Social Anxiety and the Quality of Everyday Social Interactions: The Moderating Influence of Alcohol Consumption

Most research on the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption has examined problematic outcomes without consideration of potential adaptive functions. Alcohol is an anxiolytic that has the short-term benefit of reducing anxiety; consumption may act as a social lubricant that facilitates higher quality social interactions. Using experience-sampling methodology, we examined how consuming alcohol attenuates the adverse effects of social anxiety in naturally occurring social interactions. Participants (N = 160) completed demographic and trait measures, then completed daily assessments for 14 consecutive days. Results from multilevel model analyses revealed that during face-to-face social interactions, state social anxiety was inversely related to 10 indicators of healthy social interactions (e.g., enjoyment, laughter, feelings of acceptance). Alcohol consumption moderated seven of these associations, such that when participants consumed alcohol in social situations, state social anxiety was no longer associated with social interaction quality. The quantity of alcoholic drinks consumed moderated two of these associations. Furthermore, we found evidence for directionality, such that social anxiety in a given social interaction predicted alcohol consumption in a subsequent social interaction, but not the reverse (i.e., alcohol consumption did not prospectively predict state social anxiety). In social situations that involved alcohol, experiences of social anxiety no longer thwarted one’s ability to derive social benefits. These results should be interpreted in the context of a participant sample with relatively low levels of trait social anxiety and frequency of alcohol use. Nonetheless, obtaining social rewards may be a reinforcement mechanism that maintains the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption.     

Expressing passion for luxury enhances perceived authenticity

Consumers are often viewed unfavorably when using luxury products. They are seen as seeking status and managing impressions, and therefore judged as inauthentic. How can luxury consumers alleviate these negative social consequences? Our pilot studies suggest that although many consumers are passionate about luxury products and brands, they avoid sharing this passion with others because they fear being judged negatively. However, we propose that publicly expressing one's passion for luxury can mitigate the social costs of luxury consumption. Six experiments (including three supplemental experiments) show that expressing passion for luxury causes others to perceive luxury consumers as more authentic, consequently increasing perceptions of their warmth and trustworthiness, and leading others to demonstrate greater interest in knowing more about them. Expressing passion for luxury enhances perceived authenticity by prompting observers to attribute the luxury consumption more to intrinsic motivation (e.g., consuming luxury for inherent enjoyment and pleasure) rather than extrinsic motivation (e.g., status enhancement). The effects of passion expression are attenuated for non-luxury consumption because non-luxury consumption is generally unlikely to elicit inferences about extrinsic motives.     

On the conceptual link between mass customisation and experiential consumption: an explosion of subjectivity

Marketing managers currently face an explosion of subjectivity. A glance at the business world reveals new solutions developed to offer customised products. Mass customisation is stressed by academicians in different ways. For example, relationship marketing emphasises the role of the relationship between a vendor and its customer, with particular reference to the importance of personal involvement and trust. Reading such phenomena as manifesting an explosion of subjectivity in consumption suggests an enhanced opportunity for applying the experiential view of consumer behaviour. This paper invites marketing managers, as well as marketing and consumer researchers, to recognise the changing environment more proactively and to embrace the increasingly well‐established conceptions of the consumption experience more enthusiastically. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications.     

消费者拍照行为影响消费体验的双刃剑效应

拍照是消费者对体验进行视觉记录的手段。虽然拍照“打卡”成为人们的日常生活和企业营销的重要工具,但目前未发现有文章系统介绍拍照行为对消费体验的影响。拍照行为通过调整注意资源和认知参与对消费体验产生双刃剑效应。具体而言,拍照行为会给消费者带来以“视觉体验红利”为主的红利效应;还会因缺失其他感官(嗅觉、味觉、听觉或触觉)的真实体验产生“匮乏效应”。个人因素和情景因素是拍照行为影响消费体验的重要边界条件。未来研究可以从比较不同拍照内容的效应差异、研究环境变量在拍照效应中的影响、拓展拍照的双刃剑效应在企业营销层面的研究等方面展开。     

Sociometric Status and Social Drinking: Observations of Modelling and Persuasion in Young Adult Peer Groups

Because young adult drinking occurs primarily in peer groups, this should be taken into account when studying influences on drinking behaviour. This paper aimed to assess influences on drinking by observing existing peer groups in a naturalistic setting. We first analysed the basic levels at which two types of influence take place. The first, modelling (imitating others' drinking), was found to significantly influence individual drinking, whereas for the second one, persuasion (drinking resulting from others offering drinks), no predictions were found. Subsequently, we examined whether peer group members' sociometric status in the group affected the amount of influence and persuasion exerted and received. No indications were found that sociometric status had an impact on influence in alcohol consumption within a drinking situation. Features and weaknesses of the study are discussed.     

The Role of Customers in Interactive Co-Creation Practices: The Italian Scenario

Co-production, or co-creation, is becoming the cornerstone of marketing and design practices and a sort of managerial mantra that is rapidly gaining momentum both at professional and academic level. Despite a growing interest for this topic, there seems to be a lack of researches investigating the level of interest and participation of customers in co-creation activities and the drivers and motivations that might trigger co-production. This paper presents the results of a research run by Politcnico di Milano School of Management in collaboration with AC Nielsen, Nielsen Online and Connexia in 2007 among Italian consumers to determine the size and characteristics of the co-creation phenomena.

羟苯磺酸钙与培哚普利对早期糖尿病肾病大鼠的治疗作用比较

观察羟苯磺酸钙和培哚普利对早期糖尿病肾病大鼠肾脏的治疗作用的差别。测定24h尿白蛋白,血浆及肾皮质ET（内皮素,endothelin）含量,肾皮质PAI-1（纤溶酶原激活物抑制剂-1,plasminogen activator inhibitor-1）、MMP-9（基质金属蛋白酶-9,matrix metalloproteinase-9）表达,观察肾脏病理形态变化。从结果看,羟苯磺酸钙可以减轻实验大鼠肾脏损伤,作用与培哚普利无明显差别。     

A dialogical exploration of the grey zone of health and illness: medical science,anthropology, and Plato on alcohol consumption

This paper takes a phenomenological hermeneutic orientation to explicate and explore the notion of the grey zone of health and illness and seeks to develop the concept through an examination of the case of alcohol consumption. The grey zone is an interpretive area referring to the irremediable zone of ambiguity that haunts even the most apparently resolute discourse. This idea points to an ontological indeterminacy, in the face of which decisions have to be made with regard to the health of a person (e.g., an alcoholic), a system (e.g., the health system), or a society. The fundamental character of this notion will be developed in relation to the discourse on health and the limitations of different disciplinary practices. The case of alcohol consumption will be used to tease out the grey zone embedded in the different kinds of knowledge made available through the disciplinary traditions of medical science, with its emphasis on somatic well-being, and anthropology, with its focus on communal well-being. This tension or grey zone embedded in different knowledge outcomes will be shown to have a discursive parallel with the dialogue between the Athenian, the Spartan, and the Cretan in Plato’s Laws. Making use of the dialogical approach as described by Gadamer, the Athenian’s particular resolution of the tension will be explored as a case study to demonstrate the necessarily particular analysis involved in a grey zone resolution.

进化心理学视角:童年环境、价值观影响绿色消费行为的实证研究

从进化心理学视角探究童年环境、成年人价值观和绿色消费的关系,为培养健康理性的消费行为提供有益启示。通过专项问卷调查收集1028个样本,运用方差分析、线性回归等进行实证分析。研究发现个体童年SES显著正向影响成年后的绿色消费行为,物质主义价值观在二者之间起显著中介效应; 传统价值观显著正向影响绿色消费,且在物质主义影响绿色消费过程中起调节效应; 绿色消费也会随着代际、教育程度、职业类型和当前SES的不同而呈现一定差异。     

When Sadness Comes Alive,Will It Be Less Painful? The Effects of Anthropomorphic Thinking on Sadness Regulation and Consumption

Prior consumer research has studied the impact of anthropomorphism on product perception and evaluation. This research explores how anthropomorphic thinking influences people's experience of emotions and subsequent consumption behavior. Based on research on emotion regulation and the psychological process of detachment, we show that individuals instructed to anthropomorphize sadness (i.e., think of sadness as a person) report less experienced sadness afterward (Studies 1 and 2A). The same result is observed for its opposite, happiness, such that anthropomorphic thinking dilutes happiness (Study 2B). We argue that this reduction of emotion occurs because anthropomorphic thinking increases the perceived distance between the self and the anthropomorphized emotion, thereby creating a feeling of detachment. Evidence for a detachment process is found via measurement (Studies 3 and 4) and a theory‐guided moderation, with the effect lessening when sadness is seen as a dependent (vs. independent) person (Study 3). These findings have implications for consumer behavior. When sadness is ameliorated by anthropomorphic thinking, people tend to display better self‐control in subsequent consumption, as manifested by a greater likelihood of choosing a healthier or more practical product (Studies 4 and 5).