Jennifer J. Argo

The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context

While the majority of consumer research that has studied social influences has focused on the impact of an interactive social presence, in this research we demonstrate that a noninteractive social presence (i.e., a mere presence) is also influential. We conduct two field experiments in a retail setting to show when and how a noninteractive social presence that differs in size and proximity impacts consumers’ emotions and self‐presentation behaviors. In doing so, we refine Social Impact Theory by identifying boundary conditions under which the theory does not hold.

Embarrassment in consumer purchase : The roles of social presence and purchase familiarity

Two field studies investigate the importance of social presence (real and imagined) and familiarity with the purchase act in producing embarrassment in the context of an embarrassing product purchase. The results indicate that awareness of a social presence during purchase selection and commitment, whether real or imagined, is a motivating factor in creating embarrassment for the consumer. Further, our results show that the more familiar consumers are with an embarrassing product purchase, the less embarrassed they are likely to feel. Familiarity with an embarrassing product purchase is also shown to have implications for the effect of social presence. That is, familiarity with purchase acts as a moderator for the relationship of real social presence and embarrassment by reducing the influence of the social presence. In the context of an imagined social presence, purchase familiarity is shown to reduce the likelihood of imagining. These findings are integrated into a discussion of the theoretical implications and the potential avenues for future research in the area.

Positive Consumer Contagion: Responses to Attractive Others in a Retail Context

This research examines the impact of attractiveness on consumers during a consumption experience. Specifically, it examines the effects of an attractive social influence in the context of touching and contamination of store products by investigating how consumers respond when they see attractive others touching the same products they want to purchase. In doing so, it provides the first experimental evidence of a positive contagion effect in either the marketing or the psychology literature. Across three field experiments using an actual retail shopping environment, the authors find that product evaluations are higher when consumers perceive a product as having been physically touched by a highly attractive other. Moreover, they identify sex as a critical moderating variable in the realization of this positive contagion effect; the contact source and observing consumer must be of the opposite sex for positive contagion to occur. Finally, in contrast to previous work, the authors demonstrate that these effects are driven by a physical model of contagion.

Meta-Analyses of the Effectiveness of Warning Labels

The authors use a series of meta-analyses to demonstrate the impact of warning labels across five dimensions of effectiveness: attention, reading and comprehension, recall, judgments, and behavioral compliance. Subsequent moderator analyses indicate that attention is moderated by vividness-enhancing characteristics, warning location, and familiarity but not by product type. None of the moderating variables affect either reading and comprehension or recall. Product type moderates judgments, and familiarity and cost of compliance moderate behavioral compliance. The authors discuss public policy implications and avenues for further research.

Social comparison theory and deception in the interpersonal exchange of consumption information

Four experiments demonstrate that self‐threatening social comparison information motivates consumers to lie. Factors related to self‐threat, including relevance of the social comparison target (i.e., the importance of the comparison person), comparison discrepancy (i.e., the magnitude of the performance difference), comparison direction (i.e., whether one performs better or worse), nature of the information (i.e., whether the comparison is social or objective), and perceived attainability (i.e., the possibility of achieving the compared performance), influenced consumers’ willingness to engage in deception. Results extend social comparison theory by demonstrating that comparisons that threaten public and private selves have implications for lying behaviors.

Pharmaceutical advertising in the USA: information or influence?

While many parts of pharmaceutical advertisements are regulated, each advertisement also contains a promotional component in which the advertiser conveys information to the consumer. The purpose of this research is to examine the promotional portion of pharmaceutical advertisements to determine whether factual information and rational arguments are being provided to consumers to inform them of health problems, treatment options, and medical science advances. The current research compares the promotional portion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements for prescription drugs with advertisements for over-the-counter (OTC) remedies and dietary supplements using content analysis. The results indicate that DTC advertisements do not solely rely on rational appeals; instead, they are using more positive and negative emotional appeals than OTC remedies or dietary supplements. Further, DTC advertisements also feature fewer women in their advertisements, more characters under the age of 18 and primarily Caucasian models.

The Influence of Friends on Consumer Spending: The Role of Agency– Communion Orientation and Self-Monitoring

Four studies investigate the interactive influence of the presence of an accompanying friend and a consumers agency–communion orientation on the consumers spending behaviors. In general, the authors find that shopping with a friend can be expensive for agency-oriented consumers (e.g., males) but not for communion-oriented consumers (e.g., females). That is, consumers who are agency oriented spend significantly more when they shop with a friend (vs. when they shop alone), whereas this effect is attenuated for consumers who are communion oriented. The results also show that this interactive effect is moderated by individual differences in self-monitoring such that friends are especially influential for consumers who are high in self-monitoring, but the effects occur in opposite directions for agency- and communion-oriented consumers (i.e., agentic consumers spend more with a friend, while communal consumers spend less when accompanied by a friend). Finally, the authors test the underlying process and document that the interaction of agency–communion orientation, the presence of a friend, and self-monitoring is reversed when the focal context is changed from “spending for the self” to “donating to a charity.” They conclude with a discussion of implications for research and practice.

Stigma by Association in Coupon Redemption: Looking Cheap because of Others

The present research establishes that the innocuous behavior of coupon redemption is capable of eliciting stigma by association. The general finding across four studies shows that the coupon redemption behavior of one consumer results in a second non‐coupon‐redeeming shopper being stigmatized by association as cheap when a low as compared to a high value coupon is redeemed. More important, the research identifies a number of factors that protect a non‐coupon‐redeeming shopper from the undesirable experience of stigma by association, even during another shopper’s redemption of a low value coupon.

Physical Contact and Financial Risk Taking

We show that minimal physical contact can increase people’s sense of security and consequently lead them to increased risk-taking behavior. In three experiments, with both hypothetical and real payoffs, a female experimenter’s light, comforting pat on the shoulder led participants to greater financial risk taking. Further, this effect was both mediated and moderated by feelings of security in both male and female participants. Finally, we established the boundary conditions for the impact of physical contact on risk-taking behaviors by demonstrating that the effect does not occur when the touching is performed by a male and is attenuated when the touch consists of a handshake. The results suggest that subtle physical contact can be strongly influential in decision making and the willingness to accept risk.

When Imitation Doesn't Flatter: The Role of Consumer Distinctiveness in Responses to Mimicry

In a series of four experiments, the authors examine the implications of one consumer’s possession being mimicked by another consumer. The results demonstrate that when distinctiveness concerns are heightened, greater dissociation responses (i.e., possession disposal intentions, recustomization behaviors, and exchange behaviors) arise in response to being mimicked by a similar as opposed to dissimilar other. These effects are driven by threats to distinctiveness. Finally, these effects are mitigated when the imitated possession is nonsymbolic in nature and when a low degree of effort is exerted to initially obtain the possession. Implications for marketers and consumers are discussed.