What is the Role of Memory in Consumer–Brand Relationship? Insight from sport industry

We live in a time when symbolism is of enormous priority. Memories are a particularly important part of the construction of individual identity and the subsequent relationships established, personal and with the loved brands. Previous research in psychology and neurosciences on negativity effect claims that negative events have more impact than positive ones. In an emotional context like the sports industry, being a fan has implications at all levels: psychological, mental and behavioural. Deepening the theme of memory from a psychological perspective, the present study theorises about the hypothesis of positivity effect in memory in the behaviour of sport fans in consumer neuroscience studies. Theoretical contribution and managerial suggestions are presented, in addition, as direction for further research.

The Cost of the Epistemic Step: Investigating Scalar Implicatures in Full and Partial Information Contexts

We present the first ERP experiments that test the online processing of the scalar implicature some ⇝ not all in contexts where the speaker competence assumption is violated. Participants observe game scenarios with four open cards on the table and two closed cards outside of the table, while listening to statements made by a virtual player. In the full access context, the player makes a fully informed statement by referring only to the open cards, as cards on the table; in the partial access context, she makes a partially informed statement by referring to the whole set of cards, as cards in the game. If all of the open cards contain a given object X (Fullset condition), then some cards on the table contain Xs is inconsistent with the not all reading, whereas it is unknown whether some cards in the game contain X is consistent with this reading. If only a subset of the open cards contains X (Subset condition), then both utterances are known to be consistent with the not all implicature. Differential effects are observed depending on the quantifier reading adopted by the participant: For those participants who adopt the not all reading in the full access context, but not in the partial access context (weak pragmatic reading), a late posterior negativity effect is observed in the partial access context for the Fullset relative to the Subset condition. This effect is argued to reflect inference-driven context retrieval and monitoring processes related to epistemic reasoning involved in evaluating the competence assumption. By contrast, for participants who adopt the logical interpretation of some (some and possibly all), an N400 effect is observed in the partial access context, when comparing the Subset against the Fullset condition, which is argued to result from the competition between the two quantifying expressions some cards on the table and some cards in the game functioning in the experiment as scalar alternatives.

Effects of Emotional Valence and Concreteness on Children’s Recognition Memory

There are considerable gaps in our knowledge of how children develop abstract language. In this paper, we tested the Affective Embodiment Account, which proposes that emotional information is more essential for abstract than concrete conceptual development. We tested the recognition memory of 7- and 8-year-old children, as well as a group of adults, for abstract and concrete words which differed categorically in valence (negative, neutral, and positive). Word valence significantly interacted with concreteness in hit rates of both children and adults, such that effects of valence were only found in memory for abstract words. The pattern of valence effects differed for children and adults: children remembered negative words more accurately than neutral and positive words (a negativity effect), whereas adults remembered negative and positive words more accurately than neutral words (a negativity effect and a positivity effect). In addition, signal detection analysis revealed that children were better able to discriminate negative than positive words, regardless of concreteness. The findings suggest that the memory accuracy of 7- and 8-year-old children is influenced by emotional information, particularly for abstract words. The results are in agreement with the Affective Embodiment Account and with multimodal accounts of children’s lexical development.

Distrust, danger, and confidence: A content analysis of the Australian Vaccination-Risks Network Blog

The Australian Vaccination-risks Network is Australia’s most active counter-vaccine lobby group. This study employs a content analysis of the organization’s 2012–2019 blog posts, while further considering Australian-specific vaccine contexts. The goal is to identify the persuasion attributes of these counter-vaccine articles, and the ways that the group’s media employs persuasive cues when communicating to Australian publics. The project gauges the occurrence rates of message variables associated with the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, including those labeled as the Scarcity Principle, Arousal of Fear, Asking Questions, Source Cues, the Contrast Principle and Negativity Effect, as well as Statistics and Technical Jargon. Three overarching themes collectively exhibited by these message variables are further identified and described as Distrust, Danger, and Confidence. In view of these findings, the study then considers how persuasive cue expression in Australian Vaccination-risks Network blog posts corresponds with Australian vaccine hesitancies and the country’s No Jab No Pay/Play policies.

The Relative Power of Negativity: The Influence of Language Intensity on Perceived Strength

Negative utterances and words have been found to be stronger than positive utterances and words, but what happens if positive and negative utterances are intensified? Two online experiments were carried out in which participants judged the strength of (un)intensified positive and negative evaluations in written dialogues. Both studies showed intensified language was perceived as stronger than unmarked language (i.e., language that was not intensified), and negative evaluations were stronger than positive evaluations. What is more, intensification and polarity interact; the increment of perceived strength for intensified positive adjectives (Study 1) and purely intensified adverbs ( really, very; Study 2) was bigger than the increment in perceived strength of intensified negative adjective and adverbs. When a meaningful intensifier ( deliciously, disgustingly) was used, the negativity effect remained. The findings were discussed within cognitive frameworks such as relevance theory, theory of mind, and theory on verbal aggression.

Corporate social responsibility, stock salience, and the asymmetric market impact of consumer sentiment news on Spanish firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the Spanish stock market experiences a negativity effect on the announcement of Spanish consumer sentiment information and if firms that are signatory to the UN Global Compact on corporate social responsibility are relatively more salient in the minds of investors. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use consumer sentiment announcements to show how the negativity effects on the Spanish stock market are significantly influenced by how salient the stock is in the minds of investors. If a firm’s stock exhibits negativity effects on the release of consumer sentiment information then this stock is salient to investors. If firms who are signatory to the UN Global Compact exhibit significant negativity effects, it could be concluded that these stocks are salient, particularly if firms that are not signatory to the Global Compact do not exhibit a similar negativity effect. Findings – The IBEX35 index experiences significant negativity effects upon the release of Spanish consumer sentiment announcements. This is similar to that reported in other countries, notably Australia and the USA. Using the constituent firms in the IBEX35 index, the authors find that those firms that are signatory to the UN Global Compact are significantly more likely to experience negativity effects upon the release of Spanish consumer sentiment information than if they are not signatory to the Global Compact. This indicates that firms that are part of the UN Global Compact are more salient to investors. Research limitations/implications – Available published Spanish data on consumer sentiment. Practical implications – Little is understood of the impact that consumer sentiment announcements have on stock prices. Studies in USA and Australia have identified significant negativity effects in stock markets when consumer sentiment information is released. This research has found that a psychological negativity bias occurs in firms that are salient to investors. Salience has been found to be important in asset pricing. Originality/value – This paper tries to find out which companies are more likely to sign the UN Global Compact. These companies are more sensitive to consumer sentiment, because they depend on the everyday decisions of the consumers. The more the companies depend on consumers, the more they care about them. And, when the consumer sentiment goes down, they are more affected by this sentiment. These firms are also more worried about the long term. They are not only thinking about the profits in the short term but also about maintaining the generation of profits in the long term.

The Outcomes of Broadcasting Self-Disclosure Using New Communication Technologies: Responses to Disclosure Vary Across One’s Social Network

Several new communication technologies have made it relatively easy for individuals to broadcast a single self-disclosure directly to almost everyone with whom they share a relationship—ranging from close friends to little-known acquaintances. Drawing from research on self-disclosure and the negativity effect, two studies were conducted to test the notion that the interpersonal and relational outcomes of broadcasting positive and negative self-disclosures are not uniform. The results of the cross-sectional survey offer evidence that the outcomes of positive and negative broadcasted disclosures vary depending on the receiver’s relationship with the discloser. The results from the experiment largely support the negativity effect explanation for differences in the outcomes of broadcasted disclosures. Relative to positive disclosures, negative broadcasted self-disclosures have a significantly greater impact on acquaintances than on friends’ perceptions of the discloser and their relationship.

Consumer responses toward online review manipulation

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the effect on consumer responses of firms’ manipulating online reviews based on review valence (positive vs negative) and the relationship between consumer trust and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach – This study was designed as an experimental study using a scenario method, and data were randomly collected from 2,080 online shoppers in the USA. Findings – Findings reveal that the unfair business practice of manipulating online postings considerably undermined consumer trust toward online reviews. Consumer trust in reviews thus seems to be a critical predictor of purchase intentions, which was strengthened even when respondents knew that online reviews were manipulated. Practical implications – Companies may thus need to focus on maintaining transparency and truthfulness in online consumer reviews rather than artificially improving ratings scores or feedback levels. Originality/value – This study was the first attempt to provide empirical supports that the level of consumer trust in online reviews significantly decreased after consumers were informed that the review content had been manipulated by a company in both the positive and negative conditions. These results also support previous research articulating the negativity effect.