Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Social status signaling is a fundamental motive that drives consumer behavior. Previous research on consumer psychology largely focuses on how social status can be signaled by the characteristics of products, but rarely explores how consumer decision process, another pivotal element of consumer decision-making, affects social status inference. Decision process is a vital part of consumer behavior. Similar to product characteristics, it is easy to observe and easy to control. The current research aims to build a social status inference model based on information about the maximizing decision process. We will systematically examine the following three questions. First, does maximizing, as a decision-making process, signal consumers’ social status? If so, how? We propose a moderated mediation model with perceived agency as the mediating mechanism and subjective decision experience and social mobility belief as boundary conditions. Building upon research on social status inference, our research will address the lack of focus on purchasing process in past research and broaden the scope of research on social status inference. Building upon research on maximizing, we will examine how maximizing influences social status inference by observers, which extends research on maximizing to an interpersonal level. Second, does the motivation to signal social status drive consumers to maximize? Individuals may adopt a maximizing decision strategy to signal social status. We will approach the question from a social status perspective and examine whether need for social status explains why consumers maximize during decision making. Third, how does consumers’ maximizing decision process influence their observers’ subsequent consumption behavior through social status inference? We will examine how perceived agency and social status inference serially mediate the effect of maximizing on consumers’ influence, reflected by observers’ advice seeking, reliance on consumers’ reviews, and purchase decisions. We will test the serial mediation model in two domains: reviews generated by consumers and advertisements generated by companies. The current research will study maximizing at an interpersonal level by examining how maximizing influences the attitude and behavior of observers. Furthermore, our research will help companies and marketers understand how decision process, described in user reviews, affect status inference and observers’ subsequent consumption. As a result, companies and marketers can nudge consumers to provide more descriptions about their decision process in the review, thereby helping with word-of-mouth marketing. Our research will also help companies and marketers understand how decision process related to product design and manufacturing, described in advertisements, affects status inference and consumers’ subsequent consumption. As a result, companies and marketers can design more effective advertisements by providing more information about the decision process. In conclusion, our research will provide a new perspective for research on social status inference, expand the scope of research on maximizing and shed new light on the underlying causes of maximizing.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Early research on creativity viewed it as intellectual skills and thinking styles, or as a personal trait. In recent decades, however, researchers recognized that creativity can be influenced by social contexts, and therefore can vary within individuals. Among the social factors that significantly increase creativity, communication is a substantial one. Past research proposed that the generation of creative ideas is often a result of communication among different people. However, little research investigated how anticipated communication might affect creativity. This omission is striking because although communication helps to refine an idea, some important original ideas often come up before any communication actually takes place. In generating these original ideas, would differences in levels of creativity already manifest for creators who expect communication versus those who do not? Without any prior exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas, would mere anticipation of subsequent communication influence creativity? The current research examines the influence of anticipated communication on creativity and the moderating role of construal levels in this process. Experiment 1 adopted a structured imagination task to explore the main effect of anticipated communication on creativity. In this experiment, each participant performed an alien-drawing task. We hypothesized that the anticipation of communication, as opposed to no such anticipation, facilitates creative generation in drawing aliens. Experiment 2 used a new paradigm - an idea generation task - to measure creativity and examined the moderating role of construal levels required by the task. In this experiment, we devised two creative generation tasks that varied in their construal levels. Both tasks centered around the same topic—greetings. The high construal level task asked about why one should greet others whereas the low construal level one asked about how one can greet others. We hypothesized that for tasks with a high level of construal, anticipated communication facilitates creative generation, whereas for tasks with a low level of construal, the anticipated communication group no longer has the edge. The results of Experiment 1 showed the influence of anticipated communication on creativity. When people anticipated communication, compared with when they did not hold this anticipation, the aliens they drew were considered as more creative. Results of Study 2 suggested that when responding to why they greet others, people displayed more novelty and flexibility when they anticipated communication than not. However, when people responded to how they greet others, the effect of anticipated communication was no longer present. That is to say, construal levels play a moderating role between the anticipation of communication and creative generation, and the anticipation of communication only enhances creativity when the creative task requires high-level, abstract thinking. Taken together, the studies build upon past research on the relationship between communication and creativity as well as research on the relationship between construal levels and creativity. For abstract creative tasks, expectation about communication is sufficient to bring about an increase in creativity even before any informational exchange happens. Creativity can be promoted before any communication actually takes place, as long as communication is expected.
Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2022-03-25
Abstract：
Signaling social status is a fundamental motive that drives consumer behavior. Past research on consumer psychology largely focuses on how product characteristics can signal status. Much less is known about how the decision process, a pivotal element of consumer decisionmaking, affects social status inference. The current research aims to build a model on the inference of social status from the maximizing decision process and systematically examine (1) whether and how the maximizing decision process signals consumers’ social status; (2) whether the motive to signal social status accounts for consumers’ maximizing; (3) how the maximizing decision process influences observers’ subsequent consumption through social status signaling. The current research will provide a new perspective for research on social status inference, expand the scope of research on maximizing, and shed new light on the underlying causes of maximizing.
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