Protecting the self through consumption: Status goods as affirmational commodities

Individuals conspicuously consume to signal their wealth. As a variant to this economic explanation, four studies explored individual’s psychological need for self-integrity as a potential motivating force for these consumption decisions. Relying on both field and experimental studies, and employing multiple instantiations of high-status goods and self-threat, we demonstrate that individuals consume status-infused products for their reparative effects on the ego. Individuals under self-threat sought ownership of high-status goods to nurse their psychological wounds (Study 1), and when afforded an alternate route to repair their self-integrity, sought these products less (Study 2). Furthermore, among a representative sample of US consumers, low-income individuals’ lowered self-esteem drove their willingness to spend on high-status goods (Study 3). Finally, these high-status goods serve the purpose of shielding an individual’s ego from future self-threats (Study 4). The compensatory role of high-status goods has important implications for consumer decision-making and public policies aimed at reducing consumer debt.     

Why did I eat that? Perspectives on food decision making and dietary restraint

Consumers trying to watch or restrict what they eat face a battle each day as they attempt to navigate the food-rich environments in which they live. Due to the complexity of food decision making, consumers are susceptible to a wide range of social, cognitive, affective, and environmental forces determined to interrupt their intentions to restrict their dietary intake. In this article, we integrate literature from diverse theoretical perspectives into a conceptual framework designed to offer a better understanding of the antecedents, interruptions, and consequences of dietary restraint. We outline a path for researchers to investigate how restraint behaviors in the eating domain influence a wide variety of consumer psychological phenomena. It is our hope that a collective examination of this literature provides a lens that directs future research on food decision making and dietary restraint and empowers consumers to invest their cognitive and behavioral resources towards healthy eating behaviors.     

Evaluating Check-In Check-Out With Peer Tutors for Children With Attention Maintained Problem Behaviors

School Wide Positive Behavior Support provides schools with three tiers of support to address both academic and behavior challenges. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of peer tutors with three elementary students when applied to a Tier 2 intervention known as Check-In Check-Out (CICO). Peer tutors performed the morning check-in with the tutees by setting the expectations for the day and giving the tutees their Daily Progress Report (DPR) form. Throughout the day, the tutees took the DPR form to each class where they received a score from the teacher. At the end of the class period, the peer tutors provided the tutees with feedback on the scores received on the DPR form. Once the school day finished, the peer tutees checked-out with the tutors and received a reward if they met their percentage goal. The results of this study showed that CICO implemented by peers improved classroom behavior for all three participants.     

Recognizing upper limb movements with wrist worn inertial sensors using k-means clustering classification

In this paper we present a methodology for recognizing three fundamental movements of the human forearm (extension, flexion and rotation) using pattern recognition applied to the data from a single wrist-worn, inertial sensor. We propose that this technique could be used as a clinical tool to assess rehabilitation progress in neurodegenerative pathologies such as stroke or cerebral palsy by tracking the number of times a patient performs specific arm movements (e.g. prescribed exercises) with their paretic arm throughout the day. We demonstrate this with healthy subjects and stroke patients in a simple proof of concept study in which these arm movements are detected during an archetypal activity of daily-living (ADL) – ‘making-a-cup-of-tea’. Data is collected from a tri-axial accelerometer and a tri-axial gyroscope located proximal to the wrist. In a training phase, movements are initially performed in a controlled environment which are represented by a ranked set of 30 time-domain features. Using a sequential forward selection technique, for each set of feature combinations three clusters are formed using k-means clustering followed by 10 runs of 10-fold cross validation on the training data to determine the best feature combinations. For the testing phase, movements performed during the ADL are associated with each cluster label using a minimum distance classifier in a multi-dimensional feature space, comprised of the best ranked features, using Euclidean or Mahalanobis distance as the metric. Experiments were performed with four healthy subjects and four stroke survivors and our results show that the proposed methodology can detect the three movements performed during the ADL with an overall average accuracy of 88% using the accelerometer data and 83% using the gyroscope data across all healthy subjects and arm movement types. The average accuracy across all stroke survivors was 70% using accelerometer data and 66% using gyroscope data. We also use a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier and a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier in association with the same set of features to detect the three arm movements and compare the results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methodology.     

Why do people rideshare? An experimental study

Enabled by mobile technologies and fueled by the economic downturn, ridesharing has emerged in recent years as a private transportation facet of the shared economy. Our study investigates the motives for participation in situated ridesharing. We propose a theoretical model that includes economic benefits, time benefits, transportation anxiety, trust, and reciprocity either as direct antecedents of ridesharing participation intention, or mediated through attitude towards ridesharing. We conduct a scenario-based survey, with 300 participants. Our findings indicate that, in situations where transportation anxiety is high (e.g. construction on the road), if people can trust the ridesharing service providers and participants, in the presence of economic and time benefits, they will have a strong intention to participate in ridesharing.     

基于消费者自我概念的高尔夫消费动机研究*

首先编制了消费者自我概念量表,对高尔夫球会客人进行了消费者自我概念的测查,将高尔夫消费者划分为事业自我型、交际自我型、精明自我型、家庭自我型和表现自我型五大类,进而分析了这五类消费者在参与高尔夫球运动动机和购买高尔夫球会会籍动机方面的差异。结果表明,(1)锻炼身体是消费者参与高尔夫球运动的主要动机。不同自我概念消费者参与高尔夫运动的动机的差异表现在事业自我型消费者与其他群体的差异显著;(2)商务交往是消费者购买球会会籍动机的主要动机,不同自我概念消费者购买球会会籍动机的差异表现在家庭自我型消费者与交际自我型、表现自我型消费者之间存在显著差异。     

Nostalgic bonding: exploring the role of nostalgia in the consumption experience

The recently awakened awareness of the past has produced a flurry of research directed towards understanding the nostalgic aspects of the human condition, towards investigating the role of nostalgia in the lives of consumers, and towards the application of such knowledge to the design of marketing strategies. With rare exceptions, however, such research has pursued a quantitative survey‐based approach to establishing the chronology‐related and personality‐driven aspects of nostalgia. To explore the nature and types of nostalgic bonding in greater depth, the present study pursues an interpretive approach to understanding the role of nostalgia in the consumption experience. Specifically, it applies a collective approach to subjective personal introspection to draw inferences concerning the key types of nostalgic experience. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

How Incidental Confidence Influences Self‐Interested Behaviors: A Double‐Edged Sword

The present research investigates how incidental confidence influences self‐interested behaviors. It is well established that being in a psychological state of lower confidence causes people to experience psychological aversion that they are motivated to reduce. We study the transfer effect of confidence; people strive to compensate for lower confidence in one domain by obtaining higher status in other unrelated domains. Prior research has linked money with status and suggested that money can increase confidence. Building on this research, we proposed and showed in four experiments that lower incidental confidence increased self‐interested behaviors that brought financial gains. Drawing on research on competitive altruism, we also predicted and found that when altruism, rather than money, was seen as the primary source of status, the effect of incidental confidence reversed such that lower incidental confidence decreased self‐interested behaviors. Data ruled out alternative explanations and provided consistent evidence for the proposed compensatory mechanism. We also discussed theoretical and practical implications of the present research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dietary consumption and happiness and depression among university students: A cross-national survey

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between fruit and vegetable consumption and happiness and depression among university students in a cross-national survey. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected from 18 522 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.9, SD = 2.4) from 29 universities in 28 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Results indicate that the amount of fruit and vegetable consumption was positively associated with happiness and inversely associated with depression. Healthier behaviour patterns of fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with higher happiness and lower depression scores among university students across 28 countries.