Inoculating consumers against deception: The influence of framing and executional style

This study examines conditions affecting consumer susceptibility to advertising deception and educational efforts designed to inoculate consumers against it. Results show that consumers are best able to detect deception when their frame of reference (cognitive or affective) is incongruent with the advertisement's executional style (attribute or emotional). Attempts to inoculate consumers against deception by providing factual brand comparisons have their strongest effect among consumers with an affective frame of reference and for emotionally charged ads.

---

Die Immunisierung von Konsumenten gegen werbliche Irreführung: Der Einflu der persönlichen Informationsausrichtung und des werblichen Argumentationsstils

Zusammenfassung Die Studie befa\t sich mit den Bedingungen werblicher Irreführung von Konsumenten und mit den Bemühungen der Verbrauchererziehung, Konsumenten durch vergleichende Warentestergebnisse gegen solche Irreführung zu immunisieren. Ihre Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ Konsumenten werbliche Irreführung am ehesten dann durchschauen, wenn ihre persönliche Informationsausrichtung (kognitiv oder affektiv) nicht mit dem werblichen Argumentationsstil (informativ oder emotional) übereinstimmt. Versuche, Konsumenten mit Hilfe vergleichender Warentest-Informationen gegen werbliche TÄuschung zu immunisieren, sind am wirkungsvollsten bei Konsumenten mit affektiver Informationsausrichtung und bei emotionshaltiger Werbung.

---

---

The authors wish to thank Joel Cohen and the Editors and reviewersof Journal of Consumer Policy for their valued suggestions, and Jill Joyce for assistance in data collection and analysis.     

Press Freedom

In this important study, commissioned by the International Federation of the Periodical Press, Lord McGregor analyses the controversy surrounding the possibility and desirability of a new world information and communication order. Drawing critically from research into mass communications, he argues forcefully that the policies which are being promoted through UNESCO are a grave threat to press freedom. As it is, the number of nations enjoying freedom in the dissemination of news, ideas and knowledge has declined to a figure now variously estimated pessimistically at little more than 20 and even optimistically at below 40. Lord McGregor comments sardonically that by regretting this decline and arguing in favour of press freedom his contribution to the debate will be widely seen as ‘heavily biased’.     

The transfer of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as an urban policy for spatially targeted economic development

Urban policy transfer between the US and UK has long been of interest to researchers and practitioners. Given the recent wider context of reduced direct funding and the absence of a coherent regeneration policy, this paper considers the introduction of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to the UK as a method of stimulating spatially targeted economic development initiatives. The paper explores whether TIF could be considered a form of policy transfer, and in doing so uncovers whether the transfer of TIF could – (a) be successful and unsuccessful under certain circumstances; (b) require the actions of certain stakeholders; and (c) be enabled via prescribed frameworks and negotiation. The results are evidenced using qualitative approaches and find that TIF is more of a modified policy ‘idea’ rather than transfer. Further discussion argues that TIF can be successful, if it considers flexible but local elements and has the capacity to balance stakeholders for development brokerage.     

Will Politics Always Triumph?

Lord (Joel) Barnett contrasts David Stockman's experience of running the US Budget with his own of pressures inside the UK treasury as Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1974 to 1979. He concludes that a democratic system of goverment contains a built-in check to the implementation of proposals for radical reform.     

Still in democratic deficit

The rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish electorate has given new vigour to the debate on the European Union’s widely perceived democratic deficit. Does the EU indeed have a serious democracy problem? What are the options open to the European political leadership and which of these should be acted upon?     

A Test of Two Skew Models to Explain Cooperative Breeding

Synopsis Two competing models, reproductive skew and skew selection, have been constructed to explain the evolution of cooperation among unrelated breeders. Reproductive skew is a trade-off model that assumes breeding occurs under scarce resource conditions. One breeder gains units of fecundity at the expense of other breeders during aggressive, altruistic or tug-of-war transactions. After joining, the distribution of fecundity among breeders shifts from symmetrical to asymmetrical. In contrast, skew selection is a surplus model that assumes breeding occurs during a springtime glut. Skew selection assumes that fecundity among breeders is initially asymmetrical and that joining reduces the asymmetry of fecundity. This paper reports findings from a breeding experiment on the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, which supported skew selection rather than reproductive skew. Joining was a win-win strategy for alpha and beta breeders; beta breeders gained within-group survival benefits; alpha breeders gained between-group survival benefits. In summary, skew selection extends Darwin’s theory of natural selection by revealing the self-interested core of cooperative breeding.