Social Comparison Information Influences Intentions to Reduce Single-Use Plastic Water Bottle Consumption

Single-use plastic consumption is at an all-time high and threatens environmental and human health. College campuses in particular serve as a hub for single-use plastics due to their convenience for students on the go. The present research tests whether social comparison information can influence self-perceptions of single-use plastic consumption and motivate behavior change within the college campus environment. In a controlled experiment, we measured college students' existing plastic water bottle usage and gave them false feedback about their behaviors and relative standing to their classmates: participants in comparison conditions learned they were either above or below average in their plastic water bottle sustainability behaviors. Results indicated that (relative to a no-comparison control), being above average at water bottle sustainability led students to be more satisfied with their sustainability efforts. However, either kind of comparison information (i.e., being above or below average) led to greater behavioral intentions to reduce single-use plastic water bottle consumption in the future. This study highlights how comparison information can be used to motivate sustainable behavior change with regards to single-use plastics.

The Brand Sustainability Obstacle: Viewpoint Incompatibility and Consumer Boycott

Brand equity is critical for brand sustainability. Companies participate in social issues to maintain brand equity by making the brand easily recognizable, superior in quality, and favored and affirmed by consumers. However, the ideological incompatibility between a brand and consumers may induce the consumers to adopt boycott action, which is an obstacle to brand sustainability. Before adopting boycott action, consumers consider the opinions of themselves and those of others. The opinion incompatibility between consumers is an influential factor for the consumers’ boycott intention, while individuals’ Attention to Social Comparison Information (ATSCI) is a moderate factor. This article conducted three studies that explored the influence of ideological incompatibility and ATSCI on boycott intention. Study 1 and Study 2 conducted an online and an offline experimental design to investigate the consumers’ boycott intention when a brand holds a different view from consumers on a debatable issue—same-sex marriage. Study 3 focused on the influence of ideological incompatibility between consumers and their relatives and friends regarding boycott intention. Individuals’ ATSCI is considered as a moderate factor. Based on these three empirical studies, we conclude that when a brand takes a stand on a debatable issue, it may be taking risks for brand sustainability since some consumers might boycott it because of ideological incompatibility. High ATSCI individuals may choose to follow the opinions of others and change their boycott intention.

Does Salience of Neighbor-Comparison Information Attract Attention and Conserve Energy? Eye-Tracking Experiment and Interview with Korean Local Apartment Residents

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether salience of neighbor comparison information attracts more attention from residents and consequently leads to significant energy conservation. An eye-tracking experiment on 54 residents in a local apartment complex in Korea found that the average time of attention to the neighbor comparison information increased to 277 ms when the size of the information was four times larger and the information was located to the far left. However, the interviews with the subjects suggest that salience of the information is seemingly unrelated to energy conservation, because most of them did not agree with the social consensus that individuals need to refrain from consuming energy when they know that they have consumed more than the neighbor’s average. Utility data on 502 households in the apartments revealed that, of the households notified that they consumed more than their neighbors, only less than 50% reduced their energy consumption, which supports the interview results. Therefore, it was concluded that neighbor comparison information did not lead to significant energy conservation effects in the community, although salience of the information contributed to attracting more attention to the information. Unavailable household data remained as limitation to clarify the effect by households.

Seeking traces of women in early Irish filmmaking

Recent research by Díóg O’Connell and Donna Casella has brought to light the work of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan with the Film Company of Ireland (1916–20). These scholars trace the personal archive of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan’s descendants and use this data to create a trajectory of her role within this first significant Irish film company. While the official record of the Film Company of Ireland is considered limited, there are traces of the company in trade papers, archives and newspapers. In comparison, information about the role of women in this company is difficult to discover as women often slip from the official archive in this period. In the case of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan, she is frequently hidden behind her husband’s record as owner and director of the Film Company of Ireland, or behind her more famous father and brothers, well-connected Republicans, Mayors of Limerick, and successful businessmen. This paper will examine the role of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan and her sister Mary Rynne in the development of the Film Company of Ireland by examining the archival records available and exploring how to find information about these women when they elude the official record. Working in particular on documents found in the Rynne family archive, Special Collections, NUIG, this paper will attempt to trace the financial contribution of Mary Rynne to this film company and to bring to light the role these two sisters played in the development of the early Irish film industry.

COVID-19 IN THE LEXICALSYSTEM OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE

The given article examines the vocabulary in social discourse, which has gained relevance in connection with the disease of the century Covid-19. The analysis is based on four articles from the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Tagesschau. For comparison, information is provided from a review of British and American newspapers in October 2020. The lexical units are components and fragments of discourses that, in the last decade, have attracted more attention of not only philologists, but also scientists from other areas of the social sciences and humanities. Language units are divided into specific semantic categories. The article illustrates specific factual material, and also compared their semantic derivation with facts extracted from authoritative dictionaries. Since some linguistic units, due to their "freshness", do not have time to find their place in dictionaries, their semantic categories are determined in contexts. In addition, linguistic units are categorized into specific thematic types and semantic categories.

“Feeling the waste” evidence from consumers’ living in Gaza Strip camps

Purpose This paper aims to quantify the impact of antecedents (frustration, locus of control, spirituality, and religion and attention to social-comparison information) on the intensity of emotional outcomes of consumers’ disposal behaviour. Design/methodology/approach A structural equation model fitted with PLS was used to evaluate data obtained from 323 self-administered questionnaires filled out in a stratified random sample of respondents living in Gaza Strip camps. Findings Spirituality and religion, and attention to social-comparison information have the highest impacts on emotional outcomes related to consumer disposal behaviour. Research limitations/implications Spirituality and religion are seldom considered in previous consumer research, but they turn out to have high relevance for disposal-related emotions. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating disposal-related emotions. Moreover, it is also the first study combining the impact of frustration, locus of control, perceived self-efficacy, spirituality and religion and attention to social-comparison information on emotional outcomes related to consumers’ disposal behaviour.