"You Should Try These Together: Combinatory Recommendations Signal Expertise and Improve Product Attitudes" (Journal of Marketing Research, 2023)
This work introduces a novel cue that consumption advisers, like stylists and interior designers, can use to signal expertise: combinatory recommendations. In a combinatory recommendation, a person offers an opinion about compatibility among mul- tiple products intended for joint usage. Across nine studies conducted in the lab and field, the authors find that offering a com- binatory recommendation signals greater expertise (Study 1a, Study 2a) and, specifically, greater depth of knowledge (Study 1b), compared with other types of recommendations involving the same number of products. This effect does not depend on the helpfulness of the adviser (Study 2b) but is qualified by features of the recommendation itself (Study 3a) as well as the type of combination recommended (Study 3b). Importantly, the authors find this effect to have important downstream consequences, as the increased perceptions of expertise that follow a combinatory recommendation improve consumers’ attitudes both toward products included in the recommendation and toward subsequent recommendations made by the adviser (Study 4, Study 5). The real-world persuasive value of combinatory recommendations is also tested in a field study (Study 6) that explores the effect of combinatory recommendations on click-through rates of Instagram advertisements.
"Let Me Show You What I Did Versus What I Have: Sharing Experiential Versus Material Purchases Alters Authenticity and Liking of Social Media Users" (Journal of Consumer Research, 2022)
Social media may encourage novel ways of signaling that involve different purchase types (experiential vs. material), signaling frequencies (multiple vs. single signals), and other features unique to social media (e.g., hashtags). This work examines how purchase signals are received on social media and how these signaling variations affect signal receivers’ perceptions of the authenticity of social media posts as well as the overall impressions receivers form of the signal sender. Data collected across six experiments show multiple material purchase signals lead to more negative impressions compared to multiple experiential purchase signals. Signal receivers perceive multiple material purchase posts as less authentic, which dampens their impressions of the signal sender. In line with this mechanism, the impression premium of experiential purchase signals disappears when receivers use other cues (monetary mentions, other users’ comments, and marketer associations via hashtags) to infer a signal’s lack of authenticity. Additional data also document downstream consequences on engagement. This work contributes theoretically to research in both signaling and social media and improves the understanding of substantive situations in which consumers’ objectives of curating a positive image and creating engagement with their posts, collide with marketers’ objectives of encouraging user-generated content and word of mouth..
“Does Gender Matter? The Effect of Management Responses on Reviewing Behavior” (Marketing Science, 2021)
We study the effect of management responses on the reviewing behavior of self- identified female and male reviewers. Using data from Tripadvisor, we show that after hotels begin to respond to reviews, the probability that a negative review comes from a self-identified female reviewer decreases. To explain these findings, we use a survey to show that female reviewers, when writing a negative review, are more likely to perceive management responses as a source of conflict. To understand whether these concerns are well founded, we use Tripadvisor data to provide evidence of gender bias in the way hotel managers address reviewers writing negative reviews. We show that responses to self-identified female reviewers are more likely to be contentious, i.e., confrontational, aggressive, or trying to discredit the reviewer. Finally, to confirm that gender bias directly affects reviewing behavior, we show that the probability that a negative review comes from a self-identified female reviewer is lower for hotels that write more contentious responses. While the introduction of management responses created a new channel of communication between firms and consumers, our findings show that such a channel can be misused to discriminate and can lead to unexpected consequences such as a reduction of reviews by those users more likely to be discriminated against.
“I Am Not Talking to You: Partitioning an Audience in an Attempt to Solve the Self-Promotion Dilemma” (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2021)
This work investigates self-promotion partitioning, a strategy used in group conversations by self-promoters trying to overcome the self-promotion dilemma – a desire to share self-enhancing information without appearing to be overtly bragging. Self-promotion partitioning occurs when individuals partition their audience by addressing one or more specific recipients, deliberately turning unaddressed recipients into “bystanders.” Across a series of experiments and the analysis of secondary data, we show people disproportionally favor partitioning their audience when they face the self-promotion dilemma, both in face-to-face conversations and on social media platforms. They do so because they expect bystanders to believe they were not intended recipients, and in turn be less likely to see the self-promoter as overtly bragging, resulting in a more favorable impression. We also identify an important boundary condition, audience size; when partitioning creates a single bystander, the self-promoter worries partitioning would make the lone bystander feel excluded and ultimately hurt impressions.
“The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2020)
Marketers commonly seed information about products and brands through individuals believed to be influential on social media, which often involves enlisting micro influencers, users who have accumulated thousands as opposed to millions of followers (i.e., other users who have subscribed to see that individual’s posts). Given an abundance of micro influencers to choose from, cues that help distinguish more versus less effective influencers on social media are of increasing interest to marketers. The authors identify one such cue: the number of users the prospective influencer is following. Using a combination of real-world data analysis and controlled lab experiments, they show that following fewer others, conditional on having a substantial number of followers, has a positive effect on a social media user’s perceived influence. Further, the authors find greater perceived influence impacts engagement with the content shared in terms of other users exhibiting more favorable attitudes toward it (i.e., likes) and a greater propensity to spread it (i.e., retweets). They identify a theoretically important mechanism underlying the effect: following fewer others conveys greater autonomy, a signal of influence in the eyes of others.
“Based On a True Story: Making People Believe the Unbelievable” (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2017)
Storytelling is important to how people construct reality and interact with others. This research contributes to our understanding of why some stories are evaluated more positively than others, specifically how truth-based labeling (TBL), stating the story is “based on true events,” influences evaluations. Past research has failed to find an unequivocal effect of knowing a story is true on a range of responses including enjoyment, transportation, and emotional reactions. We contend this was due to past work not considering how TBL might interact with the nature of the story itself. One aspect of the story is its typicality (i.e., whether story events fall within the parameters of our past and present experiences). We propose, and show, across experimental and correlational data, that TBL increases the perceived plausibility of a story and enhances the audience's response only when a story is low in typicality to begin with. Conversely, when events in a story are already high in typicality, TBL has little effect on the perceived plausibility of the story, and in turn how the audience responds. We further provide mediational evidence for perceived plausibility as the underlying mechanism.
“What Wins Awards Is Not Always What I Buy: How Creative Control Affects Authenticity and Thus Recognition (But Not Liking)” (Journal of Consumer Research, 2016)
Being lauded is not the same as being liked; celebrated products that win awards frequently fail to stand out in terms of commercial success. This work documents how creative control , the extent to which the same entity takes responsibility for all stages of the creative process, impacts which products are singled out for recognition but does not play a comparable role in determining what consumers like and thus purchase. Using real-world data, study 1 demonstrates how songs by performers who write their own material are more likely to garner acclaim but do not excel in terms of sales. Study 2 replicates the pattern of results in the lab. Study 3 reproduces the effect in a new domain (beer) using different measures of recognition. Study 4 shows creative authenticity, the extent to which a product is considered a faithful execution of its creator’s vision, mediates the effect of creative control on recognition. Further, study 4 highlights the contingent role played by the perceived trustworthiness of the creator on this relationship. Finally, study 5 presents a boundary condition such that when consumers do not feel confident in their appraisals of an experience, creative control’s impact on recognition and liking runs in parallel.
“The Power of Repetition: Repetitive Lyrics in a Song Increase Processing Fluency and Drive Market Success” (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2015)
The majority of music people listen to in their daily lives includes lyrics. This research documents how more repetitive songs lyrically are processed more fluently and thus adopted more broadly and quickly in the marketplace. Study 1 is a controlled laboratory experiment demonstrating how lexical repetition, a feature of the stimulus and not the consequence of repeated exposures, results in greater processing fluency. Study 2 replicates the effect utilizing custom-produced song excerpts holding everything constant except the lyrics. Utilizing data from Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart from 1958–2012, Study 3 documents how more repetitive songs stand a greater chance of reaching #1 as opposed to lingering at the bottom of the chart. An analysis of #1 hits reveals increased repetition decreases the time it takes to reach #1 and increases the odds of debuting in the Top 40. This research chronicles the impact of processing fluency on consumer choice in the real world while demonstrating repetition as a stimulus feature matters. It also introduces a new variable to the processing fluency literature: lexical repetition.
This work introduces a novel cue that consumption advisers, like stylists and interior designers, can use to signal expertise: combinatory recommendations. In a combinatory recommendation, a person offers an opinion about compatibility among mul- tiple products intended for joint usage. Across nine studies conducted in the lab and field, the authors find that offering a com- binatory recommendation signals greater expertise (Study 1a, Study 2a) and, specifically, greater depth of knowledge (Study 1b), compared with other types of recommendations involving the same number of products. This effect does not depend on the helpfulness of the adviser (Study 2b) but is qualified by features of the recommendation itself (Study 3a) as well as the type of combination recommended (Study 3b). Importantly, the authors find this effect to have important downstream consequences, as the increased perceptions of expertise that follow a combinatory recommendation improve consumers’ attitudes both toward products included in the recommendation and toward subsequent recommendations made by the adviser (Study 4, Study 5). The real-world persuasive value of combinatory recommendations is also tested in a field study (Study 6) that explores the effect of combinatory recommendations on click-through rates of Instagram advertisements.
"Let Me Show You What I Did Versus What I Have: Sharing Experiential Versus Material Purchases Alters Authenticity and Liking of Social Media Users" (Journal of Consumer Research, 2022)
Social media may encourage novel ways of signaling that involve different purchase types (experiential vs. material), signaling frequencies (multiple vs. single signals), and other features unique to social media (e.g., hashtags). This work examines how purchase signals are received on social media and how these signaling variations affect signal receivers’ perceptions of the authenticity of social media posts as well as the overall impressions receivers form of the signal sender. Data collected across six experiments show multiple material purchase signals lead to more negative impressions compared to multiple experiential purchase signals. Signal receivers perceive multiple material purchase posts as less authentic, which dampens their impressions of the signal sender. In line with this mechanism, the impression premium of experiential purchase signals disappears when receivers use other cues (monetary mentions, other users’ comments, and marketer associations via hashtags) to infer a signal’s lack of authenticity. Additional data also document downstream consequences on engagement. This work contributes theoretically to research in both signaling and social media and improves the understanding of substantive situations in which consumers’ objectives of curating a positive image and creating engagement with their posts, collide with marketers’ objectives of encouraging user-generated content and word of mouth..
“Does Gender Matter? The Effect of Management Responses on Reviewing Behavior” (Marketing Science, 2021)
We study the effect of management responses on the reviewing behavior of self- identified female and male reviewers. Using data from Tripadvisor, we show that after hotels begin to respond to reviews, the probability that a negative review comes from a self-identified female reviewer decreases. To explain these findings, we use a survey to show that female reviewers, when writing a negative review, are more likely to perceive management responses as a source of conflict. To understand whether these concerns are well founded, we use Tripadvisor data to provide evidence of gender bias in the way hotel managers address reviewers writing negative reviews. We show that responses to self-identified female reviewers are more likely to be contentious, i.e., confrontational, aggressive, or trying to discredit the reviewer. Finally, to confirm that gender bias directly affects reviewing behavior, we show that the probability that a negative review comes from a self-identified female reviewer is lower for hotels that write more contentious responses. While the introduction of management responses created a new channel of communication between firms and consumers, our findings show that such a channel can be misused to discriminate and can lead to unexpected consequences such as a reduction of reviews by those users more likely to be discriminated against.
“I Am Not Talking to You: Partitioning an Audience in an Attempt to Solve the Self-Promotion Dilemma” (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2021)
This work investigates self-promotion partitioning, a strategy used in group conversations by self-promoters trying to overcome the self-promotion dilemma – a desire to share self-enhancing information without appearing to be overtly bragging. Self-promotion partitioning occurs when individuals partition their audience by addressing one or more specific recipients, deliberately turning unaddressed recipients into “bystanders.” Across a series of experiments and the analysis of secondary data, we show people disproportionally favor partitioning their audience when they face the self-promotion dilemma, both in face-to-face conversations and on social media platforms. They do so because they expect bystanders to believe they were not intended recipients, and in turn be less likely to see the self-promoter as overtly bragging, resulting in a more favorable impression. We also identify an important boundary condition, audience size; when partitioning creates a single bystander, the self-promoter worries partitioning would make the lone bystander feel excluded and ultimately hurt impressions.
“The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2020)
Marketers commonly seed information about products and brands through individuals believed to be influential on social media, which often involves enlisting micro influencers, users who have accumulated thousands as opposed to millions of followers (i.e., other users who have subscribed to see that individual’s posts). Given an abundance of micro influencers to choose from, cues that help distinguish more versus less effective influencers on social media are of increasing interest to marketers. The authors identify one such cue: the number of users the prospective influencer is following. Using a combination of real-world data analysis and controlled lab experiments, they show that following fewer others, conditional on having a substantial number of followers, has a positive effect on a social media user’s perceived influence. Further, the authors find greater perceived influence impacts engagement with the content shared in terms of other users exhibiting more favorable attitudes toward it (i.e., likes) and a greater propensity to spread it (i.e., retweets). They identify a theoretically important mechanism underlying the effect: following fewer others conveys greater autonomy, a signal of influence in the eyes of others.
“Based On a True Story: Making People Believe the Unbelievable” (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2017)
Storytelling is important to how people construct reality and interact with others. This research contributes to our understanding of why some stories are evaluated more positively than others, specifically how truth-based labeling (TBL), stating the story is “based on true events,” influences evaluations. Past research has failed to find an unequivocal effect of knowing a story is true on a range of responses including enjoyment, transportation, and emotional reactions. We contend this was due to past work not considering how TBL might interact with the nature of the story itself. One aspect of the story is its typicality (i.e., whether story events fall within the parameters of our past and present experiences). We propose, and show, across experimental and correlational data, that TBL increases the perceived plausibility of a story and enhances the audience's response only when a story is low in typicality to begin with. Conversely, when events in a story are already high in typicality, TBL has little effect on the perceived plausibility of the story, and in turn how the audience responds. We further provide mediational evidence for perceived plausibility as the underlying mechanism.
“What Wins Awards Is Not Always What I Buy: How Creative Control Affects Authenticity and Thus Recognition (But Not Liking)” (Journal of Consumer Research, 2016)
Being lauded is not the same as being liked; celebrated products that win awards frequently fail to stand out in terms of commercial success. This work documents how creative control , the extent to which the same entity takes responsibility for all stages of the creative process, impacts which products are singled out for recognition but does not play a comparable role in determining what consumers like and thus purchase. Using real-world data, study 1 demonstrates how songs by performers who write their own material are more likely to garner acclaim but do not excel in terms of sales. Study 2 replicates the pattern of results in the lab. Study 3 reproduces the effect in a new domain (beer) using different measures of recognition. Study 4 shows creative authenticity, the extent to which a product is considered a faithful execution of its creator’s vision, mediates the effect of creative control on recognition. Further, study 4 highlights the contingent role played by the perceived trustworthiness of the creator on this relationship. Finally, study 5 presents a boundary condition such that when consumers do not feel confident in their appraisals of an experience, creative control’s impact on recognition and liking runs in parallel.
“The Power of Repetition: Repetitive Lyrics in a Song Increase Processing Fluency and Drive Market Success” (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2015)
The majority of music people listen to in their daily lives includes lyrics. This research documents how more repetitive songs lyrically are processed more fluently and thus adopted more broadly and quickly in the marketplace. Study 1 is a controlled laboratory experiment demonstrating how lexical repetition, a feature of the stimulus and not the consequence of repeated exposures, results in greater processing fluency. Study 2 replicates the effect utilizing custom-produced song excerpts holding everything constant except the lyrics. Utilizing data from Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart from 1958–2012, Study 3 documents how more repetitive songs stand a greater chance of reaching #1 as opposed to lingering at the bottom of the chart. An analysis of #1 hits reveals increased repetition decreases the time it takes to reach #1 and increases the odds of debuting in the Top 40. This research chronicles the impact of processing fluency on consumer choice in the real world while demonstrating repetition as a stimulus feature matters. It also introduces a new variable to the processing fluency literature: lexical repetition.