Selecting the special or choosing the common? A high-powered conceptual replication of Kim and Markus’ (1999) pen study
Kim and Markus (1999) found that 74% of Americans selected a pen with an uncommon (vs. common) color, whereas only 24% of Asians made such a choice, highlighting a pronounced crosscultural difference in the extent to which people opt for originality or make majority-based choices. The present high-powered study (N = 729) conceptually replicates the results from Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3). However, our obtained effect size (r = .12) is significantly weaker than that of the original study (r = .52). Interestingly, given the globalization of mass media and the rapid economic progress of many Asian cultures during the last decades, a larger proportion of Chinese, but not American, participa…
Positive gender congruency effects on shopper responses:Field evidence from a gender egalitarian culture
National audience; This field study examined how customer-employee interactions are affected by the congruency between an employee's gender and the perceived gender image of the consumption context in one of the most gender equal cultures in the world (Scandinavia). Mystery shoppers had a service encounter with an employee across a set of physical commercial settings that were classified according to their gender image. The mystery shoppers noted the gender of the employee, provided employee evaluations, and indicated word-of-mouth (WOM) ratings. Shoppers who had a gender congruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “feminine” consumption context) reported more favorable employ…
Touch, threats, and transactions: Pandemic influences on consumer responses and the mediating role of touch likelihood when shopping for fruits and vegetables
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced consumer behavior in numerous ways. Most of the public health measures have centered around minimizing social contact and physical touch. In the present study, we investigate the impact of such touch restrictions, introduced during the pandemic, on consumers’ shopping responses and payment preferences in the context of a perishable food category amenable to tactile evaluation (fresh fruits and vegetables). The study used a single-factor between-subjects design (during vs. before the COVID-19 pandemic), with the data collected in a scenario-based online experiment from a sample of 729 participants. The results revealed significantly less favorable shoppin…