Patrick Vyncke

Celebrities: from teachers to friends: a test of two hypotheses on the adaptiveness of celebrity gossip

In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities.

The rival wears Prada: luxury consumption as a female competition strategy

Previous studies on luxury consumption demonstrated that men spend large sums of money on luxury brands to signal their mate value to women and, thus, increase their reproductive success. Although women also spend copious amounts of money on luxuries, research focusing on womens motives for luxury consumption is rather scarce. Relying on costly signaling and intrasexual competition theory, the goal of the current study was to test whether female intrasexual competition in a mate attraction context triggers womens spending on luxuries. The results of the first experiment reveal that an intrasexual competition context enhances womens preferences for attractiveness enhancing, but not for non-attractiveness related luxuries such as a smartphone. This finding indicates that women may use luxury consumption as a self-promotion strategy during within-sex competitions, as these luxuries improve their advantages against same-sex rivals for mates. A follow-up study shows that compared to women who do not consume luxuries, women who do so are perceived as more attractive, flirty, young, ambitious, sexy, and less loyal, mature and smart by other women. These results suggest that luxury consumption may provide information about a womens willingness to engage in sex, as well as her views about other women, and consequently, her success in intrasexual competitions.

Opportunities of interactive formats for innovative advertising on digital television

The arrival of new technologies destabilizes the traditional television advertising markets. This evolution is fairly problematic as most broadcasters nowadays are only financed by advertising revenues. As the investments in TV advertising are declining, broadcasters pursue new business models and additional revenue streams. Looking into the different applications of interactive digital television, we discover several opportunities for branding and direct marketing purposes which could revive the classical 30 second spot. Despite these opportunities, the use of interactive advertising formats on television remains fairly limited. During our research, the available interactive advertising formats were evaluated by broadcasters, advertisers, media and advertising agencies. Results show that all interactive advertising formats offer interesting opportunities, but several thresholds such as e.g. the lack of accurate measurement tools should be eliminated in order to convince advertisers to invest in these innovative formats.

Cue management: using fitness cues to enhance advertising effectiveness

Current thinking on advertising processing highly parallels contemporary psychological theory and research revealing that there are two distinct brain systems at work in human information processing and decision making: System 1 (S1, evolutionarily old, unconscious/preconscious, automatic, fast, and intuitive) and System 2 (S2, evolutionarily recent, conscious, controlled, slow, and reflective). Indeed, state-of-the-art models of advertising processing equally distinguish two different persuasive routes: one in which the consumer focuses on product/brand attribute information and in which he/she engages in elaborated information processing (S2), and one in which she/he processes the ad only superficially in terms of a handful of meaningful “cues” (S1). Regarding S2 advertising processing, means-end-chain theory offers a sound theoretical framework. However, regarding S1 advertising processing the question remains: What constitutes a meaningful cue? Here, I will argue that both the idea of evolutionary old systems like the S1 systems (evolved “mental organs”) and the idea of cues activating them (“fitness cues”) are central to evolutionary psychology. I will also present the results of a large scale experiment investigating the impact these cues can have on ad-likeability scores (as indicators of the advertising effectiveness). This experiment equally reveals the value of evolutionary psychology as a sound perspective for cue management practices.

Changing Roles, Changing Preferences? The Dual Impact of Gender Identity on Preferences for Sex Specific Advertising Stimuli

This paper investigates whether gender identity, or the extent to which an individual identifies with socially constructed sex roles, moderates the influence of sex on typically male and female ad preferences. We distinguish primary from secondary ad stimuli. Universally, men prefer young women and women prefer babies and children (= primary stimuli). On the other hand, cultural changes might affect sex specific preferences of, for example, leisure activities (= secondary stimuli). Results of our first study partly support this duality. However, gender identity did moderate womens preference of primary stimuli. Study 2 revealed that identification may explain this unexpected result.

Does Alcohol Catch the Eye? Investigating Young Adults’ Attention to Alcohol Consumption:

Many studies on young adults’ motivations for drinking overlook the symbolic aspects of alcohol use. However, research indicates that young adults’ alcohol consumption is also driven by signaling motivations. Although the interest of a receiver is a necessary prerequisite of a signal, no previous studies have verified whether drinking behavior indeed attracts young adults’ attention. Therefore, we conducted two studies. A two-part eye-tracking study (N1 = 135, N2 = 140) showed that both young men and young women pay special visual attention to male and female drinking behavior. Additionally, a recall experiment (N = 321) confirmed that observed male and female drinking is better remembered than observed nonsignaling, functional behavior. Moreover, alcoholic beverages also receive special attention, as they were recalled better than other functional products, and also nonalcoholic drinks similar in color and shape. In summary, the experiments clearly showed that male and female drinking behavior can be used as a signal, as both behaviors clearly function as an attention-attracting cue. Additionally, as alcoholic beverages draw more attention than nonalcoholic drinks, this attention is clearly linked to the alcohol element of the drinking behavior.

Determinants of the Impact of Crises on Organizational Reputation: An Experimental Test of Crisis Communication Strategies and the Moderating Impact of Locus of Control

Academic interest in the field of crisis communication has significantly increased over the years (Ulmer et al., 2007). Corporations are becoming more and more aware that crises can and will happen to organizations just like themselves (Benson, 1988). No company can escape all crises during its life cycle, and it is during these crisis situations that the battle to protect credibility in the eyes of stakeholders is most fierce (Hobbs, 1995). It takes many years to build a favorable organizational reputation but only one single crisis to ruin it (Dean, 2004). Since a good reputation is a central goal of every organization, there is a need to study the use of crisis response communication strategies in order to defend reputations during crises (Benoit, 1995; Coombs and Holladay, 2002).