EXPRESS: The Context (In)Dependence of Low Fit Brand Extensions

Low fit brand extensions, while often presenting profitable opportunities for existing brands, are known to meet with varying levels of consumer acceptance. This research identifies conditions under which low fit extensions can succeed. Specifically, the authors show that the extent to which consumers consider the context in forming judgments (i.e., are context dependent) determines the acceptance of low fit extensions. In four studies, the authors examine the combined effects of context (in)dependence and type of information, and show that context dependent individuals form their evaluations on the basis of the type of brand extension information provided. For context dependent individuals, providing benefit-based information enhances the evaluations of low fit extensions, whereas providing attribute-based information leads to a reliance on extension fit and subsequent unfavorable evaluation of low fit extensions. In contrast, context independent individuals are more likely to base their judgments on extension fit regardless of whether attribute- or benefit-based information is provided. The acceptance of high fit extension is unaffected by context (in)dependence and type of information. Our findings provide a two-step strategy (i.e., sensitizing consumers to context and providing them benefit-based extension information) for managers to successfully launch low fit extensions and leverage existing parent brand equity.

Context-dependent relationships between locus coeruleus firing patterns and coordinated neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex

Ascending neuromodulatory projections from the locus coeruleus (LC) affect cortical neural networks via the release of norepinephrine (NE). However, the exact nature of these neuromodulatory effects on neural activity patterns in vivo is not well understood. Here we show that in awake monkeys, LC activation is associated with changes in coordinated activity patterns in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). These relationships, which are largely independent of changes in firing rates of individual ACC neurons, depend on the type of LC activation: ACC pairwise correlations tend to be reduced when ongoing (baseline) LC activity increases but enhanced when external events evoke transient LC responses. Both relationships covary with pupil changes that reflect LC activation and arousal. These results suggest that modulations of information processing that reflect changes in coordinated activity patterns in cortical networks can result partly from ongoing, context-dependent, arousal-related changes in activation of the LC-NE system.

Exclusionary Contexts Frustrate Cultural Integration: Migrant Acculturation Into Support for Gender Equality in the Labor Market in Western Europe

Countering linear acculturation theories, the adoption of Western European gender customs over time differs across migrant groups. This diversity implies that acculturation into support for gender equality is context dependent. However, little quantitative scholarship has identified what sort of contexts strengthen or impede acculturation. This article investigates one source of context-dependent acculturation: exclusionary contexts. I build and test a context-dependent exclusions framework that proposes that contexts that exclude non-Western migrants hamper their acculturation into support for gender equality in the labor market in Western Europe. Empirically, I synchronize European Social Survey, European Values Study, and Eurislam data on over 11,000 non-Western migrants in Western Europe. Cross-classified models show that non-Western migrants’ support for labor-market gender equality is, indeed, lower in exclusionary contexts, for instance, in destinations with stronger anti-migrant sentiments. Pivotally, the impact of destinations’ gender customs on migrants’ gender values differs across destination, origin, and community contexts. For instance, in destinations with stronger populist right-wing parties, migrants internalize destinations’ gender equality less. Altogether, non-Western migrants’ acculturation into support for labor-market gender equality is highly dependent on contextual exclusions, which means that populist claims about non-Western migrants’ universal lack of acculturation into support for gender equality should be viewed cautiously.

A multivariate modeling framework to quantify immune checkpoint context-dependent stimulation on T cells

Cells receive, and adjust to, various stimuli, which function as part of complex microenvironments forming their “context”. The possibility that a given context impacts the response to a given stimulus defines “context-dependency” and it explains large parts of the functional variability of physiopathological and pharmacological stimuli. Currently, there is no framework to analyze and quantify context-dependency over multiple contexts and cellular response outputs. We established an experimental system including a stimulus of interest, applied to an immune cell type in several contexts. We studied the function of OX40 ligand (OX40L) on T helper (Th) cell differentiation, in 4 molecular (Th0, Th1, Th2, and Th17) and 11 dendritic cell (DC) contexts (monocyte-derived DC and cDC2 conditions). We measured 17 Th output cytokines in 302 observations, and developed a statistical modeling strategy to quantify OX40L context-dependency. This revealed highly variable context-dependency, depending on the output cytokine and context type itself. Among molecular contexts, Th2 was the most influential on OX40L function. Among DC contexts, the DC type rather than the activating stimuli was dominant in controlling OX40L context-dependency. This work mathematically formalizes the complex determinants of OX40L functionality, and provides a unique framework to decipher and quantify the context-dependent variability of any biomolecule or drug function.

Addendum to: Murre (2021). The Godden and Baddeley (1975) experiment on context-dependent memory on land and underwater: a replication

The analysis in Murre (2021) should have been done with a repeated measures ANOVA with an order effect as a between-subjects covariate. A reanalysis reinforces the conclusion that this study was not a successful replication of Godden & Baddeley (1975).

Sustainability challenges for the social-environmental systems across the Asian drylands belt

This paper synthesizes the contemporary challenges for the sustainability of the social-environmental system (SES) across a geographically, environmentally, and geopolitically diverse region – the Asian Drylands Belt (ADB). This region includes 18 political entities, covering 10.3% of global land area and 30% of total global drylands. At the present time, the ADB is confronted with a unique set of environmental and socioeconomic changes including water shortage-related environmental challenges and dramatic institutional changes since the collapse of the USSR. The SES of the ADB is assessed using a conceptual framework rooted in the three pillars of sustainability science: social, economic, and ecological systems. The complex dynamics are explored with biophysical, socioeconomic, institutional, and local context-dependent mechanisms with a focus on institutions and land use and land cover change as important drivers of SES dynamics. This paper also discusses the following five pressing, practical challenges for the sustainability of the ADB SES: (1) Reduced water quantity and quality under warming, drying, and escalating extreme events, (2) Continued, if not intensifying, geopolitical conflicts, (3) Volatile, uncertain, and shifting socioeconomic structures, (4) Globalization and cross-country influences, and (5) Intensification and shifts in land use and land cover change. To meet the varied challenges across the region, place-based, context-dependent transdisciplinary approaches are needed to focus on the human-environment interactions within and between regional landscapes with explicit consideration of specific forcings and regulatory mechanisms. Future work focused on this region should also assess the role of the following mechanisms that may moderate SES dynamics: socioeconomic regulating mechanisms, biophysical regulating mechanisms, regional and national institutional regulating mechanisms, and localized institutional regulating mechanisms.