Studies 1a Research Articles

Identifying antecedents and mechanisms of age-based stereotype threat

Older employees are stereotyped at work (e.g., as technophobic), making them susceptible to stereotype threat, or the concern of being reduced to a negative stereotype. Although consequences of age-based stereotype threat have been identified (e.g., poorer job attitudes), far less is known about workplace triggers and underlying mechanism. Three studies aimed to identify the workplace antecedents and mechanism underlying stereotype threat. Together, Studies 1a and 1b identified 10 potential antecedents associated with stereotype threat (e.g., being overlooked for training). Mediation analysis revealed that experiencing any of the potential antecedents was associated with increased age salience, which, in turn, was associated with greater feelings of stereotype threat. Study 2 manipulated three of the potential antecedents through short videos and found that experiencing the antecedents led to increased age salience and stereotype threat. This experimental approach complemented the cross-sectional nature of Studies 1a and 1b, providing evidence for the proposed causal pathways.

Carefree cuteness: the effect of exposure to cuteness on risk seeking

Purpose Cuteness has grown to be a global phenomenon fueled by the explosive usage of social media. Cute stimuli are ubiquitous, but few have explored their effects on consumer decision-making; direct evidence is particularly lacking in the area of risky choices. In this research, the authors theorize and demonstrate the unintended effects of cuteness exposure on people’s risk preference. Design/methodology/approach Across five experimental studies situated in various risk contexts, including health, financial and safety, the authors demonstrate that exposure to cuteness makes consumers more risk-seeking due to the reduction of situational conscientiousness. Study 1 used an experimental lab study with a real circumstance to test the effect on the risk associated with food consumption. Study 2 used a classical gambling experiment to test the effect on financial risk. Studies 3a and 3b used a mass shooting news article to test the effect on safety risk. Lastly, study 4 tested the mediating role of low conscientiousness with the classical gambling experiment. Findings The findings show that exposure to cuteness makes people more likely to take risks in various domains (e.g. food consumption, safety and financial decisions). Research limitations/implications This study tested the effect of cuteness on risk-seeking with a limited number of domains of risk. In addition, the authors tested the effect with visual cuteness stimuli, while individuals may perceive cuteness through other senses, such as sound. Practical implications The findings have implications for business owners and marketers when deciding whether and how to use cuteness to promote their products and brands, as well as to avoid potential repercussions. For example, a marketer for a new extreme sports company could use videos or images of cute animals participating in sports on the company’s social media channels to expand its market share. In addition, findings from this research would make consumers more attentive when facing cute appeals as they gain a better understanding of how exposure to cuteness could impact their own decision-making. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to demonstrate that exposure to subtle, cute environmental cues has a robust effect on consumers’ risk preferences across various domains, regardless of age and gender.

How does idea rejection translate into employee creativity: A perspective from incubation theory

Previous studies have generally posited that idea rejection negatively impacts innovation performance, however, few have explored the potential positive effects. From a novel perspective grounded in incubation theory, this research investigated whether, how, and when idea rejection could be translated into employee creativity. Six studies were conducted: a questionnaire survey (Study 1a) and five simulated situational experiments (Studies 1b, 1c, 1d, 2, and 3). In Study 1a, we collected samples from various industry backgrounds, including manufacturing, high-tech companies, internet-related companies, and modern service industries, to verify whether idea rejection could be translated into employee creativity. Studies 1b, 1c, and 1d further validated the findings of Study 1a in distinct fields—new home and kitchen products, technology, and scientific research—through simulated situational experiments. Studies 2 and 3 selected new home and kitchen products as representative experimental situations and used simulated situational experiments to explore the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which idea rejection translates into employee creativity. The results revealed that idea rejection could be translated into employee creativity. This translation was mediated by both problem restructuring and the activation of new knowledge. Furthermore, servant leadership positively moderated the relationship between idea rejection and the activation of new knowledge, thereby strengthening the mediating role of the latter. However, servant leadership did not moderate the relationship between idea rejection and problem restructuring, nor did it enhance the mediating role of problem restructuring. These findings opened the “black box” of how idea rejection is translated into employee creativity, expanded the research on the effects of idea rejection, and provided a reference for organizational innovation management practices.

The Role of Serendipity in Narratives: How Serendipitous Story Promotes Product Interest

ABSTRACTOrigin stories have been extensively discussed in storytelling, but it is unclear how presenting a story of an unexpected discovery would impact consumer behavior. This article proposes that marketers telling serendipitous stories could capture consumers' interest. Using four experiments, we found that a serendipitous story increased consumer interest in the focal product (Study 1). This was because the serendipitous story would awaken their positive emotions (Studies 2a and 2b). Furthermore, we identified a boundary condition of the device types. When consumers read a serendipitous story on a fixed device (vs. a mobile device), this serendipity effect was attenuated (Study 3). Our findings not only extend the serendipity and storytelling literature but also provide management guidance for businesses and marketers.

Keep bright in the dark: Multimodal emotional effects on donation-based crowdfunding performance and their empathic mechanisms.

How to raise donations effectively, especially in the E-era, has puzzled fundraisers and scientists across various disciplines. Our research focuses on donation-based crowdfunding projects and investigates how the emotional valence expressed verbally (in textual descriptions) and visually (in facial images) in project descriptions affects project performance. Study 1 uses field data (N = 3817), grabs project information and descriptions from a top donation-based crowdfunding platform, computes visual and verbal emotional valence using a deep-learning-based affective computing method and analyses how multimodal emotional valence influences donation outcomes. Study 2 conducts experiments in GPT-4 (Study 2a, N = 400) and humans (Study 2b, N = 240), manipulates the project's visual and verbal emotional valence through AI-generated stimuli and then assesses donation decisions (both GPT-4 and humans) and corresponding state empathy (humans). The results indicate a multimodal positivity superiority effect: both visual and verbal emotional valence promote initial whether-to-donate decisions, whereas only verbal emotional valence further promotes the how-much-to-donate decisions. Notably, such multimodal emotional effects can be explained through different mediating paths of empathic concern and empathic hopefulness. The current study theoretically facilitates our understanding of the emotional motivations underlying human prosociality and provides insights into crafting impactful advertisements for online donations.

The Effect of Game Ad Outcome on Subsequent Mobile Gaming Experience: The Mediating Role of Inferred Difficulty

This study investigates the effect of game advertisement outcomes on a player's subsequent gaming experience. Research on vicarious experience shows that individuals infer game difficulty to be higher when watching game advertisements where players lose (vs. win) the game. Building on the effort-paradox paradigm, the first of this three-part study shows that such higher inferred difficulty enhances enjoyment and engagement during subsequent gaming experiences, especially for advertisements featuring easy game levels. Solely manipulating the difficulty level, Study 2 confirms the underlying mechanism of inferred difficulty for the observed effect of game advertisement outcomes. Study 3a shows that the main positive effect of losing (vs. winning) ads does not hold for advertisements featuring difficult game levels. Study 3b further explores this by focusing only on advertisements with difficult game levels, investigating how variations in players’ self-efficacy might influence their response to losing advertisements depicting difficult game levels. The findings across four studies suggest that, when promoting easy game levels, marketers can use advertisements with losing outcomes to extend gaming sessions, thereby increasing revenue from in-game advertisements. However, for difficult game levels, advertisements with losing outcomes are effective only for those with high self-efficacy.

Experiential Narratives in Marketing: A Comparison of Generative AI and Human Content

As generative AI technologies advance, understanding their capability to emulate human-like experiences in marketing communication becomes crucial. This research examines whether generative AI can create experiential narratives that resonate with humans in terms of embodied cognition, affect, and lexical diversity. An automated text analysis reveals that while reviews generated by ChatGPT 3.5 exhibit lower levels of embodied cognition and lexical diversity compared with reviews by human experts, they display more positive affect (Study 1a). However, human raters struggle to notice these differences, rating half of the selected reviews from AI higher in embodied cognition and usefulness (Study 1b). Instances of hallucination in AI-generated content were detected by human raters. For social media posts, the more sophisticated ChatGPT 4 model demonstrates superior perceived lexical diversity and leads to higher purchase intentions in unbranded content compared with human copywriters (Study 2). This research evaluates the performance of large language models in generating experiential marketing narratives. The comparative studies reveal the models’ strengths in presenting positive emotions and influencing purchase intent while identifying limitations in embodied cognition and lexical diversity compared with human-authored content. The findings have implications for marketers and policy makers in understanding generative AI's potential and risks in marketing.

Low Relational Mobility Fosters Interpersonal Indecision Through Increased Sensitivity to Social Rejection.

Relational mobility is a socio-ecological factor that shapes our interpersonal behaviors. Across four studies involving three countries (N = 2,874), we tested the hypothesis that low relational mobility increases sensitivity to social rejection, which in turn fosters decision avoidance and difficulty in interpersonal situations (i.e., interpersonal indecision). Study 1 showed that countries with low relational mobility reported more subjective difficulties in interpersonal decision-making. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrated that cross-country differences in interpersonal indecision can be mediated by relational mobility and concerns about rejection. Study 3 further revealed that this mechanism is driven by heightened concerns and evaluations of negative relationship outcomes. Study 4 replicated the proposed mechanism using a scale that assesses the general tendency to experience interpersonal indecision. Our findings highlight the importance of socio-ecological context in shaping experiences when navigating interpersonal relationships.

Face consciousness: the impact of gift packaging shape on consumer perception

PurposeThis study aims to shed new light on the effect of gift packaging shape, specifically the distinction between horizontal and vertical orientations, on the face consciousness of both gift givers and recipients. The underlying mechanism of the main effect is examined, focusing on the perception of social status symbols. In addition, downstream outcome variables were included in the study to explore the effects of gift package shape on willingness to buy (WTB) and word-of-mouth (WOM) in the giver and receiver contexts, respectively. Furthermore, these effects were repeatedly verified in both China and the USA, revealing the significance of cultural differences. The study also investigated the moderating effects of an individual’s power state (low or high power) on the giver’s face consciousness.Design/methodology/approachSix studies were conducted to address the research objectives. Study 1 compared the gift givers’ face consciousness of a gift when presented with vertical package shapes versus horizontal. Subsequently, Study 2 investigated whether consumers’ perception of social status symbols mediates the effect of gift package shape on gift givers’ face consciousness. Study 3a expanded the conceptual model to include the downstream outcome variable of WTB in the context of gift-giving. Study 3b was validated with American participants, revealing the influence of cultural background differences on face consciousness. Study 4 introduced a gift-receiving context to investigate the chain-mediated effects of gift package shapes on consumer WOM. Lastly, Study 5 critically examined the boundary effect of personal power states on the interaction between the gift givers’ face consciousness and WTB.FindingsThe results indicate that gift givers and recipients attribute higher face consciousness to gifts with vertical package shapes compared to horizontal ones. In addition, consumers’ perception of gifts as status symbols was the underlying mechanism driving the impact of gift packaging shape on face consciousness. Furthermore, the face consciousness for gift packages of vertical shape was enhanced when people were in lower-power states as opposed to higher-power states, subsequently leading to an increase in the WTB.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to an online virtual brand study; future field studies could be conducted to enhance the authenticity of the participants’ gift-giving experience and the overall external validity of the studies. In addition, gender-based stereotypes and the relationship between the giver and the receiver (transactional or intimate) may also influence the relationship between gift package shapes and face consciousness.Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this research focus on three points. First, gift brand managers should strategically employ vertical package shapes to signal high-end attributes and evoke face consciousness among consumers, aligning with the psychology of both givers and recipients. Second, managers must consider consumers’ power states in gift-giving scenarios, tailoring packaging recommendations to the dynamics between givers and recipients to maximize market share. Last, cultural differences in face consciousness, particularly between Asian and Western cultures, necessitate that managers adapt packaging designs to respect and enhance the social status of both givers and recipients in culturally sensitive ways. These findings underscore the importance of understanding and integrating consumer psychology, power dynamics, and cultural nuances into gift packaging strategies to boost market share.Originality/valueThe research contributes to understanding the impact of gift packaging shape on the perception of face consciousness among both gift givers and recipients. It highlights the mediating role of social status symbols and extends its scope by examining downstream effects such as WTB and WOM. It explores individual power states as a moderating factor, revealing how personal dynamics influence perceptions of face-saving consciousness. Also, the cross-cultural validation of these effects in China and the USA underscores the importance of considering cultural differences.

EXPRESS: Quality, Necessity, or Accessibility? Impact of Dockless Bike Sharing on Ineffective Use of Medical Resources

In recent years, patients have increasing autonomy in medical decision-making. With great autonomy in selecting medical institutions, patients with low-risk diseases (LRD) may opt for treatment in prestigious hospitals, which limits the access of patients with high-risk diseases (HRD) to these hospitals. Moreover, due to limited medical knowledge and a fear of uncertainty regarding diseases, patients with greater medical autonomy may request various unnecessary medical tests to alleviate their health-related anxiety. This study takes a novel patients’ perspective to investigate how dockless bike sharing, which addresses the “last-mile problem” and improves geographical accessibility to medical institutions, affects two types of ineffective use of medical resources: disease-institution mismatch and overuse of medical tests. By introducing the concept of quality-accessibility trade-off in patients’ decision-making processes, we shed light on the psychological mechanism underlying the effect of dockless bike sharing on patients’ medical institution choices. We also introduce a new concept, perceived necessity of medical tests, to explain how dockless bike sharing reduces unnecessary medical tests. In Study 1, we designed a quasi-experiment and applied a difference-in-differences model based on real-world electronic health record data to show that dockless bike sharing increased the likelihood of patients choosing hospitals over clinics and decreased the number of unnecessary medical tests. In Studies 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b, four randomized controlled experiments were employed to replicate the findings and reveal the underlying mechanisms. In sum, we found that dockless bike sharing acted as a “double-edged sword” in terms of its impact on exacerbating disease-institution mismatch and alleviating the overuse of medical tests. This study makes significant theoretical contributions to the Operations Management (OM), sharing economy, and medical resource management literature. It also offers important managerial insights for governments, shared mobility platforms, and healthcare providers.

Running after two hares in visual working memory: Exploring retrospective attention to multiple items using simulation, behavioral outcomes, and eye tracking.

Multi-item retro-cueing effects refer to better working memory performance for multiple items when they are cued after their offset compared to a neutral condition in which all items are cued. However, several studies have reported boundary conditions, and findings have also sometimes failed to replicate. We hypothesized that a strategy to focus on only one of the cued items could possibly yield these inconsistent patterns. In Study 1, a Monte Carlo simulation showed that randomly selecting one of the cued items as the focus in each trial increased the chance of obtaining significant "multi-item retro-cueing effects" on the mean accuracy over the trials, providing an incorrect conclusion if interpreted as evidence for attending all the cued items. These high rates to obtain such data fit with inconsistent patterns in the literature. To try and circumvent this situation, we conducted two new experiments (Studies 2A and 2B) where participants were explicitly instructed to fixate their gaze on all the cued positions, verified through eye tracking (Study 2B). These produced robust multi-item retro-cueing effects regardless of previously identified boundary conditions. Notably, gazes were clearly fixated to multiple cued positions within each trial. Nevertheless, simulation revealed that our accuracy patterns could also in principle be produced by single-item enhancement on each trial. The present study forms the first step to disentangle overt gaze-based allocation of attention from single-item focusing strategies while also highlighting the need for improved methodologies to probe genuine multiplicity in working memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Seeing Through the Fog: The Ability to Resolve Ambiguity Reduces Dishonesty

Ambiguity acts as a veil that can help conceal and justify dishonest behavior. While an individual’s ability to disambiguate information in a task may help remove the veil of ambiguity and thus promote honesty, the relationship between ambiguity, ability, and dishonesty is currently unexplored. To investigate this, we employed an experimental design where participants attempted to resolve an ambiguous task and reported their performance. Results showed that ambiguity and dishonesty increase in unison. Importantly, the participants who resolved ambiguity acted less dishonestly (Study 1). In Studies 2a, 2b, and 3, we increased participants’ ability by briefly training them to disambiguate the information presented in the task. The results showed that participants acted less dishonestly when their ability levels were increased. Overall, the findings indicate that dishonesty can be reduced not only by making tasks less ambiguous but also by enhancing an individual’s ability to successfully resolve ambiguity.

The Unbearable Weight of Gender Inequalities: Development and Validation of the Social Treatment and Experiences of Women (STEW) Scale

Gender inequalities are pervasive across various life domains, yet research has often overlooked how people perceive that women are treated differently than men. To fill this gap, we developed and validated the 16-item multidimensional Social Treatment and Experiences of Women (STEW) scale across different samples of women and different cultural contexts, namely Italy and the UK N = 1,195). Using exploratory (Study 1, N = 703) and confirmatory (Study 2, N = 550; Study 3a, N = 132; Study 4, N = 201; Study 5, N = 233) factor analysis, we identified four dimensions: workplace inequalities, domestic imbalance, harassment towards women, and social expectations. Studies 3a and 3b (N = 96) demonstrated convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the STEW, linking the STEW’s subscales to group-based emotions, reported experiences of sexism, attitudes towards affirmative action, and attitudes towards women’s sexual freedom. Replicating the factor structure in the UK, Study 4 found the STEW explained unique variance in group-based emotions and intergroup attitudes beyond personal experiences of sexism. Last, Study 5 showed that the STEW explains unique variance in collective action intentions and feminist identification beyond people’s attitudes towards gender equality. Highlighting the importance of conceiving gender inequalities as a multifaceted issue, the STEW provides a robust tool for assessing perceptions of differential treatment of women across domains and can inform more comprehensive interventions promoting gender equality.

Was Aristotle right about moral decision-making? Building a new empirical model of practical wisdom.

This article presents the development and validation of the Short Phronesis Measure (SPM), a novel tool to assess Aristotelian phronesis (practical wisdom). Across three studies, using large, nationally representative samples from the UK and US (demographically matched to census data), we employed a systematic and rigorous methodology to examine the structure, reliability, and validity of the SPM. In Study 1a, exploratory factor analysis identified ten distinct, internally reliable components of phronesis, challenging the traditional four-component Aristotelian model. Study 1b confirmed these findings in two additional nationally representative samples from the UK and the US. In Study 1c, the SPM demonstrated strong test-retest reliability over two months. Study 2 used network analysis to uncover interrelations among the components, allowing for the creation of a new and empirically driven neo-Aristotelian model of phronesis. In Study 3, we tested criterion validity, showing phronesis correlates positively with flourishing and predicts flourishing two months later, demonstrating strong predictive validity. Phronesis also correlated with Big 6 and Dark Tetrad personality traits, moral disengagement, and Moral Foundations in expected directions. Importantly, phronesis predicted key outcomes-related to flourishing, moral disengagement, and morally relevant aspects of personality-beyond what Moral Foundations alone explained, with an average increase in predictive power of 13.7% across all outcomes. The SPM is quick to administer (15-20 minutes), making it a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners in psychology, education, and professional ethics. The introduction of the neo-Aristotelian Phronesis Model, and the identification of central phronesis components, offers actionable insights for moral psychologists and moral educators, suggesting areas of focus that could yield broad, positive effects across related traits, providing a significant contribution to both theory and practice.

Future Organizational Identification: Visionary Leadership Gives Me Foresight to Identify With My Organization in the Future

ABSTRACTThis research introduces the concept of future organizational identification (FOI), an extension of organizational identification (OI) that emphasizes its forward‐looking aspect. FOI refers to an individual's projection of their self‐definition based on the continuity of their organizational membership. Drawing on construal level theory (CLT) and a future‐oriented approach, this research investigates how visionary leadership, which offers vision communication and vision of continuity, may enhance followers' FOI through future focus. Study 1, comprising Studies 1a and 1b, validates the measurement of FOI in workplace contexts. With a three‐wave, time‐lagged investigation, Study 2 demonstrates that leaders' vision communication fosters followers' FOI by promoting future focus, and vision of continuity positively moderates this mediation effect. These findings advance literature on organizational identification, visionary leadership, and CLT. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and proposing directions for future research.

Preferences for Gender Stereotypicality in Artificial Intelligence: Existence, Comparison to Human Biases, and Implications for Choice

Do people prefer that artificial intelligence (AI) aligns with gender stereotypes when requesting help to answer a question? We found that people preferred gender stereotypicality (over counterstereotypicality and androgyny) in voice-based AI when seeking help (e.g., preferring feminine voices to answer questions in feminine domains; Studies 1a–1b). Preferences for stereotypicality were stronger when using binary zero-sum (vs. continuous non-zero-sum) assessments (Study 2). Contrary to expectations, biases were larger when judging human (vs. AI) targets (Study 3). Finally, people were more likely to request (vs. decline) assistance from gender stereotypical (vs. counterstereotypical) human targets, but this choice bias did not extend to AI targets (Study 4). Across studies, we observed stronger preferences for gender stereotypicality in feminine (vs. masculine) domains, potentially due to examining biases in a stereotypically feminine context (helping). These studies offer nuanced insights into conditions under which people use gender stereotypes to evaluate human and non-human entities.

Low Self-Concept Clarity Induces Scarcity Perceptions: The Subsequent Effects on Prosocial Behavior.

We explore the relationship between self-concept clarity (SCC), scarcity perceptions, and the associated behavioral consequences. While scarcity perceptions are often linked to experiences and considerations of resource constraints, our research suggests that low SCC can induce such perceptions and decrease prosocial behavior. With six studies, we demonstrated that low SCC triggers scarcity perceptions (Studies 1A to 4B), which is mediated by increased social comparison orientation (Studies 2 to 4B). Furthermore, we found that the scarcity perceptions increased by low SCC further predict individuals' low inclination to engage in prosocial behaviors (Studies 3 to 4B). By establishing a link between SCC and scarcity perceptions, our research departs from the traditional focus on resource constraints, broadens the factors that induce scarcity perceptions, and extends our understanding of the societal implications of low SCC.

Pinning down state authenticity: defining and validating a state authenticity measure

ABSTRACT The experience of feeling authentic (“state authenticity”) is both common and consequential, yet research remains hampered by operational disparities. Specifically, the continued reliance on unvalidated, ad-hoc measures challenges the validity and generalizability of empirical findings. We address these concerns by reviewing past literature and validating a State Authenticity Scale (“SAS”) in six empirical studies. In Studies 1a and 1b (n = 494), we develop and iteratively refine this scale. Study 2 (n = 390) then confirms the factor structure. Study 3 demonstrates experimental validity using a paradigmatic state authenticity induction (n = 586). Finally, Studies 4a (n = 349) and 4b (n = 360) clarify methodological confusion, benchmarking the reliability of the SAS against a face-valid “true self” authenticity measure representative of past research. Our research suggests that the SAS will enhance the reliability and reproducibility of future research on this elusive psychological construct.

The iii-rg: An individual difference measure of intersectional identities integration of race and gender identities

ABSTRACT Interest in intersectional perspectives has increased in recent years, but this work has centered primarily on the perception of intersected people rather than the experience of possessing intersectional identities. The goal of the current research is to develop and validate a scale that measures the integration of an individual’s racial and gender identities, which we call the Intersectional Identities Integration Race-Gender scale (iii-rg). Studies 1a and 1b establish and confirm the factor structure of the iii-rg. We then demonstrate the temporal consistency of the scale (Study 2). Finally, we investigate the divergent validity of the iii-rg and explore group differences in the iii-rg (Study 3). Potential applications of this measure, its utility in theory building, and follow-up studies are discussed.

Trickle-up effects of children's financial anxiety on parent retirement intentions.

Today, adult children depend financially on their parents more than ever before. This poses challenges for the financial well-being of parents, particularly in the context of retirement planning. Our research investigates the crossover of financial anxiety from adult children to their parents and its impact on parents' retirement intentions. Drawing on crossover theory and the resource-based view of retirement, we examine the mechanisms underlying this stress crossover. Across three studies (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2) conducted in developed economies, we found that adult children's financial anxiety was associated with their parents' delayed retirement intentions through an increase in their parents' own financial anxiety. Study 3, conducted in a developing economy, further established that financial stress crossover occurred primarily through an increase in social undermining and financial expenditure, although these mechanisms do not translate into delayed retirement intentions. Our work contributes to the stress-crossover literature by testing different mechanisms of stress crossover and highlighting how children's financial anxiety might "trickle-up" to affect their parents' stress and important life decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).