Reexamining Masculinity,Femininity,and Gender Identity Scales

This research compares and contrasts three gender identity instruments, the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Sexual Identity Scale (SIS), that have been used in previous investigations of various aspects of consumer behavior. Specifically, it examines the dimensionality and internal reliability of each scale, inter-scale correlations, and the relationship of each scale to biological sex. Results indicate that the gender identity scales consist of several dimensions beyond those typically interpreted as masculinity and femininity. The femininity factors emerging in the three scales tended to be highly correlated, and females scored higher than males on the femininity factors. However, the three masculinity factors were not correlated with one another, and were not as strongly associated with biological sex—females identified with typically masculine traits just as much as males. The implications of these results for using gender identity in consumer research are discussed, and future research opportunities are explored.     

Language power and persuasion

Powerless language involves the use of various linguistic markers (i.e., hedges, intensifiers, deictic phrases, overly polite language, tag questions, and verbal and nonverbal hesitations), which signify relatively low social status in a given communication context. Powerful language suggests higher social status and is characterized largely by the absence of these markers. The results of a laboratory experiment indicated that language power influenced attitudes toward a hypothetical new consumer electronics product, regardless of whether the communication was presented in print versus videotape. For both print and video modalities, speakers using powerful language were more persuasive than speakers using powerless language. However, powerless language had the additional effect of generating more thoughts about the speaker. These results are discussed in terms of the multiple roles postulate of the elaboration‐likelihood mode. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ontological security as an unconscious motive of social media users

ABSTRACT

Reactions to nostalgia-evoking content on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube suggest an unconscious motive of ontological security, defined as a ‘sense of presence in the world as a real, alive, whole, and in a temporal sense, a continuous person’. In addition to the unprecedented access to the past provided by social media, additional factors such as increasing human longevity, the acceleration of technological and social change, the expanded size and greater interconnectedness of social networks, the proliferation of directly and vicariously experienced places and the secularisation of society have contributed to a growing need for ontological security. Engagement with nostalgia-evoking social media content fulfils the need for ontological security by reintegrating memories of the past into an ongoing, self-affirming narrative or ‘life story’, while the digital archiving of photos and videos offers the possibility of ‘digital immortality’ for a virtual self that can be projected into the future.     

When a few minutes sound like a lifetime: Does atmospheric music expand or contract perceived time?

In the first of two experiments, the estimated duration of a given interval was shorter when familiar as opposed to unfamiliar music was played, but only for respondents waiting idly; music had little or no effect on respondents engaged in a memory task during the interval. In the second experiment, respondents waiting idly again reported shorter estimates of duration when they heard familiar as opposed to unfamiliar music, but only when they heard a sufficient number of songs during the interval. On the other hand, respondents engaged in a memory task reported longer estimates of duration when they heard familiar as opposed to unfamiliar music, but again only when they heard a sufficient number of songs. These results are consistent with attentional (i.e., waiting condition) versus discrete events (i.e., memory task condition) models of duration judgments, respectively.     

Journal of Marketing Communications

A field experiment involving 95 variety discount chain stores was conducted in which in-store radio ads were run in different formats and schedules, across different blocks of stores, over a 4-week period. The test products were advertised on in-store radio either (a) at their regular price, (b) at a discounted price or (c) at a discounted price that was also advertised in mail circulars. The resulting weekly sales data indicated that in-store radio advertising had little or no effect on sales of regularly priced products and discounted products also featured in the mail circulars, and increased sales of only one discounted product not featured in mail circulars. By contrast, the mail circular advertising resulted in consistent increases in sales of the test products.     

Is it better to give than to receive? Exploring gender differences in the meaning of memorable gifts

Research on gift-exchange behavior has generally found that women are more concerned and involved with giving gifts than are men. Moreover, the consumer behavior literature has focused almost exclusively on gift-giving behavior, offering few insights regarding gift-receiving roles. As an initial step toward understanding gift receiving, 89 men and 85 women from the United States (n = 124) and Europe n = 50) completed written narratives regarding their most memorable gift experiences. An interpretive analysis of the texts uncovered several themes associated with giving and/or receiving gifts, and correspondence analyses generated distinct gift-receiving and gift-giving profiles for men and women. Surprisingly, given the more prominent role of women in gift giving, four of the five female profiles involved memories of receiving rather than giving gifts. It was the men that tended to report gift-giving experiences; two of the three male profiles that emerged involved giving gifts. The texts then were reexamined and further interpreted to acquire a deeper understanding of each profile and how giving and receiving profiles of both men and women might be related to one another. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Anticipatory Savoring and Consumption: Just Thinking about That First Bite of Chocolate Fills You Up Faster

Two laboratory studies examine how consumers adjust their eating to the size of the portion they expect to receive. Participants who knew in advance that they would receive six pieces of chocolate waited less time before eating each piece and ate more pieces than participants who expected to receive only two pieces when they started, even though both groups were ultimately offered six pieces. In the second study, natural variance in how long participants waited before tasting the chocolates was negatively related to how many additional pieces they thought they could eat after finishing the last piece. These results suggest that increasing the interval prior to taking the first bite of a piece of chocolate reduced overall consumption. When consumers focus their attention on eating, the interval before taking the first bite captures anticipatory savoring—psychologically looking forward to the actual consumption experience.     

Effects of Probability Markers on Advertising Claim Acceptance

The results of a laboratory experiment revealed that the participants had generally negative reactions to the use of hedges (e.g. ‘may’, ‘probably’, etc.) and pledges (e.g. ‘definitely,’ ‘undoubtedly’, etc.) in advertising claims. The use of either type of probability marker reduced claim acceptance and produced more negative cognitive responses relative to when no marker was used. This pattern of results emerged regardless of whether the claim was backed by an inductive argument presenting probabilistic evidence or a deductive argument presenting categorical evidence.     

The persuasive impact of reported group opinions on individuals low vs. high in need for cognition: Rationalization vs. biased elaboration?

A laboratory experiment examined the extent to which the reported opinions of others influence persuasion in individuals low vs. high in need for cognition (NFC). Reported opinions influenced the attitudes of high‐ and low‐NFC respondents in the direction of the majority position. However, for high‐NFC respondents, the effect was entirely mediated by the evaluation of topic‐relevant arguments (i.e., biased elaboration). On the other hand, the influence of reported opinions on the attitudes of low‐NFC respondents was not mediated by the argument ratings. Instead, their evaluations of the topic‐relevant arguments were actually mediated by their attitudes toward the proposal (i.e., rationalization). These results are discussed in terms of the multiple‐roles postulate of the elaboration‐likelihood model (ELM) and the “consensus implies correctness” inference of the heuristic–systematic model (HSM). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Point-of-purchase displays, product organization, and brand purchase likelihoods

Can point-of-purchase (POP) displays cause a decrease in sales of the featured brand? In an actual test-market promotion, the use of special POP displays led to a decrease in sales of featured wines from a specific U.S. region. Moreover, sales of regularly shelved wines from competitive regions actually increased. The results of a laboratory experiment supported the explanation that the POP displays essentially reorganized the wines into region categories within the stores, making it easier for consumers to compare alternatives by region. As a result, sales of wines from preferred regions increased and sales of wines from disliked regions decreased relative to when the wines were displayed by variety categories on regular shelf space. Further evidence indicated that reorganizing products by levels of a given attribute influences purchase likelihoods mainly when the attribute is otherwise low rather than high in salience and when brands have normally high rather than low purchase likelihoods.