Browsing by Author "Etkin, Jordan F"
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Item Open Access Consumers Seeking Connection: Essays on When and Why Consumers Connect with Others(2022) Howe, Holly SamanthaIn this dissertation, I explore the relational consequences of humor in brand-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer relationships. In the first essay, I demonstrate that the cleverness of a brand’s humor attempts affects consumers’ brand attitudes and engagement with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers’ need for cognition. I demonstrate this effect in six studies including a field study (using data scraped from Twitter) and several lab experiments. In the second essay, I explore ways to make solitude feel less socially disconnecting. Across four studies, I show that people who experience solitary amusement feel less socially disconnected than people who experience solitary happiness. This effect is mediated by other-focus such that people who are amused (vs. happy) think more of others. Together, these two essays demonstrate that humor can be an effective way to foster both consumer-brand and consumer-consumer relationships.
Item Open Access Goal Structure and Reference Points in Consumer Motivation(2018) Wallace, Scott GordonGoals play an essential role in many aspects of consumer behavior, and how best to effectively set and structure goals has long been a question of interest to researchers, marketers, and consumers in general. The same basic goal can be structured in many ways: by setting a specific goal of greater or lesser difficulty, by instead setting a range goal, by defining various subgoals along the way, or simply by aiming to do as well as possible. Although the intentions behind them are similar, these different ways of structuring a goal have important consequences for motivation and behavior. Prior research has explored several of these consequences, largely focusing on the difficulty and perceived value of the goal, on the level of ambiguity in its objectives, or on the level of commitment it produces. This dissertation takes a new perspective on this problem, examining the consequences of goal structure for the motivational and affective dynamics of goal pursuit. To explore this question in a comprehensive way, this research considers the salient reference points that are available during goal pursuit when goals are structured in various ways. This approach offers valuable new insights by connecting the issue of goal structure to the theory of goals as reference points, a prevailing framework in goals research more broadly. In three essays, I explore novel aspects of pursuing specific versus non-specific goals (Essay 1), of pursuing range goals (Essay 2), and of pursuing goals that focus on behavioral restraint rather than achievement (Essay 3). Together, these essays offer valuable insights for effective goal-setting, strategies for effective goal pursuit, and theoretical contributions to research on the psychology of consumer goal pursuit.
Item Open Access The Benefits of Budgeting Time First for Multiple Goal Setting and Pursuit(2020) Memmi, SarahConsumers often have multiple goals and limited time to pursue them. Running out of time means that people may fail to achieve, or to even attempt, one or more valued goals. When time constrains multiple goal pursuit, what might encourage consumers to protect time for downstream goals (i.e., goals that occur later in a sequence)? I propose that a subtle shift in the way people think about setting multiple goals in relation to limited time can help. Nine experiments demonstrate that, compared to only setting goals, budgeting time first (i.e., allocating total time across tasks before specifying goal levels) encourages people to set more realistic (i.e., more accurate) multiple goals that better fit within the total available time. This occurs because, by disaggregating the total time available for multiple goals into distinct accounts, budgeting time reduces implicit “double dipping” into a shared time pool when setting goals. By encouraging people to set more realistic upstream goals, budgeting time first increases time spent on downstream goals, boosting how much people accomplish toward, and whether they ultimately achieve, those goals. Further, by protecting time for downstream goals, budgeting time first discourages consumers from exceeding the total time budget and spending against future periods. This research contributes to understanding of the relationship between goals and time, multiple goal setting and pursuit, and mental accounting and budgeting. The findings also have substantive implications for consumer goal pursuit and well-being.