Free Gift with Purchase: Promoting or Discounting the Brand?

Two experiments examine the process by which free gift promotions serve as a source of information about the underlying value of the product offered as a free gift. The value‐discounting hypothesis argues that by virtue of being offered as a free gift, products will be valued less as evinced by lower purchase intentions and a lower price that consumers are willing to pay for them. Conditions that inhibit the value‐discounting effect include the (a) presence of alternate price information to make judgments about the value of the gift, and (b) contextual information about the value of the promoted brand.     

The Role of Strategy in Mixed-Gender Group Interactions: A Study of the Television Show “The Weakest Link”

This paper studies mixed-gender group interactions in a strategic game where group members are sequentially eliminated till a single winner takes all. Study 1 tests the hypothesis that female contestants are retained till final rounds where they are eliminated. Using observational data from the US television show The Weakest Link (20 shows), results show that females are finalists but not winners. In a laboratory study (Study 2, 67 Berkeley undergraduates), we show that this effect is attenuated when winnings are shared among finalists (versus one winner takes all) due to the reduction in competitive pressures in the context. This research was supported in part by the Junior Faculty Research Grant awarded by the University of California at Berkeley to the second author.     

Interpersonal trust and organizational citizenship behavior

This study investigates the relationship between certain individual level determinants of interpersonal trust and its impact on organizational citizenship behavior. The participants (N=303) were top, middle, and lower level executives from manufacturing and services sectors. The results indicate that interaction frequency, consistency, and competence are significant predictors of interpersonal trust. Interpersonal trust is positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior, and it also partially mediated the relationship between individual level factors and organizational citizenship behavior. The results imply that the development of trust at the interpersonal level may be used as a strategy to motivate the employees to engage in extra role behaviors to ensure improved individual and organizational performance.     

Depression is not an inevitable outcome of disclosure avoidance: HIV stigma and mental health in a cohort of HIV-infected individuals from Southern India

Previous research has shown that HIV stigma in India can be characterized by a framework dividing manifestations into enacted (discrimination), vicarious (hearing stories of discrimination), felt normative (perceptions of stigma's prevalence), and internalized stigma (personal endorsement of stigma beliefs). We examined whether this framework could explain associations among stigma, efforts to avoid HIV serostatus disclosure, and depression symptoms in a cohort of 198 HIV-infected individuals from Southern India who were followed up for one year as part of a study of antiretroviral adherence. Prior studies had suggested that disclosure avoidance was a primary outcome of stigma and that impaired well-being was a primary outcome of disclosure avoidance. Analyses from our longitudinal research revealed that the pattern of associations among stigma, disclosure avoidance, and depression symptoms remained consistent over time. Enacted and vicarious stigmas were correlated with felt normative stigma beliefs. In turn, felt normative stigma was correlated with disclosure avoidance. And, enacted stigma, internalized stigma, and disclosure avoidance were all associated with depression symptoms. However, even though the overall framework held together, internalized stigma and depression symptoms dropped significantly over time while other components remained unchanged. These findings suggest that, although HIV stigma may limit disclosure, it does not invariably lead to psychological maladjustment. Amidst ongoing perceptions and experiences of stigma, HIV-positive individuals can achieve significant improvements in their acceptance of the disease and in mental well-being.     

Stemming the tide: Predicting women engineers' intentions to leave

This investigation adapts and extends the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) by integrating it with central constructs from turnover theory. The extended model proposes that domain specific self-efficacy and outcome expectations predict job satisfaction and organizational commitment — the two key job attitudes that have been established as influential predictors of turnover cognitions and behaviors. Further, we proposed that one form of organizational supports, specifically developmental opportunities at work, are sources of self efficacy and outcome expectations, and that the relationship between organizational supports and job attitudes is mediated by self-efficacy and outcome expectations. The proposed model was tested on a national sample of 2,042 women engineers. Overall, the results provided support for our newly developed model. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.