Olivier Trendel

Distinguishing the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes to improve prediction of food choices.

Eating behaviors largely result from automatic processes. Yet, in existing research, automatic or implicit attitudes toward food often fail to predict eating behaviors. Applying findings in cognitive neuroscience research, we propose and find that a central reason why implicit attitudes toward food are not good predictors of eating behaviors is that implicit attitudes are driven by two distinct constructs that often have diverging evaluative consequences: the automatic affective reactions to food (e.g., tastiness; the affective basis of implicit attitudes) and the automatic cognitive reactions to food (e.g., healthiness; the cognitive basis of implicit attitudes). More importantly, we find that the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes directly and uniquely influence actual food choices under different conditions. While the affective basis of implicit attitude is the main driver of food choices, it is the only driver when cognitive resources during choice are limited. The cognitive basis of implicit attitudes uniquely influences food choices when cognitive resources during choice are plentiful but only for participants low in impulsivity. Researchers interested in automatic processes in eating behaviors could thus benefit by distinguishing between the affective and cognitive bases of implicit attitudes.

The Effects of Apologies for Service Failures in the Global Online Retail

ABSTRACT Virtually all sources on service recovery stress the importance of offering an apology to complaining customers. To date, however, our understanding of who should offer the apology and how to offer the apology is still limited. Taking a cross-cultural perspective, Study 1 shows that Eastern customers attach more value to a manager (vis-à-vis a frontline employee) offering an apology than Western customers in an offline retailing context, but not in an online retailing context. In an online setting, Study 2 further extends these insights by showing that the status of service personnel matters for Eastern customers, but only if the apology is provided publicly on social media and not if the apology is provided online privately. Global e-commerce managers can benefit from these findings when developing their service recovery strategies. By demonstrating that recovery strategies that are proposed and tested in offline settings are non transferrable to online settings, this article provides a clearer understanding of service recovery across online and offline channels. Based on face theory, this research highlights the public versus private nature of an apology in a global online retailing context, thus contributing to the emerging research in online service recovery.

Using Humor or Fear Appeal: The Moderating Role of the Source's Attractiveness and the Source's Communication Habits in an Electoral Campaign

This research compares the impact of two advertising tactics, humor versus fear appeals, according to the moderating effects of two characteristics of the source: Attractiveness and communication habits. A set of hypotheses is proposed and tested using a between-subject experiment in the context of the 2007 French presidential election. Results show a moderating effect of source attractiveness on attitude toward the ad. Humor should be favored over fear when the message targets undecided voters or supporters, whereas fear should be favored when the message targets opponents. Perceived communication habits - perceived previous use of the advertising tactic by the candidate – also moderate message effectiveness such as humor is more effective when it is seldom used by the candidate, whereas fear is more effective when it is used on a regular basis.

Stimuler la créativité du consommateur par la pensée analogique : comment adapter distance et contenu du transfert ?

Comment les consommateurs peuvent-ils émettre de meilleures idées de nouveaux produits ou services par la pensée analogique ? Cette méthode de créativité se décompose en deux phases : l’identification de domaines sources et le transfert d’informations de ces domaines vers le domaine cible. La littérature s’est focalisée sur l’influence de la distance du transfert entre domaines source et cible et aucune étude n’a examiné comment cette distance interagit avec le contenu du transfert. Dans deux expérimentations, nous montrons que l’attractivité des idées émises dépend, non seulement du niveau d’adéquation entre contenu et distance du transfert, mais également du niveau d’expertise des consommateurs dans le domaine cible.

Stimulating consumers’ creativity through analogical thinking: How can transfer distance and transfer content be matched?:

How can customers generate better ideas for new products or new services through analogical thinking? This creativity method comprises two steps: identifying source domains and transferring information from source domains to the target domain. The effect of transfer distance has been extensively studied, but the interaction between transfer distance and transfer content has not yet been considered. In two experiments, we show that the attractiveness of the ideas generated depends not only on the match (or mismatch) between transfer distance and transfer content but also on customers’ expertise in the target domain.

(Abstract) Service Recovery in Online Medium: A Cost-Effective Answer in Cross-Cultural Settings

Past research has shown that the status of the apologizing service personnel in offline medium impacts fairness perceptions of service recovery differently in cross-cultural settings. The tremendous growth in the global online retailing industry with their ever-increasing consumer base belonging to Eastern cultures makes it imperative to find a cost-effective way to manage service recovery from this cultural group about which there is very little literature. This paper addresses this issue by first showing that what works for Eastern consumers in offline service recovery may not necessarily work in online without suitable modifications. We then further reveal a novel cost-effective way using social media to increase fairness perceptions even in the impersonal online medium. Two experimental studies were conducted using nonstudent samples from a Western country (Germany) and two Eastern countries (India and the Philippines). Our empirical findings indicate that a public apology from a high-status service provider in the online medium that is conveyed through social media would result in higher justice perceptions for consumers in Eastern cultures as compared to Western cultures. For managers of global online retailers, we thus show a powerful yet cost-effective way to deal with consumer complaints.

From conformity to reactance: Contingent role of network centrality in consumer-to-consumer influence

Central consumers in a group often are influential, because their social prominence commands conformity from other members. Yet, there can be another contradictory effect of centrality, such that other members regard it as a threat to their attitudinal freedom and express reactance instead of conformity. Whether a group member conforms or reacts to the evaluation of a more central member might depend on the strength of their relationship, which determines the social cost of disagreeing. We provide evidence of such an interaction between centrality and relational strength with an experiment where participants with preexisting affective ties of varying strengths taste a snack in groups (Study 1) and a field study where participants connected by instrumental ties consume a complex service (Study 2). A scenario-based experiment manipulating centrality and strength of ties provides further evidence that reactance underlies the observed effects (Study 3).

The congruency between the container and the content: should we texture everything to seduce the consumer?

This study examines the effects of congruency between the texture of the packaging and the texture of the product. Three experiments on chocolate tasting reveal that when the texture of the product is not congruent with the texture of the packaging, this leads to a disconfirmation of expectations and a lower evaluation of the taste of chocolate.

Touching but with the Eyes Only! The Effectiveness of Textured Packaging and the Moderating Effect of Previous Tactile Stimulation

This study analyses the effectiveness of textured packaging and the moderating roles of tactile stimulation and an individual level variable, the NFT instrumental dimension. We show that touching a first product can fulfill the need for touch and potentially decrease or suppress the visual effect of texture of subsequent products.

Mémorisation des parrains : l’influence de la congruence du parrainage réexaminée à l’aide du modèle de flexibilité de l’encodage:

Plusieurs études ont montré qu’un parrainage congruent conduit à une meilleure mémorisation du parrain. L’expérience menée ici démontre qu’une marque est mieux identifiée après un parrainage peu congruent et qu’en outre, pour un niveau faible d’opportunité à traiter le parrainage, les concurrents du parrain peu congruents sont quant à eux moins bien identifiés.