High Public Self-consciousness Research Articles

The influence of communicating agent on users’ willingness to interact: A moderated mediation model

Empowered by AI, chatbots are increasingly being integrated to interact with users in one-on-one communication. However, academic scrutiny on the impact of chatbots on online interaction is lacking. This study aims to fill the gap by applying self-presentation theory (presenting the desired self-impression to others) to explore how the communicating agent (chatbot vs. human agent) in interactive marketing influences users’ interaction willingness, as well as the moderating roles of users’ public self-consciousness (sense of apprehension over self-presentation concern) and sensitive information disclosure (private information linked to an individual). The results of three experimental studies indicate that chatbots can improve users’ willingness to interact by mitigating the self-presentation concern. Further, users’ public self-consciousness and sensitive information disclosure moderated the impact of chatbots in online interactions. These effects were particularly impactful for users with higher public self-consciousness and in situations with sensitive information disclosure. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for human-chatbot interaction, chatbot strategy, and the application of chatbots in online communication.

Show me the destination or show me the tourist? Effect of image-based user-generated advertisement type on tourists’ destination interest

ABSTRACT This study investigated how image-based user-generated advertising (UGA) affects a tourist’s interest in travel destinations using self-referencing and mental imagery theories. Two studies with four experiments were conducted in this research. Study 1a and Study 1b aimed to explore the interaction effect of image type and public self-consciousness on tourist destination interest through the mediating role of mental imagery using different versions of UGA advertising stimuli. Study 2a and Study 2b further explored the moderating role of destination type on the interaction effect. Results found that a match between image type and public self-consciousness led to increased tourists’ interest in a destination. A three-way interaction was also observed: when the UGA is marketing a hedonic destination, participants with high public self-consciousness are more likely to respond to an image that includes a tourist, and when marketing a utilitarian destination, participants with low public self-consciousness are more inclined to respond favourably to an image only portraying a destination. Mental imagery plays a mediating role in the above mechanisms. The theoretical and managerial ramifications of these findings are presented for destination managers and tourism marketers.

Receiving feedback after posting status updates on social networking sites predicts lower loneliness: A mediated moderation model.

People are increasingly relying on social networking sites (SNSs) to satisfy their needs for relatedness. However, the psychological benefits of receiving others' feedback on SNSs remain relatively understudied. To fill this research gap, the present research examined whether and how others' feedback to one's status updates on WeChat Moments (i.e. the most popular SNS in China) affects loneliness. A correlational study (N = 261) and an experimental study (N = 412) conducted among Chinese university students indicated that receiving more (vs. less) feedback in the forms of "likes" and "comments" predicted lower loneliness, and this effect was explained by a higher sense of social connectedness. However, receiving feedback only elicited higher social connectedness and thus lower loneliness among participants with high public self-consciousness, but this effect was not significant among those with low public self-consciousness. These findings extend the research on SNS use and loneliness by providing new insights into the underlying psychological mechanisms and have important practical implications for SNS developers and users in terms of how to design and use SNSs to better satisfy different users' psychological needs.

Market success through recycling programs: Strategic options, consumer reactions, and contingency factors

Environmental problems caused by waste are drawing growing concern worldwide. Such waste problems are even worse in many emerging markets, where waste is frequently mismanaged and thus causes significant environmental problems. To alleviate such waste problems and address stakeholders' growing environmental concerns, firms have launched recycling programs as one specific corporate social responsibility initiative. While past studies examine recycling programs from a technical perspective, very little research investigates the marketing benefits of such programs. This study draws on signaling theory to develop hypotheses about how firms can strategically design and market a recycling program to trigger positive consumer reactions. Using hierarchical linear modeling of survey data on mobile phone recycling programs across multiple brands, it finds that multiple strategic options of a recycling program (i.e., a product buyback program, product recycling convenience, and packaging recycling) differentially influence consumers’ brand attitudes, which consequently affect brand loyalty. Furthermore, an analysis of contingency factors (i.e., brand switching risk, public self-consciousness) suggests that a product recycling program affects brand attitudes only when the brand switching risk is low, and that packaging recycling affects brand attitudes more for consumers with higher public self-consciousness.

Distance Brings Solace: The Impact of Embarrassment on Low Facial Prominence Preference

Embarrassed consumers are motivated to avoid social attention or contact with others. However, the others in previous research refer to people in real life, excluding human images presented on promotional materials or product packaging. The current research indicates that the avoidance tendency induced by embarrassment exists not only for objectively existing people, but also for human images on promotional materials or products. Six experiments provide converging evidence that embarrassment causes consumers to prefer human images with low facial prominence. This effect is mediated by the need for interpersonal distance. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the impact of embarrassment on low facial prominence preference is more likely to occur for consumers with high public self-consciousness. Finally, the mediating effect of the need for interpersonal distance disappears when the focal character is displayed as a cartoon image, instead of a human.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19 among university students in Japan and associated factors: An online cross-sectional survey.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly altered peoples’ daily lives, and it continues spreading as a crucial concern globally. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 are related to individuals’ adherence to government measures. This study evaluated KAP toward COVID-19 among university students in Japan between May 22 and July 16, 2020, via an online questionnaire, and it further investigated the associated determining KAP factors. Among the eligible respondents (n = 362), 52.8% were female, 79.0% were undergraduate students, 32.9% were students whose major university subjects were biology-related, 35.4% were from the capital region, and 83.7% were Japanese. The overall KAP of university students in Japan was high. All respondents (100%) showed they possessed knowledge on avoiding enclosed spaces, crowded areas, and close situations. Most respondents showed a moderate or higher frequency of washing their hands or wearing masks (both at 96.4%). In addition, 68.5% of respondents showed a positive attitude toward early drug administration. In the logistic regressions, gender, major subjects, education level, nationality, residence, and psychological factors (private self-consciousness and extroversion) were associated with knowledge or attitudes toward COVD-19 (p < 0.05). In the logistic and multiple linear regressions, capital regions, high basic knowledge, high information acquisition, correct information explanations contributed positively to preventative action (p < 0.05). Non-capital regions, male gender, non-bio-backgrounds, high public self-consciousness, high advanced knowledge, incorrect information explanations, and high extroversion contributed negatively to self-restraint (p < 0.05). Moreover, self-restraint was decreasing over time. These findings clarify the Japanese university students’ KAP and the related factors in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they may help university managers, experts, and policymakers control the future spread of COVID-19 and other emerging infections.

Does beauty matter?

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between self-consciousness and physical attractiveness from a psychological perspective, examining the relationship of physical attractiveness with the three dimensions of self-consciousness.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved investigating the relationship between self-consciousness and physical attractiveness, focusing on how the three self-consciousness dimensions (i.e., private self-consciousness, public self-consciousness and social anxiety) affected physical attractiveness. Clustering techniques using self-organizing maps of data mining and decision trees were used in this study. The primal concept of clustering entails grouping unsorted and disorganized raw data and arranging data with similar properties into clusters. Classification primarily involves establishing classification models according to the category attributes of existing data. These models can be used to predict the classes of new data and determine interdata relationships and data characteristics.FindingsPublic self-consciousness was most strongly related to physical attractiveness, whereas the other two dimensions exhibited no obvious relationship to physical attractiveness. It may be concluded that people with higher physical attractiveness draw attention from others more easily and are more likely to be evaluated positively, and that they thus tend to be more confident in front of others and less likely to care about the opinions of others. Alternatively, perhaps people with lower public self-consciousness care less about how others view them and have the courage to express themselves, which signifies confidence and increases their physical attractiveness.Practical implicationsThis research investigated the importance of self-consciousness that may apply to recruitment in practice. People with low public self-consciousness may have high confidence and efficiency. People have low social anxiety may not be nervous or anxious in public and easy to speak to strangers. This kind of employees are appropriate for the jobs involving team work and interaction such as public relations. Hence, companies can apply our findings to search appropriate employees except the first impression of appearance.Originality/valueThe results revealed that high physical attractiveness is related to low public self-consciousness, whereas low physical attractiveness is related to high public self-consciousness. Good-looking people tend to attract attention from others. The relationship between private self-consciousness and physical attractiveness is non-significant. The relationship between social anxiety and physical attractiveness is non-significant.

Countering embarrassment-avoidance by taking an observer's perspective

The fear of embarrassment can have harmful effects in many important consumer domains (e.g. health and financial), especially for high public self-consciousness (PUBSC) consumers. This research examines how adopting the perspective of an observer interacts with trait PUBSC to influence embarrassment-avoidance. Study 1 demonstrates that individuals high in PUBSC (vs. not) are more likely to take an actor’s perspective and to feel personal distress when viewing an ad with an embarrassment appeal. Studies 2–3 show that seeing oneself as an observer is a helpful strategy for combatting embarrassment-avoidance for high PUBSC individuals. This process is effortful and requires cognitive resources. Together, Studies 1–3 demonstrate the power of our theory to explain, predict, and modify embarrassment-avoidance among individuals most likely to anticipate and avoid embarrassment.

Distress Response to the Failure to an Insoluble Anagrams Task: Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Binge Drinking Students.

Background: Emotion regulation refers to the attempt to influence the latency, magnitude, and duration of an emotion, and to modify the experiential, behavioral, or physiological components of the emotional response. In situations of personal failure, individuals, and in particular those who present a tendency to self-focus, may experience intense emotional distress. Individuals who lack proper adaptive emotion regulation strategies may engage in activities leading to immediate pleasure, such as alcohol drinking, in order to escape the self-relevance of emotional experiences. This self-awareness theory of drinking has been shown explain relapses in self-focused alcohol-dependent individuals in situations of personal failure, after detoxification. Such relapses support the existence of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in alcohol dependence. As binge drinking may be considered as an early stage of alcohol-use-disorder, the aim of this study was to explore the relationship between emotional distress, self-regulation and self-consciousness in binge drinkers (BD).Methods: Fifty-five students (32 BD and 23 controls) completed different questionnaires related to the self (self-consciousness and self-regulation questionnaires) and were exposed to a situation of self-failure (insoluble anagrams).Results: The distress induced by the anagrams task was more related to self-blame, ruminations and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in BD than in controls. Emotional distress was related to less positive refocusing, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among the control group with less public self-consciousness. Emotional distress was related to more positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among control participants with higher public self-consciousness. Low self-conscious BD who experienced anagram distress used less acceptance and less refocusing on planning strategies. Conversely, high self-conscious BD used more refocusing on planning strategies when experiencing anagram distress.Conclusion: This study suggests a relationship between emotional distress and self-regulation, in BD only. Moreover, public self-consciousness appears to be a disposition that motivates non-BD to improve actions and attitudes to meet self-standards. Finally, this study suggests a minor role of self-consciousness in the relationship between self-regulation and emotional distress in BD. Finally, low private/public self-consciousness in the binge drinking group may also be related to more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.

The social and dual identity role of joint gift-giving among adolescents

PurposeThis study aims to explore the dual identity role of joint gift-giving among adolescents. Studying this phenomenon through the lens of impression management theory enabled us to analyze private and group motives, drivers of these motives (givers’ public self-consciousness and self-monitoring and group cohesiveness) and the influence of group motives on the joint process. The characteristics of the joint process reflect a mutual social activity that enables adolescents to strengthen social group ties and define and nurture group identity. This research showed how a mutual consumer process, specifically, joint gift-giving, enhances the outcomes of social resources by defining groups’ mutual extended selves.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, quantitative tools were used. Selection of constructs for the study was based on a literature review and existing qualitative research. To test the validity and the reliability of the scales, a convenience sample of 103 adolescents (13 to 16 years old) was used in a pre-test survey. In the main study, a convenience sample of 129 adolescences was used. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to adolescents (aged 13-16 years). The survey included scales covering private and group motives for joint gift-giving, givers’ personality, group cohesiveness and the characteristics of the joint process.FindingsGivers’ public self-consciousness and self-monitoring were positively related to the motivation to engage in joint gift-giving to facilitate the development of desired private identities. High public self-consciousness and self-monitoring givers were motivated to enhance their private role in the group task and managed their impression among multiple audiences. We found that high-cohesiveness groups were motivated to nurture and strengthen social resources through joint gift-giving. Engaging in joint gift-giving is motivated not only by functional motives (e.g. saving money) but also by social motives that strengthen a group’s extended-self and social resources that all members enjoy.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough gift-giving is a three-stage process per gestation presentation and reformulation stage, the current study explored joint gift-giving behavior only in the gestation stage. Future research should include the other two stages. Also the current research concentrated on adolescents. Exploring joint gift-giving among adults is recommended as well. Comparing the two age groups should allow a better understanding of the special characteristics of adolescents and adults. Additionally, other personality characteristics could affect givers private identity in the group task and other group characteristics such as group size gender of members and group context in the workplace could affect identity.Practical implicationsThis research can provide marketers with a deeper understanding of the joint gift-giving process. For example, marketers should recognize that joint gift-giving involves adolescent groups’ time-consuming activities in the joint process, i.e. gift selection effort, making handmade gifts and putting special efforts in gift appearance that enable them to define and nurture their group identity.Social implicationsParents and educators should recognize the importance of social identity dual role in participating in joint gift-giving. Hence, we recommend them to encourage adolescents to participate in this joint consuming process to enable them to protect and define their identity.Originality/valueAdolescents are an important market segment with unique cognitive, social and personality processes. While these processes have been explored in several consumer behavior studies, adolescents’ gift-giving has been largely ignored in the literature. This study contributes to an understanding of the drivers of private and group joint gift-giving motives, how sense of belonging and group identity are reflected in the social dynamics of joint gift-giving and how adolescents manage group and private impressions in the eyes of a single receiver and in the eyes of multiple peers participating in the group task.

Who pays the price for loyalty? The role of self-consciousness

Purpose – This paper aims to study the role of self-consciousness from the point of view of firm loyalty. Firms increasingly vie to gain, and then maintain, loyal consumers. A firm’s assumption that such consumers will be willing to pay premium prices, however, contradicts consumers’ rational motivations to seek low prices. This research suggests that consumers’ self-consciousness and the nature of their loyalty toward a firm help resolve this apparent contradiction. The results show that when past purchases reflect an exclusive relationship with a retailer, participants with high public self-consciousness valued relatively low-price offers, whereas those with high private self-consciousness expressed high-value perceptions for higher priced offers. However, when past purchases were divided between retail partners, self-consciousness showed no impact on value perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – Firms increasingly vie to gain, and then maintain, loyal consumers. A firm’s assumption that such consumers will be willing to pay premium prices, however, contradicts consumers’ rational motivations to seek low prices. This research suggests that consumers’ self-consciousness and the nature of their loyalty toward a firm help resolve this apparent contradiction. The results show that when past purchases reflect an exclusive relationship with a retailer, participants with high public self-consciousness valued relatively low-price offers, whereas those with high private self-consciousness expressed high-value perceptions for higher priced offers. However, when past purchases were divided between retail partners, self-consciousness showed no impact on value perceptions. Findings – Analysis reveals that consumers’ evaluations and search behaviors are influenced by characteristics of the medium (retail vs e-tail), but this effect is moderated by both gender and price knowledge. Females prefer a brick and mortar environment and are likely to seek information at such retailers even when similar products are available online. However, males evaluate online offers better than identical store offers and are less inclined to engage in channel transition. Finally, evaluations of online offers are positively related to price knowledge, whereas a reverse pattern of results is obtained for retail offers. Originality/value – The findings shed light on how consumers evaluate identical online vs retail price offers, and their associated search intentions. These findings have practical implications for merchants who adopt a dual presence.

Fashion Consumers' Gossip Behavior Tendency

The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' gossip behavior tendency with regard to collectivism and public self-consciousness. Three hundred fifty-five college students (male: 123, female; 227) in the 20s age group participated in this study. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, multiple regression, t-test, Pearson's Correlation, and Cronbach's Alpha were used to test the research questions. As the result, first, those who had a higher score on collectivism had higher gossip behavior tendency than those who had a lower score. Second, those who had a higher public self-consciousness had higher gossip behavior tendency than those who did not. Third, female students showed more gossip behavior tendency than male students did. Finally, all three variables (collectivism, public self-consciousness, and gender)) did affect on gossip behavior tendency among college students. Out three variables, collectivism affected on gossip behavior tendency the most. These results would provide useful information for fashion marketers to understand fashion consumers better. Based on these results, fashion marketing strategies such as WOM (word-of-mouth) marketing strategy would be provided to fashion retailers or marketers.

The publicly self-consciousness consumer: Prepared to be embarrassed

This research examined whether high public self-consciousness (HPUBSC) consumers are more inclined than low public self-consciousness (LPUBSC) consumers to buy products aimed at preventing embarrassment but which are embarrassing to buy. Study 1 found that PUBSC is positively associated with increased intentions to buy such products. Study 2 showed that an increase in the severity of the social consequences associated with an embarrassing situation increased participants' purchase intentions, regardless of their level of PUBSC. However, whereas an increase in the frequency of an embarrassing situation's occurrence increased the purchase intentions of LPUBSC participants, it decreased the purchase intentions of HPUBSC participants. Study 3 revealed evidence of a reverse spotlight effect for HPUBSC participants.

Dental aesthetics, self-awareness, and oral health-related quality of life in young adults

The aim of the present study was to explore the putative relationship between dental aesthetics and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), taking into consideration the potential direct and moderating influence of private and public self-consciousness. The subjects of this cross-sectional survey were 148 university students. Dental aesthetics were assessed by means of the aesthetic component (AC) of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). OHRQoL was estimated using a modification of the scales 'social appearance concern' and 'appearance disapproval', and a novel dental self-confidence scale. In addition, the private and public self-consciousness scales were used. Two-factor analyses of variance were carried out with high and low levels of dental aesthetics and private and public self-consciousness as the independent variables and the OHRQoL scales as the dependent variables. It was found that dental aesthetics had a direct effect on all OHRQoL scale values. Private self-consciousness was related to social appearance concern, while public self-consciousness was associated with both social appearance concern and appearance disapproval. An interaction effect was identified which showed that the impact of dental aesthetics on social appearance concern was stronger in respondents with high private and public self-consciousness than in low scoring subjects. The findings of the study suggest that minor differences in dental aesthetics may have a significant effect on perceived OHRQoL. This effect was more significant in subjects with high self-consciousness.

The effect of public self-consciousness on forced laughter

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of public self-consciousness on forced laughter. Participants (N = 409) were asked to imagine a group of either friends or acquaintances, and then to indicate how often he or she exhibited forced laughter toward the group members. They also completed Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). Results indicated that persons with high public self-consciousness reported more frequent expressions of all types of forced laughter--expression control, intimacy maintenance, action control, and affect manipulation--than those who were low, regardless of interpersonal intimacy level. Besides public self-consciousness, both gender and intimate feeling toward group members influenced frequency of forced laughter. Implications for the nature of public self-consciousness and forced laughter were discussed.

Extending the activity restriction model of depressed affect: Evidence from a sample of breast cancer patients.

Survey data from 95 women with Stage 1 (n = 36), Stage 2 (n = 49), or Stage 3 (n = 10) breast cancer both confirm and extend prior research indicating that restriction of normal activities is an important factor in depressed affect. Illness severity was directly related to more restricted routine activities, and more activity restriction was associated with higher public self-consciousness and less social support. Beyond the effects of age, self-consciousness, illness severity, and social support, activity restriction explained significant additional variance in symptoms of depression. Moreover, activity restriction mediated the impact of pain, public self-consciousness, and social support on depressed affect, which implies that these factors foster symptoms of depression by disrupting normal activities.

Physical Attractiveness Contrast Effect and the Moderating Influence of Self-Consciousness

Separate studies provided evidence of amoderating effect of public selfconsciousness (trait)and public self-awareness (state) on the physicalattractiveness contrast effect involving socialcomparison between the self and others. Generally, whenexposed to photographs of attractive women withidealized physiques, women's self-perceptions of theirown physical attractiveness, social physique anxiety, and social self-esteem were each negativelyaffected. However, these negative contrast effects weremost apparent among women with high publicself-consciousness (trait assessment, Study 1) or highpublic self-awareness (state inducement, Study 2).Implications of these findings are considered.

Are hostility and anxiety associated with carotid atherosclerosis in healthy postmenopausal women?

In this article, we evaluated the prospective association between measures of trait anger, hostility, and anxiety and indices of carotid atherosclerosis in 200 healthy middle-aged postmenopausal women. Starting in 1983, 541 premenopausal women were evaluated for their levels of standard cardiovascular risk factors and psychosocial attributes, including their scores on Spielberger Trait Anger, Anxiety, and Anger-in, and Public Self-Consciousness. Starting in 1991, the Cook-Medley Hostile Attitudes Scale was also administered. Starting in 1993, 200 women who had been menopausal for at least 5 years were scanned for carotid atherosclerosis using B-mode ultrasound. The scans were scored for average intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaque index. Women who had high Trait Anger, Anger-In, and Public Self-Consciousness scores had high IMT scores on average 10 years later. Women who had high Cook-Medley scores also had high IMT scores on average 1.5 years later. Multivariate analyses adjusting for the standard cardiovascular risk factors that most highly predicted IMT scores indicated that holding anger in, being self aware, and having hostile attitudes were significant predictors of IMT. Women with higher plaque scores also tended to report holding in their anger. Anger suppression and hostile attitudes do predict women's carotid IMT in midlife. Ultrasound measures of carotid atherosclerosis can be used to advance our understanding of the early development of atherosclerosis in women.

History of Exposure to Self-Focusing Stimuli as a Developmental Antecedent of Self-Consciousness

The present report investigated the question of how individual differences in self-consciousness develop. Rimé and LeBon proposed that high self-consciousness follows a history of frequent exposure to self-focusing stimuli, i.e., mirrors, audiences, audio and video devices, and cameras. To explore this hypothesis private and public self-consciousness and past exposure to self-focusing stimuli were assessed in 438 subjects. Analysis indicated that history of frequent exposure to self-focusing stimuli is significantly but weakly related to high private self-consciousness in men and to high public self-consciousness in women. This supports previous observations suggesting that the routes to the development of self-consciousness seem to differ for the two sexes.

Individual Differences in Hand Movements During Deception

This article addresses the influence of 2 personality traits on making hand movements during deception, namely public self-consciousness and ability to control behavior. It was hypothesized that especially individuals with high public self-consciousness and individuals who are skilled in controlling their behavior would make fewer hand movements during deception compared to truth-telling. A total of 56 participants were interviewed twice; in one interview they told the truth and in the other interview they lied. Before the interviews the participants completed a personality inventory to measure their levels of public self-consciousness and ability to control their behavior. The results supported the hypotheses. Some implications of these findings are discussed.