling and floor ef - fects may be present, the relationship between perceived crowding and shopping satisfaction appears to vary by store type.
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Background: Cognitive processes such as attention and memory may influence food intake, but the degree to which they do is unclear. Objective: The objective was to examine whether such cognitive processes influence the amount of food eaten either immediately or in subsequent meals. Design: We systematically reviewed studies that examined experimentally the effect that manipulating memory, distraction, awareness, or attention has on food intake. We combined studies by using inverse variance meta-analysis, calculating the standardized mean difference (SMD) in food intake between experimental and control groups and assessing heterogeneity with the I(2) statistic. Results: Twenty-four studies were reviewed. Evidence indicated that eating when distracted produced a moderate increase in immediate intake (SMD: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.25, 0.53) but increased later intake to a greater extent (SMD: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.45, 1.07). The effect of distraction on immediate intake appeared to be independent of dietary restraint. Enhancing memory of food consumed reduced later intake (SMD: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.68), but this effect may depend on the degree of the participants' tendencies toward disinhibited eating. Removing visual information about the amount of food eaten during a meal increased immediate intake (SMD: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.68). Enhancing awareness of food being eaten may not affect immediate intake (SMD: 0.09; 95% CI: -0.42, 0.35). Conclusions: Evidence indicates that attentive eating is likely to influence food intake, and incorporation of attentive-eating principles into interventions provides a novel approach to aid weight loss and maintenance without the need for conscious calorie counting.
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Recent theoretical developments have enabled the empirical study of trust for specific referents in organizations. The authors conducted a 14-month field study of employee trust for top management. A 9-month quasi-experiment found that the implementation of a more acceptable performance appraisal system increased trust for top management. The 3 proposed factors of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) mediated the relationship between perceptions of the appraisal system and trust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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We investigated the independent and joint effects of four workspace characteristics (social density, room darkness, number of enclosures, and interpersonal distance) on three employee reactions: turnover, satisfaction, and withdrawal from the office during discretionary periods. A total of 109 clerical employees from 19 offices of a large university participated in the research. Results showed that the independent and joint effects of the workspace characteristics accounted for 24% of the variance in employee turnover, 31% of the variance in work satisfaction, and 34% of the variance in discretionary withdrawal. Moreover, the four-way interaction term involving the workspace characteristics contributed significantly to each of the reaction measures, suggesting that employees were most likely to withdraw from offices and to experience dissatisfaction when the following conditions were present: the office was rated as dark, few enclosures surrounded employees' work areas, employees were seated close to one another, and many employees occupied the office. The implications of the findings for future research on workspace design are discussed. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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This research examined individual differences in action identification level as measured by the Behavior Identification Form. Action identification theory holds that any action can be identified in many ways, ranging from low-level identities that specify how the action is performed to high-level identities that signify why or with what effect the action is performed. People who identify action at a uniformly lower or higher level across many action domains, then, may be characterized in terms of their standing on a broad personality dimension: level of personal agency. High-level agents think about their acts in encompassing terms that incorporate the motives and larger meanings of the action, whereas low-level agents think about their acts in terms of the details or means of action. Research on the convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of this construct examined its implications for the individual's overall competence in action, for the individual's inclination toward planful vs impulsive action, and for the degree to which the individual's actions are organized by and reflected in the self-concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The present study evaluated the effects of dietary restraint on short-term appetite in response to manipulated palatability. The effects of palatability on appetite during a lunchtime meal were assessed by contrasting intake of a bland and palatable version of a simple food (within subject). To test how responses to palatability varied with restraint, these meals consumed by women were classified according to restraint (R) and disinhibition (D) scores from the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) as high R/high D (HR-HD), high R/low D (HR-LD), low R/high D (LR-HD) and low R/low D (LR-LD). A total of 40 normal-weight women subdivided into four groups based on TFEQ scores. The overall intake, appetite and hedonic ratings before, during and after the meal. All groups ate similar amounts of the bland food, but the LR-HD group ate significantly more of the palatable version than the other groups, whereas HR-LD did not increase intake in response to palatability. Hunger increased on tasting the palatable food in all but the HR-LD group, and this group ended both meals more hungry/less full than the others. Women classified as HR-LD were unresponsive to manipulated palatability, whereas those classified as LR-HD were over-responsive. These findings imply that some individuals are prone to over-respond to palatability and so are at greater risk of developing obesity, whereas others are able to resist the effects of palatability and so successfully self-restrict their food intake. Implications for obesity are discussed.
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An earlier model of personal space expectations and their violations is expanded through specification of primitive terms, constitutive definitions, and the prepositional logic underlying the model. Five sample hypotheses are deduced and experimentally tested. Results generally support the model: violations by rewarding communicators produced more positive outcomes than violations by punishing communicators, and the relationships between distance and communication outcomes for each type of communicator were curvilinear.
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Three studies illustrate that mindful attention prevents impulses toward attractive food. Participants received a brief mindfulness procedure in which they observed their reactions to external stimuli as transient mental events rather than subjectively real experiences. Participants then applied this procedure to viewing pictures of highly attractive and neutral food items. Finally, reactions to food stimuli were assessed with an implicit approach-avoidance task. Across experiments, spontaneous approach reactions elicited by attractive food were fully eliminated in the mindful attention condition compared to the control condition, in which participants viewed the same items without mindful attention. These effects were maintained over a 5-minute distraction period. Our findings suggest that mindful attention to one’s own mental experiences helps to control impulsive responses and thus suggest mindfulness as a potentially powerful method for facilitating self-regulation.
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Although many factors have been proposed and studied as causes of onset and termination of meals by humans, little attention has been paid to memory for what has previously been eaten. We propose that a principal determinant of meal onset and cessation in humans is memory of when a last meal,was eaten and how much,vas consumed. Knowledge that one has just eaten a culturally defined complete meal may be sufficient grounds for refusal of further food. This hypothesis was tested by studying two densely amnesic patients who had almost no explicit memory for events that occurred more than a minute ago, and who, in particular usually failed to remember that they had just eaten a meal. Both patients (on three occasions each) readily consumed a second lunch when it was offered IO to 30 min after completion of the first meal, and usually began to consume a third meal when it,vas offered IO to 30 min after completion of the second meal. These findings suggest that memory for,that has recently been eaten is a substantial contributor to the onset or cessation of eating of a meal.
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Purpose – Tests of assumed mediation models are common in research in many disciplines, including managerial psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and organizational theory. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to detail experimental design options for conducting such tests in a manner that has the potential to yield results that have high levels of internal and construct validity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a logical analysis of strategies for testing mediation models so as to insure valid inferences about causal relations between variables. Findings – The most appropriate strategy for testing assumed mediation models is research that uses randomized experimental designs. Practical implications – Managers should base their actions on valid evidence about phenomena. More specifically, managerial actions should be predicated on research results that have high levels of internal, construct, and statistical conclusion validity. Thus, this paper encourages managers to base decisions about organizational policies and practices on well-designed experimental research. Originality/value – This paper addresses a number of points about issues involving internal and construct validity in tests of assumed causal models that have not been covered in previous work.
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How aware are people of food-related decisions they make and how the environment influences these decisions? Study 1 shows that 139 people underestimated the number of food-related decisions they made-by an average of more than 221 decisions. Study 2 examined 192 people who overserved and overate 31% more food as a result of having been given an exaggerated environmental cue (Such as a large bowl). Of those studied, 21% denied having eaten more, 75% attributed it to other reasons (such as hunger), and only 4% attributed it to the cue. These studies underscore two key points: First, we are aware of only a fraction of the food decisions we make. Second, we are either unaware of how our environment influences these decisions or we are unwilling to acknowledge it.
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Perceived retail crowding was originally conceptualized as having two dimensions, but subsequent empirical work in marketing has treated the construct unidimensionally. This paper reports a series of lab and field studies that examine the dimensionality of the construct and its relationship to store satisfaction. Two alternative crowding measures are tested. Results suggest that perceived retail crowding has distinct human and spatial dimensions that affect satisfaction differently.
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The traditional view of satiation is that repeated consumption produces an unavoidable decline in liking according to the quantity and recency of consumption. We challenge this deterministic view by showing that satiation is instead partially constructed in the moment based on contextual cues. More specifically, while satiation is a function of the actual amount consumed, it also depends on the subjective sense of how much one has recently consumed. We demonstrate the influence of this subjective sense of satiation and show that it is driven by metacognitive cues such as the ease of retrieval of past experiences (Experiments 1 and 2) and can also be directly manipulated by providing a normative standard for consumption quantity (Experiment 3). Our research demonstrates that satiety is not driven solely by the amount and timing of past consumption, thereby establishing the role of higher order metacognitive inferences in satiation and providing insight into how they underlie the construction of satiation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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Two studies were conducted to examine whether shopping values are affected by perceived retail crowding, and whether shopping values mediate the relationship between perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction. Results of the first study show that perceived retail crowding affects shopping values, albeit not very strongly. However, the effects appear to be moderated by factors such as personal tolerance for crowding, time spent shopping, shopping intention, and whether a purchase was made. Study 2 indicates that the impact of perceived crowding on shopping value is mediated by emotions experienced by the shopper. The emotions and shopping value reactions, in turn, mediate the effect of spatial crowding on shopping satisfaction. Interestingly, the results show that when these mediating variables are accounted for, human crowding positively affects shopping satisfaction. These findings provide support for the inverted U explanation in the general crowding literature, and suggest new avenues of future research in the context of retail crowding.
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The prevalence of childhood obesity increased in the 1980s and 1990s but there were no significant changes in prevalence between 1999-2000 and 2007-2008 in the United States. To present the most recent estimates of obesity prevalence in US children and adolescents for 2009-2010 and to investigate trends in obesity prevalence and body mass index (BMI) among children and adolescents between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010. Cross-sectional analyses of a representative sample (N = 4111) of the US child and adolescent population (birth through 19 years of age) with measured heights and weights from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010. Prevalence of high weight-for-recumbent length (≥95th percentile on the growth charts) among infants and toddlers from birth to 2 years of age and obesity (BMI ≥95th percentile of the BMI-for-age growth charts) among children and adolescents aged 2 through 19 years. Analyses of trends in obesity by sex and race/ethnicity, and analyses of trends in BMI within sex-specific age groups for 6 survey periods (1999-2000, 2001-2002, 2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, and 2009-2010) over 12 years. In 2009-2010, 9.7% (95% CI, 7.6%-12.3%) of infants and toddlers had a high weight-for-recumbent length and 16.9% (95% CI, 15.4%-18.4%) of children and adolescents from 2 through 19 years of age were obese. There was no difference in obesity prevalence among males (P = .62) or females (P = .65) between 2007-2008 and 2009-2010. However, trend analyses over a 12-year period indicated a significant increase in obesity prevalence between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010 in males aged 2 through 19 years (odds ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.10) but not in females (odds ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.98-1.07) per 2-year survey cycle. There was a significant increase in BMI among adolescent males aged 12 through 19 years (P = .04) but not among any other age group or among females. In 2009-2010, the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents was 16.9%; this was not changed compared with 2007-2008.
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Why is America a land of low-calorie food claims yet high-calorie food intake? Four studies show that people are more likely to underestimate the caloric content of main dishes and to choose higher-calorie side dishes, drinks, or desserts when fast-food restaurants claim to be healthy ( e. g., Subway) compared to when they do not ( e. g., McDonald's). We also find that the effect of these health halos can be eliminated by simply asking people to consider whether the opposite of such health claims may be true. These studies help explain why the success of fast-food restaurants serving lower-calorie foods has not led to the expected reduction in total calorie intake and in obesity rates. They also suggest innovative strategies for consumers, marketers, and policy makers searching for ways to fight obesity.
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The aim of this paper is to examine the mediating role played by five key job characteristics in the relationship between employee participation in a job redesign intervention and employee well-being. In studies of job redesign interventions, it has been assumed that any effects of employee participation in job redesign on well-being are a result of changes in job characteristics rather than participation in change per se. It is therefore important to statistically test for mediation in job redesign intervention studies to help establish that the change in job characteristics is the mechanism through which job redesign interventions work. However, this has rarely been tested directly, either because data to allow tests of mediation have not been collected (e.g. assessments of job characteristics) or because data have been collected but mediation has not been tested using accepted procedures. This makes it unclear whether changes in job characteristics explain the effects. Results from multilevel analyses of a longitudinal 9-month long serendipitous quasi-experimental participative job redesign intervention showed that changes in job control, participation, skill utilization and feedback, but not task obstacles, were sufficient to account for the relationship between the intervention and employee well-being. Copyright copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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Affect is considered by most contemporary theories to be postcognitive, that is, to occur only after considerable cognitive operations have been accomplished. Yet a number of experimental results on preferences, attitudes, impression formation, and decision making, as well as some clinical phenomena, suggest that affective judgments may be fairly independent of, and precede in time, the sorts of perceptual and cognitive operations commonly assumed to be the basis of these affective judgments. Affective reactions to stimuli are often the very first reactions of the organism, and for lower organisms they are the dominant reactions. Affective reactions can occur without extensive perceptual and cognitive encoding, are made with greater confidence than cognitive judgments, and can be made sooner. Experimental evidence is presented demonstrating that reliable affective discriminations (like–dislike ratings) can be made in the total absence of recognition memory (old–new judgments). Various differences between judgments based on affect and those based on perceptual and cognitive processes are examined. It is concluded that affect and cognition are under the control of separate and partially independent systems that can influence each other in a variety of ways, and that both constitute independent sources of effects in information processing. (139 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
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By use of path analysis on data from 600 shoppers, the authors explore the sequential relationships among several variables pertinent to retail crowding. Results furnish evidence that perceived crowding systematically affects shopping behavior and consumers’ feelings about retail outlets and shopping trips.
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That music affects human beings in various ways has probably been presumed as long as people have played music. Many marketing practitioners already accept this notion, given that music is increasingly used as a stimulus in the retail environment as well as in radio and television advertising. Yet, fewer than 20 published empirical studies in marketing have music as their focus. The author reviews the small body of marketing literature, surveys relevant literature outside marketing, and provides research propositions to guide future studies.
Article
This research examines the effects of hyper-contextual targeting with physical crowdedness on consumer responses to mobile ads. It relies on rich field data from one of the world’s largest telecom providers who can gauge physical crowdedness in real-time in terms of the number of active mobile users in subway trains. The telecom provider randomly sent targeted mobile ads to individual users, measured purchase rates, and surveyed purchasers and nonpurchasers. Based on a sample of 14,972 mobile phone users, the results suggest that, counterintuitively, commuters in crowded subway trains are about twice as likely to respond to a mobile offer by making a purchase vis-à-vis those in noncrowded trains. On average, the purchase rates measured 2.1% with fewer than two people per square meter, and increased to 4.3% with five people per square meter, after controlling for peak and off-peak times, weekdays and weekends, mobile use behaviors, and randomly sending mobile ads to users. The effects are robust to exploiting sudden variations in crowdedness induced by unanticipated train delays underground and street closures aboveground. Follow-up surveys provide insights into the causal mechanism driving this result. A plausible explanation is mobile immersion: As increased crowding invades one’s physical space, people adaptively turn inwards and become more susceptible to mobile ads. Because crowding is often associated with negative emotions such as anxiety and risk-avoidance, the findings reveal an intriguing, positive aspect of crowding: Mobile ads can be a welcome relief in a crowded subway environment. The findings have economic significance because people living in cities commute 48 minutes each way on average, and global mobile ad spending is projected to exceed $100 billion. Marketers may consider the crowdedness of a consumer’s environment as a new way to boost the effectiveness of hyper-contextual mobile advertising.
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By use of path analysis on data from 600 shoppers, the authors explore the sequential relationships among several variables pertinent to retail crowding. Results furnish evidence that perceived crowding systematically affects shopping behavior and consumers' feelings about retail outlets and shopping trips.
Article
The attitudinal and behavioral effects of being promoted and being rejected for promotion were examined in a quasi experiment conducted at an international bank in Hong Kong. Promoted tellers who had more internal locuses of control (LOC) maintained improved attitudes across 3- and 18-month posttest intervals. Attitudes returned to baseline levels by the second posttest among externaI-LOC individuals who had been promoted. There was no change in attitudes among people passed over for promotion. Absenteeism and job performance both decreased among promotees. The implications for the administration of promotions are considered.
Article
This research examined the relationships between objective office characteristics (openness, office density, workspace density, accessibility, and office darkness) and several measures of employee reactions (satisfaction, behavior during discretionary periods, and spatial markers). In addition, the research examined the extent to which three sets of intervening variables explained these relationships. The intervening variables were interpersonal experiences (conflict, friendship opportunities, agent feedback), job experiences (task significance, autonomy, task identity), and environmental experiences (crowding, concentration, privacy). Data were collected from 114 clerical employees of 19 offices. Each of the office characteristics related significantly to one or more of the employee reaction measures. Moreover, office characteristics affected several employee reactions through their impact on the intervening variables.
Article
Store atmospherics affect consumer behavior. This message has created a revolution in sensory marketing techniques, such that across virtually every product category, retailers and manufacturers seek to influence the consumer's “sensory experience.” The key question is how should a company design its multisensory atmospherics in store to ensure that the return on its investment is worthwhile? This paper reviews the scientific evidence related to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory aspects of the store environment and their influence on the consumer's shopping behavior. The findings emphasize the need for further research to address how the multisensory retail environment shapes customer experience and shopping behavior.
Article
How does social crowdedness shape the way people mentally represent objects in the environment? Building on research suggesting that motivational intensity can serve to influence the span of conceptual scope, we demon strate that individuals in socially crowded environments tend to rely on concrete low-level construals, while those in less crowded environments utilize more abstract high-level construals. We further demonstrate that these effects are mediated by a social crowding induced avoidance motivation, and are moderated by the com- position of the crowd.
Article
A series of five field and laboratory studies reveal a temperature-premium effect: warm temperatures increase individuals' valuation of products. We demonstrate the effect across a variety of products using different approaches to measure or manipulate physical warmth and different assessments of product valuation. The studies suggest that exposure to physical warmth activates the concept of emotional warmth, eliciting positive reactions and increasing product valuation. Further supporting the causal role of emotional warmth, and following prior research relating greater positive feelings to reduced distance, we find that warm temperatures also reduce individuals’ perceived distance from the target products.
Article
From beverages to consumer electronics, marketers are using color in innovative ways. Despite this, little academic research has investigated the role that color plays in marketing. This paper examines how color affects consumer perceptions through a series of four studies. The authors provide a framework and empirical evidence that draws on research in aesthetics, color psychology, and associative learning to map hues onto brand personality dimensions (Study 1), as well as examine the roles of saturation and value for amplifying brand personality traits (Study 2). The authors also demonstrate how marketers can strategically use color to alter brand personality and purchase intent (Study 3), and how color influences the likability and familiarity of a brand (Study 4). The results underscore the importance of recognizing the impact of color in forming consumer brand perceptions.
Article
Proxemics literature is synthesized and placed in a theoretical framework based on norms and expectations. Two major and three subordinate propositions are supported, and a model for predicting effects of violations of proxemic expectations is advanced. A sample of hypotheses generated from the model is included.
Article
Simplicity and clarity in the intent of much of environmental design is questioned from a number of points of view. Among other work, recent psychological research shows that humans prefer ambiguous, complex patterns in their visual fields and that this seems a fundamental perceptual preference, applying even to infants and laboratory animals. The overall finding in this area of research is that there is an optimal range of perceptual input preferred generally by subjects with both too simple and chaotically complex visual fields disliked. Building in open–ended, complex, involved, allusive ways is suggested to be more psychologically satisfying than the traditional simplicity and control of the environment sought by many designers. The thinking of a number of designers and writers on urban problems is examined and shown to support this hypothesis.
Article
Across four experiments, the authors find that when information pertaining to the assessment of the healthiness of food items is provided, the less healthy the item is portrayed to be, (1) the better is its inferred taste, (2) the more it is enjoyed during actual consumption, and (3) the greater is the preference for it in choice tasks when a hedonic goal is more (versus less) salient. The authors obtain these effects both among consumers who report that they believe that healthiness and tastiness are negatively correlated and, to a lesser degree, among those who do not report such a belief. The authors also provide evidence that the association between the concepts of "unhealthy" and "tasty" operates at an implicit level. The authors discuss possibilities for controlling the effect of the unhealthy = tasty intuition (and its potential for causing negative health consequences), including controlling the volume of unhealthy but tasty food eaten, changing unhealthy foods to make them less unhealthy but still tasty, and providing consumers with better information about what constitutes "healthy."
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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.
Article
An important goal for consumer psychology is to understand when and why consumer behavior is driven by impulses versus rational decisions. Models accounting for the different shades of consumer behavior should spell out how impulsive versus reflective precursors of action are instigated, how they transform into behavior, when they conflict with each other, how such conflicts are resolved, and which boundary conditions (such as ego depletion) affect the relative influence of impulsive versus reflective precursors on behavior. Introducing the notion of free will into consumer psychology may discourage researchers from investigating the specific mechanisms underlying consumer choice and behavior.
Article
This study compared the impact of different forms of distraction on eating behaviour with a focus on the mechanisms behind this association and the link between the amount consumed and changes in the desire to eat. Participants (n=81) were randomly allocated to four conditions: driving, television viewing, social interaction or being alone in which they took part in a taste test. Measures of the desire to eat (ie. Hunger, fullness, motivation to eat) were assessed before and after the intervention. The results showed that those watching television consumed more than the social or driving conditions. Food intake was associated with a decreased desire to eat for those eating alone, but was unrelated to changes in the desire to eat for those driving. Watching television also created a decrease in the desire to eat commensurate with food intake whereas social eating resulted in the reverse relationship. The results are discussed in terms an expanded model of mindless eating and it is argued that eating more requires not only distraction away from the symptom of hunger but also sufficient cognitive capacity left to attend to the process of eating.
Article
Postulated a broad psychological correlate of population size, overall level of social stimulation, as the variable controlling human judgments of crowding. 30 male and 30 female undergraduates and 10 male graduate students were presented with scaled-down rooms and human figures and asked to place as many people as possible in the rooms without overcrowding them. Room area was constant, while architectural features varying interpersonal perception (partitions, disparity of linear dimensions, number of doors) varied. Results support the theory that "being crowded" is reception of excessive social stimulation and not merely a lack of space. Secondary results indicate criterion of crowding varies with ongoing activity. No replicable sex differences were observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This research examines the effect of distractions while sampling a food item on the subsequent choice of that item. Drawing upon research on pain, we present a two-component model, which predicts that distraction may decrease subsequent choices for the sampled item. The model asserts that the ultimate pleasure arising from the taste of a food sample depends on two components, one informational and the other affective. Further, the model proposes that distraction increases (decreases) the impact on subsequent choice of the affective (informational) component. We provide support for the two-component model from three experiments and rule out several alternative accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) is a broadly integrative theory of personality that is compatible with psychodynamic theories of personality, learning theories, phenomenological theories, and modern cognitive views about information processing. It achieves its integrative power through two major assumptions: First, in addition to accepting the Freudian unconscious, it introduces a subconscious system--the experiential system--that is intimately associated with emotional experience and that automatically organizes experience and directs behavior. Second, it integrates the conflicting views on basic sources of motivation of other schools of psychology by assuming the existence of four basic sources of human motivation. In this chapter, the author reviews some of the assumptions of CEST, explores how the experiential system acquires and encodes the constructs in its system at two levels of complexity, and considers the implications of CEST for new directions in research, particularly in personality and developmental psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Recent research shows that environmental cues such as lighting and music strongly bias the eating behavior of diners in laboratory situations. This study examines whether changing the atmosphere of a fast food restaurant would change how much patrons ate. The results indicated that softening the lighting and music led people to eat less, to rate the food as more enjoyable, and to spend just as much. In contrast to hypothesized U-shaped curves (people who spend longer eat more), this suggests a more relaxed environment increases satisfaction and decreases consumption.
Article
This paper investigates how people's food choices can be shaped by the body type of others around them. Using a professionally constructed obesity prosthesis, we show that the body type of a (confederate) server in a taste test study was sufficient to alter both the quantity (Experiment 1) and specific choices (Experiment 2) participants made but that chronic dieters and non-dieters exhibited opposite effects. While non-dieters ate more snacks when the server was thin, dieters ate more when the server was heavy. Dieters were also more persuaded by a heavy (vs. a thin) server, choosing both a healthy and unhealthy snack more often when she recommended it to them. We suggest these results may be attributable to identification with the server.
Article
The authors investigate the moderating effects of ambient odors on shoppers' emotions, perceptions of the retail environment, and perceptions of product quality under various levels of retail density. The context for the experiment is a real-life field location—in a community shopping mall. The pleasing ambient scents are hypothesized to positively moderate shoppers' perceptions of their environment. A multigroup invariant structural equation model that accounts for different retail density levels shows that the relationship between ambient odors and mall perception adopts an inverted U shape. Ambient odors positively influence shoppers' perceptions only under the medium retail density condition. Incongruity theory informs the interaction effect between the two atmospheric variables. A moderate incongruity level is more likely to trigger a favorable evaluation of the situation (the shopping experience), object (the products sold), or the person (the salesclerks).
Article
This paper is the first to use the method of instrumental variables (IV) to estimate the impact of obesity on medical costs in order to address the endogeneity of weight and to reduce the bias from reporting error in weight. Models are estimated using restricted-use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000-2005. The IV model, which exploits genetic variation in weight as a natural experiment, yields estimates of the impact of obesity on medical costs that are considerably higher than the estimates reported in the previous literature. For example, obesity is associated with 656higherannualmedicalcarecosts,buttheIVresultsindicatethatobesityraisesannualmedicalcostsby656 higher annual medical care costs, but the IV results indicate that obesity raises annual medical costs by 2741 (in 2005 dollars). These results imply that the previous literature has underestimated the medical costs of obesity, resulting in underestimates of the economic rationale for government intervention to reduce obesity-related externalities.