The Unconscious Consumer: Effects of Environment on Consumer Behavior

In this article, we argue that consumer behavior is often strongly influenced by subtle environmental cues. Using grocery shopping as an example (or a “leitmotif,” if you wish), we first argue that the traditional perspective on consumer choice based on conscious information processing leaves much variance to be explained. Instead, we propose that many choices are made unconsciously and are strongly affected by the environment. Our argument is based on research on the perception–behavior link and on automatic goal pursuit.     

The effects of direction and movement of attractors on users' behavior in virtual environments.

Despite fast technological developments in virtual reality (VR), methodologies and guidelines for evaluating the design of virtual environments (VEs) are lacking. The theory of perceptual opportunities (POs) has previously been proposed as a basis of such a design methodology. This paper presents an empirical study investigating the effect of representation of POs on users' behavior in VEs. The effects of both direction and movement of attractor on choice of objects in a simple VE were studied. Results showed that vertical static attractors were chosen least frequently. Furthermore, there was an effect of direction for static attractors in favor of the take-off direction. Implications for VE design in the framework of POs are discussed.     

Value Priorities and Organ Donation in Young Adults

This research identifies major personal values among American university students that predict organ-donation registration with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Participants responded to a factual test of their knowledge about organ donation, indicated whether or not they had registered as posthumous donors, and filled out a personality inventory measuring their personal values (Schwartz, 1992, 1994). The data indicated a high level of factual knowledge about organ donation; and the greater the level of knowledge, the more likely participants were registered to donate their organs. Also, participants higher in benevolence, universalism, achievement, and stimulation were more likely to have registered to donate their organs. The results are discussed in terms of the need to develop more effective health-communication campaigns by using specific health-education messages tailored to students majoring in different disciplines or to people in various occupations as a means of increasing their willingness to donate.     

Predictors and outcomes of job search behavior: The moderating effects of gender and family situation

This study explored differences in the antecedents and consequences of job search behavior depending on gender and family situation in a large, nationwide sample of the Dutch population. Using Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB), we found no gender differences in the antecedents of job seeking. However, family situation did affect the relations in the TPB, such that personal attitude was a slightly weaker, and perceived social pressure a stronger predictor of job seeking for individuals with families than for singles. Concerning the consequences, job search behavior significantly predicted the chances of finding (new) employment, but not job satisfaction in the new job and the level of agreement between the obtained and wanted job.     

Blacks,Jews and the racial imagination in the writings of Sephardim in the long seventeenth century

This essay explores facets of the Sephardic racial imagination. Early Modern Catholic Iberian discourse generally scorned Jews and linked them, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, with denigrated Africans, or Blacks. Marginalized and often persecuted, conversos and Sephardim of the sixteenth through the eighteenth century resorted to hegemonic discourse about Blacks to construct their own identity. Central to Sephardic discourse about Blacks was its redemptive logic. In both Iberian Catholic and northwest-European Protestant colonial spheres, conversos and Sephardim sought through anti-Blackness to identity themselves (and hopefully for others to identify them) as members of the dominant White culture and ruling class, their religious otherness aside.Some of the material presented here comes from Jonathan Schorsch, Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own, for which I gratefully acknowledge the help of Hazel Gold, Viviana Grieco and Julia R. Lieberman. In order to convey the meaning of the often overwrought Baroque style of the Spanish originals, my translations are of necessity sometimes rather loose. I would also like to thank Yosef Kaplan, Lisa Moses Leff, Julia R. Lieberman and Kenneth Stow for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this essay.