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Previous research has shown that face masks impair the ability to perceive social information and the readability of emotions. These studies mostly explored the effect of standard medical, often white, masks on emotion recognition. However, in reality, many individuals prefer masks with different styles. We investigated whether the appearance of the mask (pattern: angular vs. curvy and color: black vs. white) affected the recognition of emotional states. Participants were asked to identify the emotions on faces covered by masks with different designs. The presence of masks resulted in decreasing accuracy and confidence and increasing reaction times, indicating that masks impair emotion recognition. There were no significant effects of angularity versus curvature or color on emotion recognition, which suggests that mask design may not impair the recognition beyond the effect of mere mask wearing. Besides, we found relationships between individual difference variables such as mask wearing attitudes, mask design preferences, individual traits and emotion recognition. The majority of participants demonstrated positive attitudes toward mask wearing and preferred non-patterned black and white masks. Preferences for white masks were associated with better emotion recognition of masked faces. In contrast, those with negative attitudes toward masks showed marginally poorer performance in emotion recognition for masked faces, and preferred patterned more than plain masks, perhaps viewing masks as a fashion item rather than a necessity. Moreover, preferences to wear patterned masks were negatively related to actual wearing of masks indoors and perceived risks of COVID.

Current research examined the differential effects of pills' shape (angular vs. curvy) on the perceived efficacy of the medicine, evoked bodily sensations and emotions. We investigated these effects by using different types of angular vs. curved stimuli: abstract drawn shapes (Study 1), 3D-printed mockup pills (Study 2) and photographs of the existing pills (Study 3). Participants were asked to imagine 'taking' angular and curved pills. They had to focus on the bodily sensations and report the evoked activations/deactivations in different body parts. Across three studies, we found that the angular pills evoke overall more activations in the body compared to curvy pills. We further reported differences in the topography of angular vs. curved pills'-triggered sensations in different body parts. Our results also revealed that angularity is linked with an energizing effect while roundness is associated with a calming effect. The shape effects were demonstrated not only in self-reported energized vs. calm subjective feelings but also in performance on a timed cognitive test. Compared to incongruent designs, pill designs (angular vs. curved) congruent with proposed drug benefits (energizing vs. calming) were perceived as more effective. Moreover, we found differences in emotions triggered by pills of different shapes. The present research provided new findings on angularity vs. curvature perception that may be valuable for cognitive psychology, marketing, pharmaceutical and supplements industry, and other applied fields.

Purpose - Market researchers often treat Asian consumers as a single entity and compare them with their Western counterparts. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast consumers in two Asian countries, Thailand and Turkey. Since global and local brands co-exist in many regions of the world today, this study, by examining two Asian cultures, examines the impact of personality traits and values on individuals' intentions to purchase global versus local brands. The authors also investigate the role of priming (local versus global cues) in the relationship between these individual traits and purchase intentions.Design methodology approach - The study involves a series of pretests and an experiment conducted among 240 participants from Thailand and 142 participants from Turkey. Though exploratory in nature, content analysis also suggests interesting avenues for future research.Findings - The findings suggest that although both societies are perceived as traditional and collective, consumers from both Thai and Turkish cultures exhibit some striking differences. There were differences in the ways in which individual traits and values impacted global vs local brand purchase intentions. For instance, while it was discovered that traditionalism and susceptibility were important among Thai individuals, ethnocentrism and materialism were at similar levels in both samples. Traditionalism had an important effect on intentions to purchase local brands in Thailand, while it did not have a very meaningful impact among Turks. Similarly, in Thailand, susceptibility affected global brand purchase intentions. However, a similar pattern was not seen among Turks.Originality value - The research is valuable in understanding that two seemingly similar Asian cultures (Thailand and Turkey) are - in effect - dissimilar on key variables such as traditionalism and ethnocentrism and that impacts how these two cultures perceive global and local brands. As marketers aim to satisfy consumer's needs by offering goods and services, it is extremely important to understand consumers' evaluations of these brands and how these perceptions are formed in the first place. Such an understanding will help marketers in their positioning strategies as well as marketing communications design.

Extant research in presentation of products in a product line shows that price structure of items affects consumers’ decision-making. Extremeness aversion may hinder individuals to choose premium options in a product line. Thus, our paper aims at finding a viable way to promote the most expensive (and highest quality) items in relatively large choice sets. We introduce the abrupt disparity effect which suggests that the choice probability of the premium product increases when consumers are exposed to a series of items that are presented in an ascending price (and quality) order that is capped with an extremely inferior option positioned right next to the premium. In five experiments, we explore the abrupt disparity effect that has not been hitherto examined in the marketing literature. We hope to illustrate this new ordering effect, its boundary conditions, and provide novel insights to marketers.

This dissertation fills an important gap in the consumer value and brand literature by demonstrating that value network integration (defined as the perceived overlap between two value networks—modernism and conventionalism) might have important effects on consumers’ evaluations of modern, classic and retro brands. In essence, it is an investigation into how consumers respond to different styles of brands (modern, classic and retro) depending on their value network integration (VNI) levels. Bringing together various streams of relevant research and highlighting gaps in the literature, the first essay presents a theoretical framework for studying modern, classic and retro brands and outlines future directions for consumer researchers. In particular, drawing from the modernization, brand and value literature, this paper discusses the role of an individual difference variable (VNI) as well as situational variables (environmental cues and regulatory focus) in explaining variations in evaluations of modern, classic and retro brands. Second essay is an empirical test of the proposed framework. More specifically, it shows that when low VNI consumers are exposed to modernism and conventionalism cues, they react to these cues and act in a cue-incongruent way. In contrast, high VNI consumers assimilate to these cues and act in a cue-congruent way. The interaction effect between level of VNI and environmental cues determines the consumer’s choice of classic or modern brands. Drawing from identity fragmentation literature, this essay also proposes that the level of VNI affects evaluations of retro brands: High VNI consumers rate retro brands more positively than do low VNI consumers. Moreover, the type of regulatory focus also influences such evaluations: While a focus on promotion results in more favorable evaluations of retro brands by consumers, a focus on prevention leads to less favorable evaluations of retro brands. This effect is explained by the cognitive mechanism underlying regulatory focus. The contribution of this research to consumer value theory and brand research is discussed and possible managerial implications for market segmentation, product positioning and ad framing are suggested.

Current research examined the differential effects of pills’ shape (angular vs. curvy) on the perceived efficacy of the medicine, evoked bodily sensations and emotions. We investigated these effects by using different types of angular vs. curved stimuli: abstract drawn shapes (Study 1), 3D-printed mockup pills (Study 2) and photographs of the existing pills (Study 3). Participants were asked to imagine ‘taking’ angular and curved pills. They had to focus on the bodily sensations and report the evoked activations/deactivations in different body parts. Across three studies, we found that the angular pills evoke overall more activations in the body compared to curvy pills. We further reported differences in the topography of angular vs. curved pills’-triggered sensations in different body parts. Our results also revealed that angularity is linked with an energizing effect while roundness is associated with a calming effect. The shape effects were demonstrated not only in self-reported energized vs. calm subjective feelings but also in performance on a timed cognitive test. Compared to incongruent designs, pill designs (angular vs. curved) congruent with proposed drug benefits (energizing vs. calming) were perceived as more effective. Moreover, we found differences in emotions triggered by pills of different shapes. The present research provided new findings on angularity vs. curvature perception that may be valuable for cognitive psychology, marketing, pharmaceutical and supplements industry, and other applied fields.

This article explores the influence of seemingly incidental numbers on willingness to pay as a function of internal reference price strength. Four experiments suggest that anchoring effects occur only when consumers hold weak internal reference prices for the target product. For products with strong internal reference prices, anchoring occurs if the numerical value is part of the product identity and resembles a price.

Extant literature on anchoring demonstrates that priming affects willingness-to-pay (WTP), but it mainly focuses on average WTP values, neglecting the aggregate effects of priming on WTP distributions. In this research, we argue that when priming is in effect, WTP distribution rather than the average should be analyzed because important pricing decisions, such as optimal price determination or price customization, require an assessment of distributions. Therefore, the objective of this research is to uncover how priming affects WTP distributions and, consequently, the demand curve. The results of these two studies suggest that priming affects not only the average but also the whole distribution and that this effect is in the form of a shift/stretch to the right for high-priming manipulations and to the left for low-priming manipulations.

A fairly common form of managing consumer price expectations is when companies use numbers in their marketing communications (e.g., product model numbers, numbers in product or place names, and numbers on license plates). In some cases, increasing numbers reflect better items. In others, they do not. For instance, a Canon A530 is not superior to an A460 digital camera. Likewise, Nokia 6110 is inferior to Nokia 6102. Though an average consumer is not knowledgeable about those numbers and how they are assigned to specific models (Gunasti and Ross Jr. 2010), we argue that they are there to serve a strategic mission. Those numbers potentially act as attempts at price guidance. Consider BMW that uses car images with a European license plate displayed prominently in its print ads in Europe where the licenses are all in the format L LL XXXX where Es are letters and Xs are numbers. There is clearly a correlation between the numbers in the license plates and the price of the cars. Specifically, if a zero is added to the number on the plate, the resulting number seems to be generally higher than the price for low and mid-priced models and generally lower than the price for high priced models. It is almost as if there is a not so subtle attempt at price guidance in the choice of numbers for the license plates. This paper explores the effect of seemingly random numbers in marketing communications on consumers willingness to pay (WTP). More specifically, we examine the differential effect of incidental environmental anchors (IEA) on consumers WTP as a function of the product category. We suggest that although consumers are not aware of the link between the numbers and the price of the product, not only do they base their WTP on the random number but also adjust the numbers to resemble acceptable prices for a given product category. Taking a context-dependent view of anchoring, we suggest that consumers alter and adapt the anchors to fit them into appropriate value range and that range changes from context to another. In a series of experimental studies, we test and demonstrate that individuals price expectations, thus their WTPs, are affected by those adapted incidental numbers.

Sharing in its pure form has innate developmental attributions. These attributions are typical features of interpersonal attachment bonds that are often based on mother-child relationships. Here, Demir et al suggest that consumers' likelihood to participate in different types of sharing systems should be influenced by their attachment styles, which is a reflection of their relationship tendencies.