Funded Research
2023
Reminding People of the Ephemerality of Behaviors Increases Goal Completion
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-001
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonAlicea Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Fake Reviews and Consumer Welfare
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-002
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonAshvin Gandhi, Assistant Professor, UCLA Anderson
utation systems by sellers on two-sided online platforms. We focus on a relevant empirical
setting, the use of fake product reviews on e-commerce platforms, which can affect consumer
welfare via two channels. First, rating manipulation deceives consumers directly, causing
them to buy lower quality products and pay higher prices for the products with manipulated
ratings. Second, the presence of rating manipulation lowers trust in ratings, which may
result in worse product matches if consumers place too little weight on quality ratings. This
decrease in trust may also increase price competition and benefit consumers by lowering
prices on high quality products whose quality is less easily observed. We formally model
how consumers form beliefs about quality from product ratings and how these beliefs are
affected by the presence of fake reviews. This model of product quality is incorporated into
an empirical model of consumer demand for products and how demand is shifted by ratings,
reviews, and prices. The model is estimated using a large and novel dataset of products
observed buying fake reviews to manipulate their Amazon ratings. We use counterfactual
policy simulations in which fake reviews are removed and consumer beliefs adjust accord-
ingly to explore the effectiveness and welfare and profit implications of different methods of
regulating fake reviews.
The Impact of Legalized Sports Gambling on Consumer Debt
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-003
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonDavid Proserpio, Assistant Professor of Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business
Budgeting Increases Reliance on Category-Level Evaluations
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-004
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
People Endorse Harsher Policies in Principle Than in Practice: Asymmetric Beliefs About Which Errors to Prevent Versus Fix
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-005
Society for Judgment and Decision Making’s Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award 2023
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Countless policies are crafted with the intention of punishing all who do wrong or rewarding only those who do right. However, this requires accommodating certain mistakes: some who do not deserve to be punished might be, and some who deserve to be rewarded might not be. Six preregistered experiments (N = 3,484 U.S. adults) reveal that people are more willing to accept this trade-off in principle, before errors occur, than in practice, after errors occur. The result is an asymmetry such that for punishments, people believe it is more important to prevent false negatives (e.g., criminals escaping justice) than to fix them, and more important to fix false positives (e.g., wrongful convictions) than to prevent them. For rewards, people believe it is more important to prevent false positives (e.g., welfare fraud) than to fix them, and more important to fix false negatives (e.g., improperly denied benefits) than to prevent them.
The Role that Evidence Plays in Dishonest Reporting
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-006
Eugene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral, UCLA AndersonSam Skowronek, Ph.D. in Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School
Evaluating Point and Range Predictions Under Epistemic vs. Aleatory Uncertainty
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-007
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonCraig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Using data analytics to identify gender differences in postnatal labor market attachment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-008
Jana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonJennifer Kao, Assistant Professor of Strategy, UCLA Anderson
Female Medical Students are Less Likely to Submit a Truthful Rank Ordering of Preferences in the National Residency Match Program
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-009
Joyce He, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonSam Skowronek, Ph.D. in Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School
The Politics of Minority Portrayal
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-010
Margaret Shih, Department Chair and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs, Neil Jacoby Chair in Management; Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonElizabeth Jiang, M & O Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
“No Time to Buy”: Asking Consumers to Spend Time to Save Money is Perceived as Fairer than Asking Consumers to Spend Money to Save Time
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-011
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonMaria Trupia, Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA Anderson
Committing to Outcomes vs. Actions
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-012
Alicea Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Citizen Myopia
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-013
Craig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Stocks, Flows, and the Social Security Trust Funds
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-014
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA Anderson
Megan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Suzanne Shu, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Anderson
New Money or More of the Same? Tracking the Meaning of Financial Growth
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-015
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Qingyang Wang, Ph.D Marketing Student, UCLA Anderson
Bidding by heterogeneously risk-averse bidders in first-price auctions with reserves
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-016
Robert Zeithammer, Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonLucas Stich, Assistant Professor, Wurzburg University
Double marginalization in digital advertising markets run by auctions
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-017
Robert Zeithammer, Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonW. Jason Choi, Assistant Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Brand Imagery and Ethnic Cue (Mis)Matches
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-018
Sanjay Sood, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonNeha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Karl Aquino, Richard Poon Professor of Organizations and Society at the UBC Sauder School of Business, Marketing and Behavioural Science Division
Do Discount Rates Vary with Respect to Climate Outcomes
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-019
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonShelli Orzach, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Pluralistic Ignorance of Stigma Impedes Take-Up of Welfare Benefits
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-020
Eugene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral, UCLA AndersonSherry Wu, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Alice Lee-Yon, PhD Candidate in Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Unraveling the Role of Market Concentration in the Price Puzzle
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-021
Shohini Kundu, Assistant Professor of Finance, UCLA AndersonJinyuan Zhang, Assistant Professor of Finance, UCLA Anderson
Antitrust in Advertising-Subsidized Markets: Youtube Content Economy
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-023
Tai Lam, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonUnderstanding Time Poverty for Consumer Research
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-024
Cassie Mogilner, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Bud Knapp Marketing Professorship, UCLA AndersonMaria Trupia, Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA Anderson
Vividness of the future and demand for commitment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-025
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
2022
The Intersection of Political Beliefs and Diversity Representation: Understanding Responses to Stereotype Content in Ads
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-001
Margaret Shih, Department Chair and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs, Neil Jacoby Chair in Management; Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonElizabeth Jiang, M & O Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Framings of Uncertainty and Intentions to Take Protective Action
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-002
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonEitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Investigating The Role of Binary versus Continuous Framing on Cheating and Punishment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-003
Euguene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, Bing (’86) and Alice Liu Yang Endowed Term Chair in Teaching Excellence, Faculty Co-Director, Inclusive Ethics Initiative, UCLA AndersonDaniel Mirny, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
The Effect of Price Caps on Pharmaceutical Advertising: Evidence from the 340b Drug Pricing Program
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-004
Sylvia Hristakeva, Assistant Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of BusinessJulie Holland Mortimer, Full Professor, Boston College
The Fox News Effect on Attitudes Towards The Scope of Policing
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-005
Kareem Haggag, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Economics, UCLA AndersonEric Chyn, Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College
Bocar Abdoulaye Ba, Assistant Professor, Duke University
Leveraging Past Adversity to Increase Academic Success
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-006
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonIlana Brody, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
A Behavioral Study of Self-other Adoption Discrepancies in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-007
Fernanda Bravo, Assistant Professor of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management, UCLA AndersonZezhen (Dawn) He, PhD in Operations Management, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester
Yaron Shaposhnik, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester
León Valdés, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh
Online Quality Scores, Competition and Welfare
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-008
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonDavide Proserpio, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business
Consumers Believe Legal Products Are Less Effective Than Illegal Products
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-009
Alicia Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonSydney Scott, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Olin Business School
Rachel Gershon, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Haas Business School, UC Berkeley
Doing Good by Doing Business: Brand Purpose and Its Impact on Consumers
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-010
Sanjay Sood, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonNeha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Human vs Robots: Tipping for Services
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-011
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Neha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Present Benefit Precommitments to Encourage Prosocial Action
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-012
Craig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Investment Decision Making and Fear of Missing Out
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-013
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
From Warm Glow to Cold Chill: Choice Avoidance in Charitable Donations
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-014
Awarded “Best Paper” at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024)
Hengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Jana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Ilana Brody, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
As charitable organizations increasingly introduce choice into donation opportunities, they may be overlooking a critical psychological construct inherent in framing a choice between multiple deserving populations. We propose that a donation choice framed as a choice between “who to help” elicits concerns about fairness and decision burdens, which ultimately reduces donations relative to the same donation opportunity framed as a choice between “what to give”. This research will advance our understanding of the impact of choice and framing on judgment and decision making in the consequential context of charitable giving. The research will also offer solutions to help charities increase donations.
When Impact Appeals Backfire: Evidence from a Multinational Field Experiment and the Lab
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-015
Hengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonJana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Joseph Reiff, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Maryland
Firms often try to motivate customers to share feedback by telling customers that their feedback will have an impact on the organization (e.g., “Have your say in our company’s direction”). We examine whether such “impact appeals” indeed increase compliance with customer feedback requests. In a field experiment across seven countries, 430,666 customers of a Fortune 500 company received a customer feedback survey invitation email where the subject lines were manipulated. Contrary to our initial prediction and expert forecasts, we found that impact appeals on average decreased feedback provision (compared to a straightforward control message). Importantly, impact appeals backfired to a greater extent in countries with lower trust in business (e.g., Japan) than in countries with higher trust in business (e.g., China). We theorize that impact appeals are more likely to reduce compliance among customers with lower trust in business because these customers perceive impact appeals as more inauthentic. Pre-registered lab experiments (N=7,926) support our theoretical account and test more effective impact appeals informed by it. This research sheds light on when and why highlighting impact can fail to motivate customers and even backfire, and more generally, it advances the field’s understanding of what drives customer engagement in empowering behaviors.
Mental Accounting for Consumer Stock Returns
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-016
David Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
2021
Do Different Forms of Prospection Lead to Different Emotional Outcomes?
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-001
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonTayler Bergstrom, PhD Student, Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Leveraging Past Adversity to Increase Prevention Behavior
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-002
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonIlana Brody, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Rationalization Reduction: Intervention Science to Promote Moral Action
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-003
Eugene Caruso, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonIlana Brody, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Noah J. Goldstein, Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
How People Perceive Invasiveness
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-004
Eugene Caruso, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonJon Bogard, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Megan Weber, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
The Impact of Policy Framing on Narratives for Poverty and Prosperity
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-005
Sherry Wu, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonIlana Brody, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Megan Weber, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
The Interactive Effects of the Three Dimensions of Social Norms Comparisons
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-006
Noah J. Goldstein, Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Jon Bogard, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Grocery Store Closures and Household Nutritional Choices
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-007
Sylvia Hristakeva, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonJulia Levine, Ph.D. Student, Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Is Money More Valued than Time in Cost Transparent Prices?
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-008
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Ph.D. Student, Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Neha Nair, Ph.D. Student, Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Consumer Spending in Response to Income or Balance Information
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-009
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Ph.D. Student, Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Stephanie Smith, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Biased Prestige Inferences and How to Correct Them
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-010
Jana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonGloria Danqiao Cheng, Ph.D. Student, Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Serena Does, Ph.D. Student, Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Stuck In A Rut: The Behavioral Entrenchment Effect
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-011
Alicea Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonOn Amir, Professor of Marketing, UC San Diego Rady School of Management
Ziv Carmon, Professor of Marketing, INSEAD
Perceptions of Fairness in Segmentation and Targeting
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-012
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonElizabeth M.S. Friedman, Assistant Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
Olivier Toubia, Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
Understanding How Consumers Incorporate and Estimate Uncertainty
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-013
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDavid Zimmerman, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
An Analysis of Excess Entry in the U.S. Discount Retail Sector
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-014
Brett Hollenbeck, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonEl Hadi Caoui, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto
Matthew Osborne, Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Management, University of Toronto
What Motivates Social Security Claiming Age Intentions? Testing Behaviorally-Informed Interventions Alongside Individual Differences
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-016
Adam Eric Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Bocconi UniversityHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Suzanne Shu, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Anderson
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Choosing when to claim Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits is a critical determinant of financial health during retirement. Complicating this important decision is the role of heterogeneity; each individual’s decision is affected by individual factors that limit the usefulness of standardized advice. While past work has examined heterogeneity in claiming decisions, there has been little research to systematically test the psychosocial correlates of early or delayed SSA claiming or the effectiveness of theory-driven interventions meant to help with the claiming decision. Given that prior research has typically tested one intervention or individual difference at a time, we systematically examined how several different interventions affect when consumers intend to claim SSA benefits and how such intentions correlate with individual differences. Using a pre-registered design with replications, we analyzed intended claiming age as a function of theory-driven interventions, individual difference measures, and relevant interactions between interventions and individual differences. In so doing, we not only generate better predictive models of which retirees will decide to claim earlier or later, but also provide a methodological roadmap for data-driven theory building for complex consumer decisions.
Recognition: Finalist for the 2023 Journal of Marketing Research Paul E. Green Award.
Modeling Consumer Choice Using Eye-Tracking
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 21-016
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonStephanie Smith, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
2020
If death is the great tragedy of human life, could rituals, by helping us connect backward to heritage and forward to the future, suppress time and reduce our fear of the end of life?
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-001
Kate Christensen, Assistant Professor in the Marketing, Kelly School of Business, Indiana UniversityHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA Anderson
Urgency in Consumer Decision Making
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-002
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonJoseph Reiff, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland
Many societal challenges facing consumers, such as mitigating climate change or increasing retirement savings, are said to require urgency. Yet, researchers have only just started exploring the construct of urgency and how it shapes judgments and decisions. What is urgency, why does it matter, and how can policy makers and marketers increase it? We plan to explore these questions in the current research program. Specifically, we define urgency as a preference for earlier action over later action. We plan to (1) develop a novel measure of urgency, showing that some people have a strong preference to act now, rather than later, even if that means forgoing significant amounts of money, (2) show that this preference negatively predicts consumer demand for certain behaviors that require delayed actions (e.g., borrowing, pre-commitment), and (3) show how to frame products to increase take-up by appealing to urgency.
Misperception about stigma as a potential barrier to applying for benefits programs
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-003
Sherry Wu, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonEugene Caruso, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Alice Lee-Yoon, M & O Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Interventions to Increase Support For Redistributive Policies
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-004
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonKate Christensen, Assistant Professor in the Marketing, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University
David Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Why Do Consumers Ignore Hidden Costs?
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-005
Jerry Nickelsburg, Faculty Director, UCLA Anderson Forecast, Adjunct Professor of Economics, UCLA AndersonLeila Bengali, Economist, UCLA Anderson Forecast
The Role of Place Attachment and Environmental Attitudes in Adoption of Rooftop Solar
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-006
Charles Corbett, Professor of Operations Management and Environmental Management, UCLA AndersonHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Timothy Malloy, Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law
A recent paper in Nature Sustainability (Sunter et al. 2019) uses data from Google’s Project Sunroof to document that Black- and Hispanic-majority census tracts show significantly lower rates of solar PV installation, even after accounting for differences in household income and home ownership. As part of a project funded by the UCLA Sustainable Los Angeles (SLA) Grand Challenge, the current research team conducted a survey of 4,207 homeowners in Los Angeles County in April 2018. The survey focused on drivers of adoption of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV). This project will focus on examining whether our survey responses shed new light on reasons for the disparities in adoption of rooftop solar documented by Sunter et al. (2019). For instance, we will explore to what extent these disparities also occur in LA County, and whether they are driven more by neighborhood-level, individual or other factors.
Consumer Financial Decision Making
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-008
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Kate Christensen, Assistant Professor in the Marketing, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University
How Metrics Influence Elicited Prediction Intervals
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-009
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Zimmerman, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student
Examining the role of COVID-19 testing availability on intention to isolate: A Randomized hypothetical scenario
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-009
Justin C. Zhang, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLAKate Christensen, Assistant Professor in the Marketing, Kelly School of Business, Indiana University
Richard K. Leuchter, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Sitaram Vangala, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Maria Han, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Daniel M. Croymans, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Little information exists on how COVID-19 testing influences intentions to engage in risky behavior. Understanding the behavioral effects of diagnostic testing may highlight the role of adequate testing on controlling viral transmission. In order to evaluate these effects, simulated scenarios were conducted evaluating participant intentions to self-isolate based on COVID-19 diagnostic testing availability and results.
Beliefs that Entertain
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-010
Paola Giuliano, Professor of Economics, UCLA AndersonAshvin Gandhi, Assistant Professor of Economics, UCLA Anderson
The Market for Fake Reviews
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-011
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonSherry He, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Davide Prosperio, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business
Peer comparisons and choice architecture
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-012
Jon Bogard, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Effective altruism
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 20-013
Jon Bogard, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
2019
CEO Activism and Public Mobilization
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-002
Young Hou, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business, University of VirginiaChristopher Poliquin, Assistant Professor of Strategy, UCLA Anderson
CEOs increasingly engage in activism on issues such as gun control, voting rights, and abortion. Although such activism may benefit their firms, the stated goal is often to mobilize the public and precipitate change. In an experiment with 4,578 respondents, we study the effect of CEO activism on people’s willingness to contact their U.S. senators about abortion. On average, showing a CEO message supporting abortion rights is not more effective at mobilizing pro-choice citizens than showing no message or showing a message from other speakers. Additionally, CEOs do not provoke countermobilization by people who oppose abortion. We explore heterogeneous treatment effects and find that CEO activism is better at motivating pro-choice citizens to engage in politics when their senators are Democrats and thus likely receptive to pro-choice activism, consistent with stakeholder alignment theory. Our findings contribute to research on social movements and mobilization in markets by examining the ability of CEOs and organizations to act as catalysts for social change.
The Role of Attention in Evaluating Choices Among Choices
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-003
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonStephanie Smith, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Advertising Strategy in the Presence of Reviews: An Empirical Analysis
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-004
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonSridhar Moorthy, Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Davide Proserpio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business
Taxation and Market Power in the Legal Marijuana Industry
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-005
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonKosuke Uetake, Associate Professor of Marketing, Yale School of Management
The Long-Term Effects of Price Promotions on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Alibaba
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-006
Hengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDennis J. Zhang, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis
Lingxiu Dong, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis
Fangfang Qi, Alibaba Group Inc.
Nannan Zhang, Alibaba Group Inc.
Xiaofei Liu, Alibaba Group Inc.
Zhongyi Liu, Alibaba Group Inc.
Jiang Yang, Alibaba Group Inc.
The Value of Pop-up Stores in Driving Online Engagement in Platform Retailing: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment with Alibaba
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-007
Dennis J. Zhang, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. LouisHengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Lingxiu Dong, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis
Qian Wu, Alibaba Group Inc.
Lifan Guo, Alibaba Group Inc.
Xiaofei Liu, Alibaba Group Inc.
We study the value of short-lived and experiential-oriented pop-up stores, a popular type of omnichannel retail strategy, on both retailers that participate in pop-up store events and retailing platforms that host these retailers. We conduct a large-scale, randomized field experiment with Alibaba Group involving approximately 800,000 customers. We randomly assign consumers to either receive a message about an upcoming weeklong pop-up store event organized by Alibaba’s business-to-consumer platform (Tmall.com) or not receive any message about the event. We find that our message increased foot traffic to the pop-up store and in turn boosted expenditure at participating retailers’ online stores at Tmall after the event ended. Furthermore, we use advanced Wi-Fi technology to track customers’ visits to the pop-up store—a missing component from past research that commonly relies on point-of-sales data. We find that pop-up store visits substantially increased customers’ subsequent expenditure at participating retailers’ Tmall stores. In addition, from a platform perspective, we show that pop-up store visits increased customers’ purchases at retailers that sell related products on Tmall but did not participate in the pop-up store event. Additional analyses shed light on possible mechanisms underlying the cross-channel and spillover effects of pop-up stores and demonstrate that these effects were concentrated on prospective consumers.
A Theory of Goal Maintenance: A Distinct and Vivid Pre-Goal Self Predicts Post-Goal Maintenance Motivation
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-007
Elicia Marie John, Doctor of Philosophy in Management, UCLA AndersonHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Suzanne Shu, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Anderson
Prospective Retrospection
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-008
Eugene Caruso, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Jon Bogard, PhD Student, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson School of Management
The Role of Heritage Connection in Consumer Valuation
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-009
Suzanne Shu, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Anderson
Owners value heritage goods, items that connect them to a shared past, whether through their alma mater or their family history. This research considers the impact of heritage on owners who wish to sell such goods. In five studies, we demonstrate that sellers have a lower willingness-to-accept (WTA) for heritage goods when selling to buyers with a shared heritage connection relative to buyers without this connection (i.e., a heritage discount). This heritage discount cannot be explained by in-group favoritism, sentimental value, or appropriateness of buyer usage and persists even when sellers perceive that the buyer has a higher willingness-to-pay (WTP). We provide process evidence that the effect of the buyer’s identity on the seller’s WTA is driven by concerns about heritage loss. Our findings contribute to literatures on sharing, sentimental goods, psychological ownership, and the endowment effect, and have marketing implications for consumer goods (e.g., collectibles) that derive product value by connecting consumers to meaningful history and traditions.
Hypocrisy
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-010
Cassandra Davis, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Menu framing
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-011
Hannah Malan, PhD in Community Health Sciences, UCLA Anderson
VIP Effect in Service Settings
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 19-012
Alexandra Polyakova, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Toulouse Business School
Morrison Center Working Paper Series
2023
Reminding People of the Ephemerality of Behaviors Increases Goal Completion
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-001
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonAlicea Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA Anderson
Fake Reviews and Consumer Welfare
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-002
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonAshvin Gandhi, Assistant Professor, UCLA Anderson
utation systems by sellers on two-sided online platforms. We focus on a relevant empirical
setting, the use of fake product reviews on e-commerce platforms, which can affect consumer
welfare via two channels. First, rating manipulation deceives consumers directly, causing
them to buy lower quality products and pay higher prices for the products with manipulated
ratings. Second, the presence of rating manipulation lowers trust in ratings, which may
result in worse product matches if consumers place too little weight on quality ratings. This
decrease in trust may also increase price competition and benefit consumers by lowering
prices on high quality products whose quality is less easily observed. We formally model
how consumers form beliefs about quality from product ratings and how these beliefs are
affected by the presence of fake reviews. This model of product quality is incorporated into
an empirical model of consumer demand for products and how demand is shifted by ratings,
reviews, and prices. The model is estimated using a large and novel dataset of products
observed buying fake reviews to manipulate their Amazon ratings. We use counterfactual
policy simulations in which fake reviews are removed and consumer beliefs adjust accord-
ingly to explore the effectiveness and welfare and profit implications of different methods of
regulating fake reviews.
The Impact of Legalized Sports Gambling on Consumer Debt
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-003
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonDavid Proserpio, Assistant Professor of Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business
Budgeting Increases Reliance on Category-Level Evaluations
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-004
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
People Endorse Harsher Policies in Principle Than in Practice: Asymmetric Beliefs About Which Errors to Prevent Versus Fix
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-005
Society for Judgment and Decision Making’s Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award 2023
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Countless policies are crafted with the intention of punishing all who do wrong or rewarding only those who do right. However, this requires accommodating certain mistakes: some who do not deserve to be punished might be, and some who deserve to be rewarded might not be. Six preregistered experiments (N = 3,484 U.S. adults) reveal that people are more willing to accept this trade-off in principle, before errors occur, than in practice, after errors occur. The result is an asymmetry such that for punishments, people believe it is more important to prevent false negatives (e.g., criminals escaping justice) than to fix them, and more important to fix false positives (e.g., wrongful convictions) than to prevent them. For rewards, people believe it is more important to prevent false positives (e.g., welfare fraud) than to fix them, and more important to fix false negatives (e.g., improperly denied benefits) than to prevent them.
The Role that Evidence Plays in Dishonest Reporting
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-006
Eugene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral, UCLA AndersonSam Skowronek, Ph.D. in Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School
Evaluating Point and Range Predictions Under Epistemic vs. Aleatory Uncertainty
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-007
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonCraig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Using data analytics to identify gender differences in postnatal labor market attachment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-008
Jana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonJennifer Kao, Assistant Professor of Strategy, UCLA Anderson
Female Medical Students are Less Likely to Submit a Truthful Rank Ordering of Preferences in the National Residency Match Program
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-009
Joyce He, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonSam Skowronek, Ph.D. in Operations, Information, and Decisions, The Wharton School
The Politics of Minority Portrayal
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-010
Margaret Shih, Department Chair and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs, Neil Jacoby Chair in Management; Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonElizabeth Jiang, M & O Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
“No Time to Buy”: Asking Consumers to Spend Time to Save Money is Perceived as Fairer than Asking Consumers to Spend Money to Save Time
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-011
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonMaria Trupia, Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA Anderson
Committing to Outcomes vs. Actions
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-012
Alicea Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Citizen Myopia
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-013
Craig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Stocks, Flows, and the Social Security Trust Funds
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-014
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonHal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA Anderson
Megan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Suzanne Shu, Professor Emeritus, UCLA Anderson
New Money or More of the Same? Tracking the Meaning of Financial Growth
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-015
Stephen Spiller, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Associate Dean of Anderson Ph.D. Program, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Qingyang Wang, Ph.D Marketing Student, UCLA Anderson
Bidding by heterogeneously risk-averse bidders in first-price auctions with reserves
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-016
Robert Zeithammer, Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonLucas Stich, Assistant Professor, Wurzburg University
Double marginalization in digital advertising markets run by auctions
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-017
Robert Zeithammer, Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonW. Jason Choi, Assistant Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Brand Imagery and Ethnic Cue (Mis)Matches
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-018
Sanjay Sood, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonNeha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Karl Aquino, Richard Poon Professor of Organizations and Society at the UBC Sauder School of Business, Marketing and Behavioural Science Division
Do Discount Rates Vary with Respect to Climate Outcomes
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-019
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonShelli Orzach, Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Pluralistic Ignorance of Stigma Impedes Take-Up of Welfare Benefits
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-020
Eugene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral, UCLA AndersonSherry Wu, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Alice Lee-Yon, PhD Candidate in Management and Organizations, UCLA Anderson
Unraveling the Role of Market Concentration in the Price Puzzle
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-021
Shohini Kundu, Assistant Professor of Finance, UCLA AndersonJinyuan Zhang, Assistant Professor of Finance, UCLA Anderson
Antitrust in Advertising-Subsidized Markets: Youtube Content Economy
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-023
Tai Lam, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonUnderstanding Time Poverty for Consumer Research
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-024
Cassie Mogilner, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Bud Knapp Marketing Professorship, UCLA AndersonMaria Trupia, Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA Anderson
Vividness of the future and demand for commitment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 23-025
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
2022
The Intersection of Political Beliefs and Diversity Representation: Understanding Responses to Stereotype Content in Ads
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-001
Margaret Shih, Department Chair and Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs, Neil Jacoby Chair in Management; Professor of Management and Organizations, UCLA AndersonElizabeth Jiang, M & O Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Framings of Uncertainty and Intentions to Take Protective Action
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-002
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonEitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Investigating The Role of Binary versus Continuous Framing on Cheating and Punishment
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-003
Euguene Caruso, Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, Bing (’86) and Alice Liu Yang Endowed Term Chair in Teaching Excellence, Faculty Co-Director, Inclusive Ethics Initiative, UCLA AndersonDaniel Mirny, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
The Effect of Price Caps on Pharmaceutical Advertising: Evidence from the 340b Drug Pricing Program
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-004
Sylvia Hristakeva, Assistant Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of BusinessJulie Holland Mortimer, Full Professor, Boston College
The Fox News Effect on Attitudes Towards The Scope of Policing
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-005
Kareem Haggag, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Economics, UCLA AndersonEric Chyn, Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College
Bocar Abdoulaye Ba, Assistant Professor, Duke University
Leveraging Past Adversity to Increase Academic Success
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-006
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonIlana Brody, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
A Behavioral Study of Self-other Adoption Discrepancies in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-007
Fernanda Bravo, Assistant Professor of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management, UCLA AndersonZezhen (Dawn) He, PhD in Operations Management, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester
Yaron Shaposhnik, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester
León Valdés, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh
Online Quality Scores, Competition and Welfare
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-008
Brett Hollenbeck, Associate Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonDavide Proserpio, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business
Consumers Believe Legal Products Are Less Effective Than Illegal Products
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-009
Alicia Lieberman, Assistant Professor of Marketing, UCLA AndersonSydney Scott, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Olin Business School
Rachel Gershon, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Haas Business School, UC Berkeley
Doing Good by Doing Business: Brand Purpose and Its Impact on Consumers
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-010
Sanjay Sood, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonNeha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Human vs Robots: Tipping for Services
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-011
Franklin Shaddy, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonDavid Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Neha Nair, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Present Benefit Precommitments to Encourage Prosocial Action
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-012
Craig Fox, Harold Williams Chair and Professor of Management, Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Investment Decision Making and Fear of Missing Out
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-013
Hal Hershfield, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making, Marketing Area Chair, UCLA AndersonMegan Weber, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
From Warm Glow to Cold Chill: Choice Avoidance in Charitable Donations
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-014
Awarded “Best Paper” at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024)
Hengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Jana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Ilana Brody, Behavioral Decision Making Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
As charitable organizations increasingly introduce choice into donation opportunities, they may be overlooking a critical psychological construct inherent in framing a choice between multiple deserving populations. We propose that a donation choice framed as a choice between “who to help” elicits concerns about fairness and decision burdens, which ultimately reduces donations relative to the same donation opportunity framed as a choice between “what to give”. This research will advance our understanding of the impact of choice and framing on judgment and decision making in the consequential context of charitable giving. The research will also offer solutions to help charities increase donations.
When Impact Appeals Backfire: Evidence from a Multinational Field Experiment and the Lab
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-015
Hengchen Dai, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA AndersonJana Gallus, Associate Professor of Strategy and Behavioral Decision Making, UCLA Anderson
Joseph Reiff, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Maryland
Firms often try to motivate customers to share feedback by telling customers that their feedback will have an impact on the organization (e.g., “Have your say in our company’s direction”). We examine whether such “impact appeals” indeed increase compliance with customer feedback requests. In a field experiment across seven countries, 430,666 customers of a Fortune 500 company received a customer feedback survey invitation email where the subject lines were manipulated. Contrary to our initial prediction and expert forecasts, we found that impact appeals on average decreased feedback provision (compared to a straightforward control message). Importantly, impact appeals backfired to a greater extent in countries with lower trust in business (e.g., Japan) than in countries with higher trust in business (e.g., China). We theorize that impact appeals are more likely to reduce compliance among customers with lower trust in business because these customers perceive impact appeals as more inauthentic. Pre-registered lab experiments (N=7,926) support our theoretical account and test more effective impact appeals informed by it. This research sheds light on when and why highlighting impact can fail to motivate customers and even backfire, and more generally, it advances the field’s understanding of what drives customer engagement in empowering behaviors.
Mental Accounting for Consumer Stock Returns
Morrison Center Working Paper No. 22-016
David Dolifka, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson
Eitan Rude, Marketing Ph.D. Student, UCLA Anderson