Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Ritual is so widespread that people are always involved in these activities. Ritual refers to a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often characterized by formality and repetition that lacks direct instrumental purpose. Integrating theoretical and empirical conceptualizations of rituals, the present research identifies three key criteria for rituals: a fixed sequence of behaviors, symbolic meaning, and non-functional behavior. There are two kinds of research methods of rituals: recall task and scenario task. In addition, individuals’ emotion factors and cognitive factors could predict one’s intention to participate in a ritual. Further, based on five theoretical perspectives–evolutionary theory, embodied cognition theory, interaction ritual chains theory, learning theory, and social control theory, ritual could comfort one’s emotional state, recover one’s attention and control, promote one’s social relationship, and reinforce social norms and social culture. Finally, future research on ritual should pay more attention to the operational definition, the indigenous research design, the double-edged sword effect, the experimental methodology, and the neuro mechanism.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Ethical crisis fundamentally challenges business operation. Existing literatures have mainly focused on examining ethical behavior from a micro perspective, overlooking the practice of business ethics from a meso perspective. As a result, feasible and effective ethical practice has yet been developed. Human resource management practice (HRMP), as one of the practices of business ethics from the meso perspective, is critical to manage ethical issues. Grounded on the intersection of human resource management and business ethics, we develop the research framework of ethical HRMP by addressing three important issues: (1) on the basis of social context theory, we examine the impact of ethical HRMP on organizational ethical performance and its mechanism; (2) on the basis of social cognitive theory, we examine the cross-level impact of ethical HRMP on group ethical voice and its mechanism; (3) on the basis of social cognitive theory, we examine the cross-level impact of ethical HRMP on individual ethical voice and its mechanism. The present research will not only expand the theory of human resource management, but also offer valuable implications for organizations to effectively implement ethical HRMP.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： From the perspective of social media group polarization, how should enterprises with strong stereotypes deal with the damage causing by weak stereotyped consumers? Previous studies have focused on enterprises harm to consumers and their responses, less attention has been paid to how enterprises responses after being harmed by consumers. The difference lies in the shifting of the roles of harmer and victim, as well as the shifting of the contrast between strength and weakness. In view of this, based on the theory of group polarization, this paper conducts research on the core issue of “how to deal with damaged brands to obtain/eliminate polarized support/opposition of onlooker consumer groups in the social media environment”, and explore the double valence coping strategies.According to the logical framework of group polarization theory: information persuasion strategy-group emotional resonance-group polarization results, we carry out three studies in general. (1) From the perspective of damaged brands, how should enterprises with strong stereotypes express their sad expression in order to gain polarized support from onlooker consumer groups? The conclusion is expected to be that enterprises adopted anthropomorphism (vs. non-anthropomorphic) and expressed group sympathy play a continuous mediating role in the context of social media, when infringing consumers cause brand harm. (2) From the perspective of onlooker consumer groups, how can enterprises with strong stereotypes unite with onlooker consumer groups to gain support from their group polarization? Expected conclusion is that the enterprise appealing for victim transfer (vs. no victim transfer) will make onlookers consumer groups have group polarization support, and the group-hate resonance of onlookers consumer groups to infringing consumers plays a mediating role in the social media environment, when infringing consumers cause damage to the brand. (3) From the perspective of infringing consumers, how to eliminate the polarization of onlooker consumer groups caused by enterprises punishing infringing consumers? Expected conclusion is that in the context of social media, victim significance (vs.no victim significance) will weaken or even eliminate the group polarization of onlooker consumer groups to brands, and the group anger resonance of onlookers to brands plays a significant mediating role. Overall, the theoretical contributions of this study are mainly reflected in the following three aspects First, from the perspective of research questions, this study puts forward a new research direction on how enterprises should deal with consumers' brand damage in the social media environment, filling in the theoretical system of brand crisis response; Second, from a theoretical perspective, this study proposes group polarization as an effective test basis and explanation mechanism support for damaged brand coping strategies, which expands the theoretical construction and explanation of brand crisis response. Third, from the perspective of individual infringing consumers, based on the theory of group polarization, in this study different appeal methods are proposed from the perspectives of victims, victims and onlookers, which will enrich the specific strategies for brand crisis response. In addition, based on the conclusions expected of this study, the management implications can be summarized as the following points. First, from the perspective of enterprises, this study provides valuable guidance on how damaged brands with strong stereotypes can "obtain/eliminate" the polarized "support/opposition" of onlooker consumer groups in the social media environment. Second, from the viewpoint of industry, conclusions of this study have reference significance for how the strong party should respond after being hurt by the weak party in the fields of government, education, and medical care . Finally, from a social perspective, the expected conclusions in this study can alleviate or eliminate the huge risks and adverse consequences brought by the negative polarization of groups in the social media environment to the whole society.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Authenticity serves as the key foundation for social interactions. Nevertheless, upon joining an organization, employees are often socialized to regulate and conceal their true selves. Such inauthentic displays not only make the employees stressful, but also bring substantial loss to the companies. Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of both public and academic interest in authenticity at work. Taking a self-based perspective, prior research has focused mainly on personal authenticity. However, authenticity has an inherent orientation towards interpersonal relationship. That is, people may display different levels of authenticity depending on the nature of the interpersonal relationships. To extend the current literature, therefore, this research adopted a socio-relational perspective to propose the concept of interpersonal authenticity. Moreover, grounding on the review of current literature, we postulate that interpersonal authenticity consists of three critical components: cognitive, behavioral, and social. The cognitive component mainly focuses on the knowledge and processing of self-concept. The behavioral component reflects in autonomous behaviors which convey internal values, conscious feelings, and true self. The social component emphasizes honesty in social interactions and the response to social pressure. A comprehensive model was developed to understand how interpersonal authenticity may influence coworker interactions. Building on social penetration theory and behavioral script theory, we develop a theoretical account of how interpersonal authenticity may help focal employees be socially included and well-liked by coworkers and reap the benefit of getting higher status. Social penetration theory states that people tend to draw close to those who reveal their true selves because interacting with them constitute a rewarding experience and thus increase interpersonal closeness. As employees display authenticity in their interactions with coworkers, the coworkers see the employees as open and vulnerable and thus socially include them because openness and vulnerability suggest a willingness to be involved in an interpersonal relationship and also reduces the interpersonal risk, such as betrayal, for the coworkers. Such social inclusion may enhance the employees’ influence on group decisions, that is, increase their social status in the group. People sometimes are expected to “wear a mask” and act in a desired manner at work. Interpersonal authenticity may not be necessarily functional in facilitating social inclusion under this condition. We, thus, introduce a key contextual moderator: political climate of the work groups. We argue that the positive influence of interpersonal authenticity on social status via social inclusion will be stronger when the work environment has a weak political climate. Meanwhile, interpersonal authenticity conveys a positive meaning in interpersonal relationships, and thus can lead to interpersonal liking from coworkers. Behavioral script theory posits that people compare a particular behavior with related expectation in the social context to understand the social meaning of this behavior. And, the theory further suggests that such expectation may be shaped by the behavioral pattern of the actor. Since personality trait represents a relatively stable behavioral pattern, we believe that the personality trait of the focal employees may influence whether interpersonal authenticity is acceptable to coworkers. We argue that the effect of interpersonal authenticity on social status via interpersonal liking may be moderated by the dark triad of the employees such that this effect is weaker when the employees have a high level of dark triad. Furthermore, we draw from face-negotiation theory to argue that interpersonal authenticity makes the focal employees concern less about saving face. In this sense, we postulate that interpersonal authenticity may be negatively related to face-concern. And this theory argues that a low level of face concern will be more of an issue under the condition of conflict. We thus further suggest that when team conflict climate is high, interpersonal authenticity may lead to interpersonal exclusion by decreasing the employees’ face-concern. Overall, the research model helps us clarify how and when employees benefit from their interpersonal authenticity in coworker interactions, providing practical implications in building a work environment that encourages employees to be authentic.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Improving facical attractiveness does help to attract attentional resources. However, the specific mechanisms by which facical attractiveness affects the allocation of attentional resources remain unclear. The present study try to investigate the effect of facical attractiveness on two types of attentional processes: attentional adhesion and attentional capture. Attentional adhesion refers to the difficulty of shifting attention, whereas attentional capture refers to the process of initial orientation of attention. The present study will use different visual search paradigms to measure the effects of facical attractiveness on these two different attentional processes. In particular, the current study will also distinguish top-down and bottom-up attentional capture. In adition, because of the evolutionary significance of ffacical attractiveness, this study will also test the effects of facfacical attractiveness on attention in different motivational states (Mating & Self-protection motivation).
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Minimalism refers to a lifestyle that seeks satisfaction in a non-material world by reducing consumption. Given the increasing popularity of minimalistic consumption (i.e., voluntary simplicity), it is necessary to understand minimalism more comprehensively. First, we provide a categorization scheme related voluntary simplicity, including its conception, dimensions, and measurements. Characterized by a minimal, simple, and responsible lifestyle, minimalism can be defined as the degree to which consumers select a lifestyle to minimalize their consumption and to take control of their life. The practice of simplified living typically entails minimizing possessions, consuming less, and valuing personal growth. Then, factors that influence minimalistic consumption are presented. The reasons for individuals to adopt simplifying behaviors are manifold. That is, motivations for engaging minimalistic consumption are multifaceted and complicated, including both internal (i.e., personal, financial, lifestyle) and external (i.e., economic, social, environmental) motivations. In addition to consumers who curtail their consumption due to financial restraints, there are consumers who consciously consume, although they are financially well off. The rejection of the concept that one’s success is determined by his/her material goods (i.e., materialism) has prompted interest in minimalistic consumption. In addition, some simplifiers (i.e., minimalistic consumers) are driven by motives of environmental sustainability. That is, when consumers give greater consideration to the natural environment and ecological system, they may engage in voluntary simplicity to live both well and sustainably. Furthermore, people can lead an independent and self-determined life through minimalistic consumption; therefore, a desire to achieve an autonomous life is an important antecedent of minimalistic consumption. Moreover, philosophical motivation (i.e., religious belief) is another factor driving minimalism in consumption. Moving forward, the potential impacts of minimalistic behavior are shown. Minimalism has a positive influence on individual, societal and environmental wellbeing. Adopting low consumption helps expand mental space, resulting in a feeling of lightness, relaxation, and clarity. A minimalistic lifestyle facilitates individuals’ positive emotions while reducing their negative emotions such as depression. Consumers can also reduce their dependence on the market offerings by curtailing the overall consumption, in search of a simpler but happier life. Additionally, minimalistic practices offer several wellbeing benefits such as meaning and happiness. In addition, a minimalistic lifestyle can improve harmony in communities, as it can help build more connections with others in society. By sharing skills, donating to charities or giving back to the community, simplifiers can experience a sense of community and closeness to others, thus enhancing communal well-being. More importantly, most literature notes that this lifestyle is positively associated with environmental and ecological wellbeing. With a strong ecological awareness, consumers tend to protect the environment through a variety of practices, such as decreasing carbon emissions, avoiding excess packaging, and preserving resources and habitats. Collectively, we categorize antecedents of minimalistic consumption into four types (i.e., demographic, psychological, situational, religious factors). We also summarize the effects of minimalistic consumption in the previous research, such as enhancing happiness and sense of meaning. In order to understand voluntary simplicity, four theories (i.e., theory of basic values, self-determination theory; hierarchical theory of needs; self-regulation theory) were introduced. By combining these theories, we shed a novel light on understanding the forming process of minimalistic consumption. Specifically, in self-observation stages, individuals generate self-directed values. Based on these values, consumers make judgments whether their needs are satisfied. Lastly, in the self-reaction phase, consumers adopt the results of these judgments, and they evaluate achieve autonomy, competence and relevance from the self-determination theory. Given the important role of minimalistic consumption in the contemporary marketplace, it is essential for both marketers and scholars to know more details in simplifying practices. Several directions (e.g., developing valid measurements, taking cultural differences into account, identifying boundary conditions) for future research are discussed.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Although there are many studies focusing on competitive advertising, brand advertising, category advertising, advertising clutter, and advertising interference, there has been little research focusing on strong brands competition. The extent literature focuses on Product Crisis Spillover Effect, Umbrella Branding Spillover Effect, Advertising Spillover Effect, and Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Spillover Effect. However, what is the spillover effect for competition taking place among strong brands on weak brands? What will happen to the weak brands when two strong brands competing in the same category? Is it explained by the spillover effect theory? And what is the mechanism? These are a series of interesting questions that have both theoretical and practical value. A total of 855 college students (mean age = 22.6 years, SD = 3.4 years) participated in the experiments. First, advertising repetition and advertising length were used as the stimuli indicating competition strength, and perceived competition was used to represent competition strength. Then, the following focus question was investigated: will there be spillover effect on weak brands when two strong brands competing in the same category? Finally, the moderating role of product involvement and product attribute similarity for the main effect was tested. Experimental methods were adopted in these studies and fictitious brands were used to test the research hypotheses.The results of the present study indicates that, advertising repetition is closely related to perceived competition, and the more repetitions of two brand advertisements, the higher the competition level perceived by the subjects is, which indicated that advertising repetition can be used as a specific means of operating the advertising competition. However, the advertisement length has no effect on the perceived competition. Strong brand advertising competition has a spillover effect on weak brands. With the increase in the competition strength of strong brand advertising, the spillover effect on weak brands has also increased accordingly. The degree of product involvement and similarity of product attributes have a moderating effect on the main effect, and the lower product involvement and the higher similarity of product attributes tended to produce the greater spillover effect.The current study enriches the existing spillover theory and discovered the spillover effect of strong brand advertising competition within the same category on weak brands for the first time. At the same time, the study found that the product involvement and product attribute similarities have a moderating effect on the spillover effect. The conclusions of the research can be used to guide advertising practice and brand owners and market managers in different market positions.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Almost all transactions require the information of payment--payment mechanism. It is increasingly common nowadays that venders prone to harness multiple payment mechanism to provide potential convenience for their consumers, including under donation scenarios. Inevitably, the morality people valued in donation scenarios are different from other transactions. A growing of recent studies have investigated the donation payment, while surprisingly very few studies have examined whether a donation activity should be accompanied with either one payment mechanism or multiple payment mechanism. In the current study, we extend the extent literature by examining how potential donators respond to donation with either one payment mechanism or multiple payment mechanisms.People subjectively associate things that often come together. In our daily lives, multiple payment mechanism is applied in commercial scenarios so frequently that people may elicit a conclusion that is “multiple payment mechanisms = commercialization.” In this research, we propose that when consumers encounter multiple payment mechanisms (versus one payment mechanism) with the information of seeking help, they would feel incongruence and then make metacognitive inferences about their evaluations toward the target based on the “multiple payment mechanism = commercialization” lay belief. Specifically, we propose that compared to one payment mechanism, multiple payment mechanism leads people less likely to donate via the following metacognition inference process: consumers (1) notice the multiple payment mechanism, (2) infer that the information of donation must contain commercial components, based on the “multiple payment mechanisms = commercialization” lay belief, to explain their inner feelings, and (3) because the perception of commercialization is contrary to the positive moral expectations (e.g., loyalty, sanctity), consumers may be skeptical to the morality of the target which in turn attenuates their donation. Further, we suggest that the main effect of the number of payment mechanism on individual donation should be contingent on the diagnosticity of the lay belief. When the “multiple payment mechanisms = commercialization” is low diagnositic, the negative effect of multiple (vs. one) payment mechanism on donation should be suppressed.One pilot study and six experimental studies were conducted to examine our hypotheses. Pilot study used supraliminal tasks to examine the existence of the “multiple payment mechanism = commercialization” lay belief. Study 1a ( N = 342) was a 4 (number of payment mechanism: one vs. two vs. three vs. four) between-subjects design, excluding the impact of different number of payment mechanisms. Study 1b (N = 295) was a 5 (number of payment mechanism: control vs. one [Bestpay] vs. one [Bank of China] vs. one [Alipay] vs. three) with the purpose of excluding the impact of different types of payment mechanisms and initially validating the mediating role of perceived commercialization. Study 2 (N = 298) further confirmed the robustness of the main effect for different receiving targets with a 2 (number of payment mechanism: one vs. four) × 2 (target: person vs. organization) between-subjects design. Study 3 ( N = 140) examined the serial mediating effect of perceived commercialization and moral suspicion. Studies 4 (N = 173) and 5 (N = 224) identified the moderating effect of the diagnosticity of “multiple payment mechanism = commercialization” lay belief by using different manipulations of diagnosticity. Specifically, Study 4 was a field study in which we measured people’s real donation behavior. To document a robust effect, we varied the context of donation and payment methods across all studies. Our investigation suggests that relative to one payment mechanism, multiple payment mechanism may dampen individual donate. This effect would be attenuated when the “multiple payment mechanism = commercialization” lay belief is not used (i.e., low diagnosticity). These findings offer novel insights on literature regarding donation, payment, number effect, and metacognition inference, while practically suggesting that sponsor of donation activities must carefully consider the number of payment mechanism.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： There has been an upsurge of both public and academic interest in authenticity at work. The key assumption in the burgeoning literature is that authenticity helps engender trust and decrease suspicion, thus drawing people closer to each other. In this study, however, we argued that employee authenticity can exert both positive and negative influences on coworker relationships. Using interpersonal help and interpersonal exclusion to represent positive and negative coworker interactions, respectively, we postulated that employee authenticity induces both coworkers’ helping and exclusionary behaviors toward the focal employees. Building on social penetration theory and the literature of attributional ambiguity, we proposed suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge- based trust to be the theoretical mechanisms explaining coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity. Further, we suggested that coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity depend largely on the coworker relationship duration. Specifically, when relationships are new, employee authenticity may cause coworkers to mistrust the focal employees and be suspicious of their ulterior motives, thus decreasing coworkers’ helping behavior and increasing exclusionary behavior. Conversely, when coworkers have worked together for a long time, employee authenticity may increase coworkers’ trust in the focal employees and decrease suspicion, thus facilitating helping behavior and reducing exclusionary behavior. We conducted two independent studies to examine the hypothesized effects. First, a two-wave round-robin survey study was conducted to test the mediating role of suspicion of ulterior motives in the relationship between employee authenticity and coworkers’ behavioral responses. In the round-robin design, the team members rated each of their teammates, thus capturing the dyadic interactions between the focal employees and coworkers. We collected data from 299 members of 63 work teams in a large company. The final sample consisted of 1027 dyads. To alleviate the effects of common method bias, we used multiple data sources to measure our variables. Employee authenticity and suspicion of ulterior motives were assessed using self-reports at Time 1. Interpersonal helping behavior was measured using other-rating and exclusionary behavior with self-reports at Time 2. Coworker relationship duration was measured at both times. In Study 2, an experimental study was conducted to test the full model. Employee authenticity and the coworker relationship duration were manipulated. Specifically, the critical incident technique was used to identify the focal employees whose authenticity was high or low and whose relationship duration with the participants was long or short. The participants served as coworkers and were asked to answer questions about the focal employees. The measures used were adapted from Study 1. In support of the theoretical model, the results showed that the coworker relationship duration moderated the effect of employee authenticity on coworkers’ suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge-based trust. Employee authenticity was related positively to suspicion and negatively to trust when the relationship duration was short, and related negatively to suspicion and positively to trust when the relationship duration was long. Further, suspicion of ulterior motives was related to interpersonal exclusionary behavior, and knowledge-based trust to interpersonal helping behavior. This research advances the existing understanding of authenticity in three aspects. First, research on coworker relationships has focused largely on social exchange and similarity attraction theories and suggested that employee authenticity facilitates positive coworker interactions. Our study departs from the main perspectives and builds on social penetration theory to propose that time is required for authenticity to exert its positive influence on coworker interaction. Second, our study contributes to social penetration theory in general. This theory was proposed and has been used mainly to explicate how self-disclosure in communication advances interpersonal relationships. This research uses the theory to understand whether and how the action of manifesting one’s inner true self (employee authenticity) affects coworker interactions. Third, this study helps reconcile the inconsistent findings regarding how coworkers react to employee authenticity by stressing the moderating role of the coworker relationship duration.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by an inflated self-image, a strong sense of psychological superiority and entitlement, and a low level of empathy. As narcissism has a substantial impact on employees’ work quality, happiness, satisfaction, and interpersonal relationships, employee narcissism has become an important topic of research among scholars and management practitioners, who have called for further research on the behavior of narcissistic employees in the process of interpersonal interaction. However, research on the impact of employee narcissism on prosocial behavior has reached inconsistent conclusions; thus, the mechanisms by which employee narcissism affects prosocial behavior need to be further explored. To fill this theoretical gap, we drew on the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept (NARC), and hypothesized that employees’ narcissistic admiration has a positive impact on prosocial behavior via relational approach motivation and that narcissistic rivalry has a negative impact on prosocial behavior via relational avoidance motivation. We further expected task interdependence, as an important situational factor, to directly influence employees’ expression of different narcissistic traits and motivation and their subsequent prosocial behavior. We tested these hypotheses in a field sample of 235 employee-colleague dyads using a time-lag research design. The data were collected by administering the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Scale, the Approach and Avoidance Scale, the Task Interdependence Scale, and the Prosocial Behavior Scale. At Time 1, we collected the employees’ demographic variables (gender, age, and educational background) and asked them to rate their narcissistic admiration, narcissistic rivalry, and task interdependence. At Time 2 (approximately one month after Time 1), the employees rated their relational approach motivation and relational avoidance motivation, and their colleagues were asked to rate these employees’ prosocial behavior. We applied confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, path analysis, and bootstrap methods using SPSS 24.0 and Mplus 7.4 to analyze the data from the 235 employee-colleague pairs. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the discriminant validity of the key variables (i.e., narcissistic admiration, narcissistic rivalry, task interdependence, relational approach motivation, relational avoidance motivation, and prosocial behavior), and the results confirmed discriminant validity. Next, we used path and bootstrap analyses to test the hypotheses. The results were as follows: (1) narcissistic admiration had a significant positive impact on employees’ prosocial behavior; (2) narcissistic rivalry had a significant negative impact on employees’ prosocial behavior; (3) relational approach motivation mediated the relationship between narcissistic admiration and prosocial behavior, however, relational avoidance motivation didn’t mediate the relationship between narcissistic rivalry and prosocial behavior; and (4) task interdependence played a moderating role in the relationship between narcissistic admiration and relational approach motivation and further moderated the indirect effect of narcissistic admiration on employees’ prosocial behavior via relational approach motivation. This study makes several contributions to the literature on narcissism. First, it explores the double-edged effects of narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry on employees’ prosocial behavior, thereby helping scholars better understand these traits. It also explains the inconsistent results of previous studies on the relationship between employee narcissism and prosocial behavior. Second, based on the concepts of narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry, this study explores the mechanisms of both traits on employees’ prosocial behavior. Although the mediating role of relational avoidance motivation was not significant, this gives us another important insight that future researches can try to independently examine the influence effects, mechanisms, and boundary conditions of narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry without being overly tied to the NARC framework. Third, by integrating trait activation theory, this study investigates the important role of a situational factor (i.e., task interdependence) in the relationships between narcissistic admiration, narcissistic rivalry, and employees’ prosocial behavior, which can help organizational managers better understand the roles of narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Joint consumption is pervasive in daily life, such as watching movies with friends, eating out with family and shopping for communal kitchens with roommates. Comparing with individual consumption, decisions in joint consumption are distinct in a variety of aspects. The number of existing literatures on joint consumption is increasing year by year, but the research topics are too scattered to form a system. Previous researches can be divided into three categories: driving factors, decision results and their influencing factors and subsequent consequences. However, very few studies have examined whether consumers would behave differently in the context of individual and joint consumption. In the current research, we extend the extent literature by examining how consumer respond to exploration behavior when shopping either individually or with others. Choosing between familiar and unfamiliar products is one of the most common forms of exploratory behavior. Perceived risk is an important factor affecting this choice. According to risky-shift theory, an individual in a group has greater risk-taking tendencies than when alone because sharing the decision result could weaken the perceived risk of each group member. In addition, there are researches showing mere being accompanied by others also decreases risk perception. Therefore, we inference that comparing with individual consumption, consumers in joint consumption would perceive less risk so that they prefer unfamiliar options. Nonetheless, the main hypothesis is limited. In the light of product category risk and impression management, this effect appears only when individuals are with close companions and face with low-risk products. Five studies were conducted to examine our hypotheses. As a lab experiment, study 1a (N = 138) was a 2 (consumption situation: individual vs. joint) between-subjects design, which proved that participants in the joint condition were more likely to choose the unfamiliar product than those in the individual condition. Study 1b (N = 263) repeats the main effect with a 3 (consumption situation: individual vs. joint with friends vs. joint with families) between-subjects design and also excluded the potential influence of relationship type on this effect. And by changing the manipulation and measurement method, study 2 (N = 150) verified the mediating effect of perceived risk with a 2 (consumption situation: individual vs. joint) between-subjects design. And it also ruled out the alternative explanation of emotional arousal. Study 3 (N = 213) was 3 (consumption context: individual vs. joint with a close friend vs. joint with a distant friend) between-subjects design. It identified two important moderating variables. On the one hand, we can only investigate the effect of joint consumption among low-risk products. On the other hand, participants were more interested in unfamiliar products only when they were with close friends. Additionally, it examined the mediating role of perceived risk and excluded the alternative explanation of diffusion of responsibility. Study 4 (N = 148) extended the scope of application of this main effect with a 2 (consumption situation: individual vs. joint) between-subjects design. The results show that even when faced with daily choices in non-consumption situations, participants under joint consumption showed exploratory behavior. Our investigation suggests that joint consumption (vs. individual consumption) encourages consumers to try new and unfamiliar products/services through a decreased perception of consumption risk. This effect would be attenuated when consumers are shopping with distant companions or when consumers face the choice of high-risk products/services. Our findings supplement the literature on joint consumption, exploration behavior and risk-shift theory, while practically suggesting that managers can integrate the joint consumption context into the new product promotion process by defining product positioning.
Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2021-11-22
Abstract： "
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