Gavan J. Fitzsimons’s research while affiliated with Duke University and other places

Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in great loss of life worldwide and shook the global economy, required individuals' willingness and ability to behave prosocially. To contribute to the understanding of predictors of prosociality, we used multilevel models to test three previously established pathways to prosocial behavior, which we call the “broaden and build”, compensation, and incapacity pathways. We also tested whether these three paths are mediated by general well-being, and moderated by collective disempowerment, i.e., individuals’ belief that external societal forces have made it harder for people like them to function effectively. Participants from 39 countries (N = 59987) were surveyed on their willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors in the context of the pandemic. The “broaden and build” pathway was supported: positive affect was associated with willingness to engage in prosocial behavior via higher well-being. Two (in)capacity paths were also supported: financial strain and negative affect were both negatively associated with prosociality via lower well-being. A compensation pathway was also observed: Controlling for lower well-being, negative affect was associated with greater prosociality. Finally, differences in disempowerment moderated the affective pathways: higher disempowerment strengthened the positive association of positive affect with prosociality via well-being, and buffered the negative affect incapacity path.

Growing income inequality has led to many important social and economic issues. Despite this, many people prefer social hierarchies and tend to resist egalitarian principles. Traditional perspectives attribute this preference to individuals’ conservative political orientation and subjective social status. In this article, we suggest an overlooked factor that may contribute to antiegalitarianism: trait reactance, defined as the chronic tendency to perceive freedom threat and resist against it. Two theoretical perspectives explain why trait reactance might cause antiegalitarianism: First, the broad cultural push for reducing inequality in all spheres of everyday life might lead those with high levels of reactance to perceive this as a threat to their freedom, leading to resistance. Second, because social hierarchy may offer inherent benefits, such as feelings of power and influence, those more chronically attuned to preserving their personal freedom may be drawn to ideologies that preserve hierarchy. We explain both theoretical perspectives in detail and offer preliminary evidence through an internal meta-analysis of 18 studies we have conducted that include both measures of trait reactance and social dominance orientation (the most widely used measure of antiegalitarianism). This analysis reveals a positive correlation between trait reactance and social dominance orientation, which remains robust to several known predictors of antiegalitarianism, participants’ subjective positions on the inequality spectrum, and across two distinct cultures (United States and China). We conclude with suggestions for empirical directions that can further elucidate the contours, mechanisms, and causal direction of the relation between reactance and antiegalitarianism.

Tradeoffs between quality and quantity are widespread in consumer decision-making. While existing research has focused on situational and contextual factors driving choices of higher-quality or higher-quantity purchases, in the current work we find that consumers possess generalized preferences for quality or quantity across purchase categories. Some consumers systematically prefer quality over quantity, and others systematically prefer quantity over quality. In 32 studies (N = 24,404) that use correlational, experimental, and longitudinal designs, and proprietary data from the Federal Reserve Bank, the current research introduces quality-quantity preferences as a novel facet of consumer decision-making. Studies 1–3 demonstrate quality-quantity preferences as an individual difference, develop the ‘quality-quantity tradeoffs’ scale to measure it, and demonstrate that it is different from related existing constructs. Studies 4A-5 show that consumers who prefer quantity over quality spend more money, borrow more, and accrue more debt, indicating that quality-quantity preferences are consequential. Taken together, our findings underscore the importance of quality-quantity preferences as a driver of consumer behavior and pave the way for future research investigating the causes and consequences of consumers’ dispositions toward quality or quantity.

Popular brands like Wendy’s, Postmates, and RyanAir have gained notoriety by making fun of their consumers, but is this an effective strategy to build strong consumer relationships? Across eleven (seven pre-registered) studies, using lab data, field data, and a variety of analytical approaches, the current research demonstrates that teasing communication increases consumer engagement with and connection to the brand compared to merely funny or neutral communication. These effects occur because consumers anthropomorphize brands more when they use teasing communication. This leads to greater engagement with brand messages and greater self-brand connection. We also leverage the interpersonal teasing literature to distinguish between prosocial and antisocial teases and highlight an important boundary condition. Specifically, we demonstrate that while prosocial teasing evokes a positive human schema, antisocial teasing, although still anthropomorphic, activates a negative human schema which reduces connection to the brand. As a result, antisocial teases lose their relational advantage over purely funny communication. This work contributes to the streams of research on brand humor, anthropomorphism, and consumer-brand relationships. It also provides actionable implications by demonstrating a novel antecedent to consumer brand connection and the boundaries within which these positive effects are expected to occur.

Understanding how initiatives to support Black-owned businesses are received, and why, has important social and economic implications. To address this, we designed three experiments to investigate the role of antiegalitarian versus egalitarian ideologies among White American adults. In Study 1 ( N = 199), antiegalitarianism (vs. egalitarianism) predicted viewing initiatives supporting a Black-owned business as less fair, but only when the business was competing with other (presumably White-owned) businesses. In Study 2 ( N = 801), antiegalitarianism predicted applying survival-of-the-fittest market beliefs, particularly to Black-owned businesses. Antiegalitarianism also predicted viewing initiatives supporting Black-owned businesses as less fair than initiatives that targeted other (presumably White-owned) businesses, especially for tangible (vs. symbolic) support that directly impacts the success of a business. In Study 3 ( N = 590), antiegalitarianism predicted rejecting a program investing in Black-owned businesses. These insights demonstrate how antiegalitarian ideology can have the effect of maintaining race-based inequality, hindering programs designed to reduce that inequality.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a shift toward a more traditional division of labor–one where women took greater responsibility for household tasks and childcare than men. We tested whether this regressive shift was more acutely perceived and experienced by women in countries with greater gender equality. Cross-cultural longitudinal survey data for women and men (N = 10,238) was collected weekly during the first few months of the pandemic. Multilevel modelling analyses, based on seven waves of data collection, indicated that a regressive shift was broadly perceived but not uniformly felt. Women and men alike perceived a shift toward a more traditional division of household labor during the first few weeks of the pandemic. However, this perception only undermined women’s satisfaction with their personal relationships and subjective mental health if they lived in countries with higher levels of economic gender equality. Among women in countries with lower levels of economic gender equality, the perceived shift predicted higher relationship satisfaction and mental health. There were no such effects among men. Taken together, our results suggest that subjective perceptions of disempowerment, and the gender role norms that underpin them, should be considered when examining the gendered impact of global crisis.

Consumers and companies frequently integrate products with lifelike photographs of people, animals, and other entities. However, consumer responses to such products are relatively unknown. Drawing on magical thinking and moral psychology, we propose that, due to a photograph's lifelike resemblance to its referent, consumers believe that photo‐integrated products embody the depicted entity's underlying essence. As such, in cases where consumption compromises the product's integrity (e.g., food, disposable goods), people are less likely to consume photo‐integrated products because doing so is perceived as destroying the depicted entity's essence, which elicits moral discomfort. In contrast, when the photographic image remains intact through consumption, as is the case with durable goods (e.g., magnets), people increase consumption of photo‐integrated products relative to products without photo integration, consistent with their popularity in the marketplace. We highlight two strategies to promote more positive outcomes for managers and consumers alike: (1) choose images of entities whose essence destruction is perceived as less immoral, and (2) increase the durability of the product so the depicted entity's essence is preserved through consumption.

Virus mitigation behavior has been and still is a powerful means to fight the COVID-19 pandemic irrespective of the availability of pharmaceutical means (e.g., vaccines). We drew on health behavior theories to predict health-protective (coping-specific) responses and hope (coping non-specific response) from health-related cognitions (vulnerability, severity, self-assessed knowledge, efficacy). In an extension of this model, we proposed orientation to internal (problem-focused coping) and external (country capability) coping resources as antecedents of health protection and hope; health-related cognitions were assumed as mediators of this link. We tested these predictions in a large multi-national multi-wave study with a cross-sectional panel at T1 (Baseline, March-April 2020; N = 57,631 in 113 countries) and a panel subsample at two later time points, T2 (November 2020; N = 3097) and T3 (April 2021; N = 2628). Multilevel models showed that health-related cognitions predicted health-protective responses and hope. Problem-focused coping was mainly linked to health-protective behaviors (T1-T3), whereas country capability was mainly linked to hope (T1-T3). These relationships were partially mediated by health-related cognitions. We conceptually replicated predictions of health behavior theories within a real health threat, further suggesting how different coping resources are associated with qualitatively distinct outcomes. Both patterns were consistent across countries and time.

Psychologicalresearchonthepredictorsofconspiracytheorizing—explainingimpor-tant social and political events or circumstances as secret plots by malevolentgroups—has flourished in recent years. However, research has typically examinedonly a small number of predictors in one, or a small number of, national con-texts. Such approaches make it difficult to examine the relative importance ofpredictors, and risk overlooking some potentially relevant variables altogether. Toovercome this limitation, the present study used machine learning to rank-ordertheimportanceof115individual-andcountry-levelvariablesinpredictingconspir-acy theorizing. Data were collected from 56,072 respondents across 28 countriesduringtheearlyweeksoftheCOVID-19pandemic.Echoingpreviousfindings,impor-tant predictors at the individual level included societal discontent, paranoia, andpersonal struggle. Contrary to prior research, important country-level predictorsincludedindicatorsofpoliticalstabilityandeffectivegovernmentCOVIDresponse,which suggests that conspiracy theorizing may thrive in relatively well-functioningdemocracies.

Many consumers are caregivers and, as part of caregiving, frequently make food choices for their dependents. This research examines how food choices made for children influence the healthiness of parents’ subsequent self-choices. While prior work focuses on choices for the self (others) as based on self-needs (others-needs), the authors theorize regarding when and why self-choices involve consideration of other-needs. Five studies, including a nursery school field study, test the effect of choosing healthy food for a child on the healthiness of parents’ self-choices, focusing on the role of anticipating potentially sharing self-choices with one’s child. Potential sharing increased parents’ likelihood of making an unhealthy subsequent self-choice if they first made a healthy choice for their child. This effect was driven by parents’ present-focused parenting concerns about whether one’s child would eat and enjoy healthy options chosen for them. This effect was mitigated when parents instead had future-focused parenting concerns. Additionally, this effect was mitigated after making an initial choice for the child that was (a) unhealthy or (b) healthy but relatively liked by the child. This research contributes to understanding how choices for others shape choices for the self and offers important marketing and policy implications.