Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): Clothes, condoms, and customer satisfaction. The effect of employee mere presence on customer satisfaction depends on the shopping situation. In: Psychology & Marketing 35 (6), S. 454-462. DOI: 10.1002/mar.21098
Abstract: Few studies have examined how customers respond to the mere presence of others in the shopping environment, and only one article (Soderlund, ) has investigated the unique impact that employee presence has on key customer outcomes. Soderlund () found that customers entering a store with an employee present (vs. absent) reported significantly higher levels of customer satisfaction, with their increased levels of pleasurable feelings mediating this effect. However, similar to the majority of theorizing on customer satisfaction, that article was restricted to data collected in a Western society. Given the rapid economic growth in many Asian regions, there is a need to examine the applicability of such Western-based findings from an Asian perspective, and hence include participants from Eastern societies. Accordingly, the present research investigated whether Soderlund's () results could be replicated among Asian customers. The current work also sought to extend prior findings beyond pleasure and customer satisfaction while simultaneously documenting a boundary condition for the hitherto positive employee mere presence effects. To this end, two between-subjects experiments with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers were conducted. Study 1, which involved a shopping situation in a clothing store, replicated Soderlund's () main results and further found that employee mere presence (vs. absence) had a significant positive impact on customers' loyalty intentions. These results were reversed in Study 2, in which the shopping situation involved the purchase of an embarrassing product. Under such circumstances, employee presence (vs. absence) consistently produced negative effects on customers' levels of pleasure, satisfaction, and loyalty intentions.
Keywords: Disziplin, dominance, Kulturinvarianz, Kulturtheorie, Marketing, Psychologie, Sozialpsychologie -
(2018): The Fear to Talk. In: CHUZHDOEZIKOVO OBUCHENIE-FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING 45 (2), S. 187-193
Abstract: This paper deals with one of the most controversial phenomena of modern society – political correctness, manifested in language and behaviour. It focuses on the restrictions which it imposes on people’s social and cultural life, the bans that are enforced against a particular language and the possible prosecution in case of refusal to use politically correct language. It deals with facts that show arising dominance of minority groups over the majority.
2017
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(2017): The impact of face systems on the pragmalinguistic features of academic e-mail requests. In: Pragmatics and Society 8 (1), S. 61-84. DOI: 10.1075/ps.8.1.04asl
Abstract: This study investigates the impact of power/distance (PD) variables operationalized as face systems on the pragmalinguistic features of academic e-mail requests. A corpus of 90 academic e-mails was classified into four face system groups: hierarchical (sender +P), hierarchical (recipient +P), deference, and solidarity. Request perspectives, strategies, and mitigating supportive moves were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the speaker and hearer dominance were the most frequent request perspectives in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The impersonal perspective was more common in the hierarchical (sender+P) group. The preparatory was the dominant request strategy in all groups, relatively more frequent in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The most common supportive move was the grounder, which occurred more frequently than other supportive moves. The findings of the study indicate that face systems influence the request patterns in academic e-mail communication. The study has implications for future research on pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (CMC).
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(2017): The Hazard of Teetering at the Top and Being Tied to the Bottom. The Interactive Relationship of Power, Stability, and Social Dominance Orientation with Work Stress. In: Applied Psychology 66 (4), S. 653-673. DOI: 10.1111/apps.12104
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12104 Abstract: This study examines the roles of power, stability, and social dominance orientation (SDO) for work stress. Initial laboratory research has demonstrated that power and the stability of one's power position interact to influence stress. Using a sample of Chinese managers, we replicate and extend this finding in an organisational field setting, illustrating that the interactive role of power and stability hinges on individuals' SDO. Individuals higher (but not lower) in SDO experienced more work stress in unstable high‐power and stable low‐power positions, compared to their counterparts in stable high‐power and unstable low‐power positions. These results underscore the role of stability for understanding the power–stress relationship and emphasise individual differences in needs and motivations as an important boundary condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2017) : Alternate Human Behavior In: Hermann, Henry R.: Dominance and aggression in humans and other animals: The great game of life: London, United Kingdom: Academic Press/Elsevier, S. 139-157
Abstract: Dominance interactions are found in all walks of life and at all levels of human existence. They may be powerful expressions that influence society in a positive or negative fashion (e.g., a political leader who genuinely cares about his or her constituents, versus a political psychopath who does as he or she pleases, sometimes destroying the lives of those who get in the way). On the other hand, they may be less-significant expressions; for example, simply winning at a competitive sport or game of cards. People who have an antisocial personality typically express their form of dominance in a more aggressive, sometimes violent fashion. The development of a sedentary lifestyle in humans led to the formation of larger groups and increased interrelationships, including individuals who were extra-familial. Most urban and suburban human societies continue in this fashion, while aboriginal societies either live in multifamily groups or have retained the earlier family-oriented groupings. Our predecessors learned that living in a large group was a more effective way of meeting material and spiritual needs, and it functioned as a better system of defense against threats. Unfortunately, opposing groups became larger as well, and their differences often led to altercations and mass killings. Existing in groups comes with certain responsibilities. Rules must be made (generally based on religious, moral, and political beliefs), and members of such a group are expected to become familiar with and practice behaviors that depict a social “norm.” While social norms vary, depending on the society to which an individual belongs, some members of a society are willing to abide by social rules while others are not. Those who do abide by the rules are considered part of the “norm,” while those who do not are said to express alternate behavior. Thus, human society is composed of a tremendous variety of individuals at both extremes and others who fit somewhere in between. They occupy different behavioral categories and different rungs within the linear and despotic dominance hierarchies that exist. It is often dominant individuals who influence the making of societal rules, and it is often dominant individuals who break them. In choosing rule-making leaders, we desire individuals who are morally selfless and possibly sometimes even altruistic. While this may happen on occasion, many individuals who make the rules have more materialistic or sadistic reasons for domination. Such individuals are accustomed to using deceit to influence their followers, and their deceitful mannerisms are often difficult to recognize. In rule making, dominant individuals (especially those who have an antisocial personality) often make rules that are not self-demanding and are often directly beneficial for the rule maker. Thus, it is a selfish attitude. In rule breaking, dominant individuals generally demonstrate an even more selfish approach as well. This chapter is about those people, people with personalities who desire to dominate others by aberrant means and do not care about what the consequences of their behavior are to others. In the minds of most of society, they are the social outcasts, bullies, burglars, corporate and identity thieves, abusers, murderers, and rapists that every society must contend with. Many people who demonstrate behaviors other than the “norm” do not precisely fit descriptions of antisocial personalities, and there are no definite lines of demarcation separating one group from another. Rather, there is a gradation of personalities from one end of the scale to the other, a bell curve of personalities, if you will. While many people are perfectly comfortable in following societal rules, some people choose to isolate themselves from society by not becoming involved, separating themselves from other individuals and societal functions. They practice what has been described as an asocial way of life. Types of sociopaths, mental illness, personality disorders, psychopathic behavior, antisocial personality disorders, love, respect, falling out of love, stalking, tolerance, adultery, hatred, hate groups, and other forms of alternate behavior complete the chapter.
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(2017): The Embodiment of Power and Visual Dominance Behaviour. In: Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems 15 (4), S. 228-241. DOI: 10.7906/indecs.15.4.1
Abstract: The objective of this study was to identify whether the changes in assuming power poses during a conversation between a pair of individuals, who were previously familiar with each other, influence the hierarchy of power, changes in it, as well as maintenance and adoption of different roles in the hierarchy. We assumed changes in roles of power on the basis of changes in visual dominance behaviour, which proved to be a reliable indicator of the social power of the individual in previous researches. Each pair conversed on predefined topics three times for three minutes. By placing individuals in a neutral or expansive posture, the purpose of which was covered by the use of a cover story, we created a difference in nonverbal expression of power between the two individuals. In the first conversation, both individuals adopted a neutral pose. In the second conversation, one individual adopted an expansive posture, while the other remained in a neutral one, and vice versa in the third conversation. Interactions were filmed with two cameras, which enabled us to analyse nonverbal behaviour. The results show that the differences in displays of power with expansive body postures between individuals are not associated with changes in visual dominance behaviour of individuals. From this we conclude that in the relations in which the social hierarchy of power is already established, the use of power poses does not help increase the power of the individual who adopts the posture.
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(2017): Ein pleonastisches Oxymoron. Konstruktionsprobleme von Pierre Bourdieus Schlüsselkonzept der symbolischen Gewalt. In: Berliner Journal für Soziologie 27 (1), S. 7-33. DOI: 10.1007/s11609-017-0335-5
Abstract: According to Pierre Bourdieu, it is due to symbolic violence that social domination can be sustained without resorting to physical force. Because the dominated perceive their situation by means of categories which themselves are structured by power relations, they accept their own domination as legitimate, necessary, or functional. While the concept of symbolic violence takes center stage in Bourdieu's sociology, upon close analysis it turns out to be highly problematic. The paper shows that symbolic violence runs counter to the intentional and experiential structure of acts which are usually perceived as violent. As a result, the relation between symbolic and physical aspects of violence remains ambiguous in Bourdieu's writings. This, again, contributes to an inconsistent view on the history of violence and compromises the very normative grasp the extended notion of violence was actually intended to facilitate. Contrary to the prevailing interpretation, the article argues that the conceptual inconsistencies do not constitute a rhetorical artifice, but result from an unintended deviation from Bourdieu's fundamental terminological strategy to interlink the emic perspective of the actors and the etic perspective of sociology by means of seemingly contradictory phrases. Furthermore, Bourdieu's account of symbolic violence is not convincing with reference to the conceptualization of socialization and the (re)production of symbolic domination in concrete interaction. In a constructive vein the paper finally calls for the continuing analysis of the subtle and manifold modes of symbolic dominance by the use of more appropriate concepts.
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(2017): Smile for a while. The effect of employee-displayed smiling on customer affect and satisfaction. In: Journal of Service Management 28 (2), S. 284-304. DOI: 10.1108/JOSM-11-2015-0372
Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of employee-displayed smiling on customers' affective states (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) and satisfaction. Building on the stimulus-organism-response framework and theories of emotional contagion and feelings-as-information, the main hypothesis was that a smiling (vs non-smiling) employee significantly increases customer satisfaction through the mediating influence of pleasure. Design/methodology/approach - The study used a quasi-experimental two-group between-subjects design. A total of 210 customers at a large retail bank had a brief service encounter at the store entrance with a smiling (vs non-smiling) bank teller. Customers then went into the bank to do what they came to do. Before leaving the bank, customers completed a survey that included demographic information, affect (pleasure, arousal, and dominance), and measures of customer satisfaction. Findings - A smiling (vs non-smiling) employee had a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. This effect was mediated by pleasure, but also, to a weaker extent, by dominance. These results contradict previous claims that smiling-induced emotional contagion does not remain throughout the completion of a service encounter. Practical implications - Managers should encourage, and potentially train, employees to act in ways associated with positive emotions. Managers could also hire employees based on how good they are at acting and expressing themselves in a genuinely positive manner and create a pleasant store atmosphere so that the feelings and behaviors displayed by frontline employees are genuine rather than inauthentic. Originality/value - This is the first experimental field study to examine the isolated effect that employee-displayed smiling has on customers' affective states and satisfaction. The results provide more direct evidence for the psychological processes justified by emotional contagion and feelings-as-information theories. Furthermore, the finding that dominance mediates the smiling-satisfaction link has never been shown before.
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(2017): Reciprocation under status ambiguity. How dominance motives and spread of status value shape gift exchange. In: Social Networks 48, S. 142-156. DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2016.08.004
Abstract: How does status ambiguity affect reciprocation in gift exchange? We argue that actors in an exchange relationship delay reciprocation as a means of subtly claiming dominance when relative status is ambiguous. Using a two-step link-tracing sample of gift exchange dyads from an online social network site in the early days of social media, we analyze the probability of two-way exchange dyads and the timing of reciprocation while accounting for the nested and autocorrelated data structure. The results support the predicted inverted-U shape relationship between the hazard of reciprocation and status difference. This pattern is strongest when actors lack common foci of interaction from which relative status could be gauged accurately. In addition, a higher status individual tends to delay reciprocation longer than a lower-status individual, a finding consistent with the status competition explanation.
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(2017): Cooperation Via Intimidation. An Emergent System of Mutual Threats can Maintain Social Order. In: Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 20 (4). DOI: 10.18564/jasss.3336
Abstract: Can human aggressiveness promote peaceful cooperation? Despite the seeming contradiction of these phenomena, our study suggests the answer is yes. We develop two agent-based models of cooperative interactions among aggressive agents threatening each other. In Model 1, we show that aggressive displays performed by dominance-seeking individuals create a system of mutual threats that effectively enforces cooperation and inhibits agents from escalating conflicts. This happens because agents observe each other fighting, which deters them from attacking each other due to aggressive reputations. In Model 2 we extend this effect to third-party interventions showing that forming alliances makes attacks more efficient and promotes the emergence of common rules determining whom to fight against. In such a state, social order is maintained by the existence of moral alliances - groups of agents willing to fight against norm violators. In summary, we argue that reputation for toughness and the aggressive predisposition of humans could have played an important role in the evolution of cooperation and moral systems.
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(2017): Of Tooth and Claw. Predator Self-Identifications Mediate Gender Differences in Interpersonal Arrogance. In: Sex Roles 77 (3-4), S. 272-286. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-016-0706-y
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0706-y Abstract: Men often score higher than women do on traits or tendencies marked by hostile dominance. The purpose of the present research was to contribute to an understanding of these gender differences. Four studies (total N = 494 U.S. undergraduates) administered a modified animal preference test in which participants could choose to be predator or prey animals, but not labeled as such. Men were consistently more interested in being predator animals than women were, displaying a sort of hostile dominance in their projective preferences. Predator self-identifications, in turn, mediated gender differences in outcomes related to hostile dominance. Studies 1 and 2 provided initial evidence for this model in the context of variations in interpersonal arrogance, and Studies 3 and 4 extended the model to nonverbal displays and daily life prosociality, respectively. The findings indicate that gender differences in hostile dominance are paralleled by gender differences in preferring to thi nk about the self in predator-like terms. Accordingly, the findings provide new insights into aggressive forms of masculine behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) zitiert von 2
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(2017): Power, Dominance and Homosocial Solidarity in Young Men’s Cyber Talk. In: Akademika 87 (1), S. 327-342. DOI: 10.17576/akad-2017-8701-25
Abstract: Men and women speak differently as their linguistic behavior reflects their gender identity and signifies their position in the society. This article discusses the conversational style of men in the online communication environment, using the Kiesling's framework of men's language. A documentation of naturally occurring conversations on Facebook was made over a 12-month period whereby data is categorized and analysed using Content Analysis, WordSmith Tools 5.0 and MS Word Advanced Find Function. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting the participants. The sample consisted of 60 males and 60 females to allow for comparison. Language produced by the male participants, however, remained as the central issue of the analysis as well as discussion. If Kiesling's framework discusses men's language from the western sociocultural perspectives, findings of the present research indicated a list of variables of men's discourse in the specific context of the Malaysian online communication environment. Apart from that, the findings have demonstrated some culturally-embedded elements of power, dominance, and homosocial solidarity as well as a strong use of masculine speech forms in this specific context of male's interaction. Finally, the findings have also suggested some significant aspects of men's discourse in the specific context of the Malaysian online communication environment.
Keywords: dominance, Gender, Gender Studies, Genderabhängigkeit, Konversationsanalyse, Linguistik, Sprache -
(2017): The depicted service employee in marketing communications. An empirical assessment of the impact of facial happiness. In: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 38, S. 186-193. DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2017.06.006
Abstract: Employees are often depicted in service firms' marketing communications material. This study examines one particular aspect of such depictions: the signaling of happiness in terms of the employees' facial expressions. It is assumed that depicted faces transmit emotional signals, that receivers are hardwired to react to such signals, and that the emotional signals influence the outcomes of the receivers' information processing activities. Our empirical results show that this was indeed the case: employee display of happiness was positively and significantly associated with employee evaluations. The contribution of employee happiness remained significant when other characteristics of the depicted face (e.g., attractiveness) were controlled for. Our results also show that employee evaluations had a positive impact on the overall evaluation of the offer of the employee's firm, and that the employee evaluations mediated the association between employee display of happiness and the evaluation of the offer.
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(2017): Evaluating the Sensitivity to Virtual Characters Facial Asymmetry in Emotion Synthesis. In: Applied Artificial Intelligence 31 (2), S. 103-118. DOI: 10.1080/08839514.2017.1299983
Abstract: The use of expressive Virtual Characters is an effective complementary means of communication for social networks offering multi-user 3D-chatting environment. In such contexts, the facial expression channel offers a rich medium to translate the ongoing emotions conveyed by the text-based exchanges. However, until recently, only purely symmetric facial expressions have been considered for that purpose. In this article we examine human sensitivity to facial asymmetry in the expression of both basic and complex emotions. The rationale for introducing asymmetry in the display of facial expressions stems from two well-established observations in cognitive neuroscience: first that the expression of basic emotions generally displays a small asymmetry, second that more complex emotions such as ambivalent feeling may reflect in the partial display of different, potentially opposite, emotions on each side of the face. A frequent occurrence of this second case results from the conflict between the truly felt emotion and the one that should be displayed due to social conventions. Our main hypothesis is that a much larger expressive and emotional space can only be automatically synthesized by means of facial asymmetry when modeling emotions with a general Valence-Arousal-Dominance dimensional approach. Besides, we want also to explore the general human sensitivity to the introduction of a small degree of asymmetry into the expression of basic emotions. We conducted an experiment by presenting 64 pairs of static facial expressions, one symmetric and one asymmetric, illustrating eight emotions (three basic and five complex ones) alternatively for a male and a female character. Each emotion was presented four times by swapping the symmetric and asymmetric positions and by mirroring the asymmetrical expression. Participants were asked to grade, on a continuous scale, the correctness of each facial expression with respect to a short definition. Results confirm the potential of introducing facial asymmetry for a subset of the complex emotions. Guidelines are proposed for designers of embodied conversational agent and emotionally reflective avatars.
Keywords: Asymmetrie, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Authentizität von dargestellter Emotion, dominance, Emotionserkennung, Gesichtszüge, Gestik/Mimik, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Konventionen, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Neurowissenschaften, Realtechnik, soziale Kognition, Technik 2016
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(2016): Supplemental Material for Power and the Pursuit of a Partner’s Goals. In: Journal of personality and social psychology. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000048.supp
Abstract: We investigated how power dynamics in close relationships influence the tendency to devote resources to the pursuit of goals valued by relationship partners, hypothesizing that low (vs. high) power in relationships would lead individuals to center their individual goal pursuit around the goals of their partners. We study 2 related phenomena: partner goal prioritization, whereby individuals pursue goals on behalf of their partners, and partner goal contagion, whereby individuals identify and adopt as their own the goals that their partner pursues. We tested our ideas in 5 studies that employed diverse research methods, including lab experiments and dyadic studies of romantic partners, and multiple types of dependent measures, including experience sampling reports, self-reported goal commitment, and behavioral goal pursuit in a variety of goal domains. Despite this methodological diversity, the studies provided clear and consistent evidence that individuals with low power in their relationships are especially likely to engage in both partner goal prioritization and partner goal contagion. zitiert von 16
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(2016): Communication Networks in Task-Performing Groups. In: Small Group Research 31 (2), S. 131-157. DOI: 10.1177/104649640003100201
Abstract: In an experiment on the emergence of communication networks, 48 groups, each consisting of 4 or 5 members, were randomly assigned to the cells of a 2 (high vs. low time pressure) x 2 (high vs. low task complexity) factorial design and completed a decision-making task. The interpersonal dominance of each member was measured via the Dominance scale of the Personality Research Form (PRF). Results showed that members higher in dominance emerged as more central in the group communication network both sending and receiving more messages than members lower in dominance. Group members correctly perceived that those higher in dominance participated more in discussion. Communication was more centralized in groups that worked on the low complexity task than in groups that worked on the high complexity task Members correctly perceived that participation was more unequally distributed in more centralized groups. An anticipated interaction effect, with time pressure moderating the effect of task complexity was not supported.
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(2016): Status, Sex, and Smiling. In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 16 (3), S. 531-540. DOI: 10.1177/0146167290163011
Abstract: Based on previous work showing that sex is a "diffuse status cue" (Berger, Rosenholtz, & Zelditch, 1980), the hypothesis that women smile more than men because of status differences between the sexes was evaluated Status was manipulated by assigning men and women to the roles of interviewer (high power) or applicant (low power) in simulated job interviews with either male or female partners. As predicted, overall, applicants smiled more than interviewers, demonstrating that smiling does reflect status. However, the sex composition of the pairs also influenced smiling frequency. Male interviewers smiled significantly less than their applicant partners, whereas female interviewers did not. The results suggest that, compared with females, males may more readily experience power and dominance as concomitants of high-status roles, which may then be reflected in the frequency of their smiling.
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(2016): Politeness Judgments in Personal Relationships. In: Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (3), S. 297-325. DOI: 10.1177/0261927X970163003
Abstract: Brown and Levinson's politeness theory specifies five strategies for achieving politeness. Although the strategies are presented as ordered and mutually exclusive, there is reason to believe that they are neither The authors offer an alternative means of classifying requests that is grounded in the phenomenology of the social actor and depends on three message features: explicitness, dominance, and argument. Separate samples of judges viewed video clips of one college student attempting to influence another and provided judgments of politeness (n = 100), explicitness and overall dominance (n = 435), linguistic dominance (n = 80), or argument (n = 60). A regression analysis predicting politeness was conducted using message as the unit of analysis. The results showed a strong, negative relationship between politeness and dominance and weaker;positive associations with explicitness and argument.
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(2016): Perceptions of power and interactional dominance in interpersonal relationships. In: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 22 (2), S. 207-233. DOI: 10.1177/0265407505050944
Abstract: This investigation uses dyadic power theory (Dunbar, 2000, 2004; Rollins & Bahr, 1976) to examine the relationship between dominance and power and the behavioral manifestations of power in close relationships. Ninety-seven couples (58 married, 39 cohabiting) completed a problem-solving task together while being videotaped. The videotapes were coded for a variety of verbal and nonverbal dominant control attempts including dysfluencies, interruptions, frequency of adaptor and illustrator gestures, vocal characteristics, and general perceptions of dominance. The results revealed that individuals' perceptions of power led to more dominant communication behavior during discussions with their partner. Comparisons between the perceptions of participants and observers and the implications for future research are also discussed.
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(2016): Generating Robot Gaze on the Basis of Participation Roles and Dominance Estimation in Multiparty Interaction. In: ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems 5 (4), S. 1-23. DOI: 10.1145/2743028
Abstract: Gaze is an important nonverbal feedback signal in multiparty face-to-face conversations. It is well known that gaze behaviors differ depending on participation role: speaker, addressee, or side participant. In this study, we focus on dominance as another factor that affects gaze. First, we conducted an empirical study and analyzed its results that showed how gaze behaviors are affected by both dominance and participation roles. Then, using speech and gaze information that was statistically significant for distinguishing the more dominant and less dominant person in an empirical study, we established a regression-based model for estimating conversational dominance. On the basis of the model, we implemented a dominance estimation mechanism that processes online speech and head direction data. Then we applied our findings to human-robot interaction. To design robot gaze behaviors, we analyzed gaze transitions with respect to participation roles and dominance and implemented gaze-transition models as robot gaze behavior generation rules. Finally, we evaluated a humanoid robot that has dominance estimation functionality and determines its gaze based on the gaze models, and we found that dominant participants had a better impression of less dominant robot gaze behaviors. This suggests that a robot using our gaze models was preferred to a robot that was simply looking at the speaker. We have demonstrated the importance of considering dominance in human-robot multiparty interaction.
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(2016): Touch forbidden, consumption allowed. Counter-intuitive effects of touch restrictions on customers’ purchase behavior. In: Food Quality and Preference 50, S. 1-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.12.011
Abstract: In-store events are increasingly used to provide customers with unique shopping experiences. Although recent studies indicate that such events positively influence customers' purchase intentions and store choice decisions, little is known about how customers respond to various in-store events. This paper investigates one type of in-store event that is frequently used in several food and non-food contexts. Specifically, the study investigates how an in-store product demonstration influences customers' subsequent purchase behavior depending on whether they are restricted or encouraged to touch the products being demonstrated. An initial scenario-based experiment involving 35 undergraduates aimed to examine how people intuitively think that restricting (versus encouraging) touch during an in-store product demonstration would influence their subsequent purchase behavior. A two-way ANOVA with participant gender and experimental condition as the between-subjects factors consistently showed that people hold a lay theory that restricting touch should have a negative impact on the amount of money they spend and the number of products they purchase. A second field experiment involving 126 customers in a retail store aimed to investigate whether this lay belief is consistent with customers' actual purchase behavior. Counter-intuitively, a two-way ANOVA with customer gender and experimental condition (touch restriction, touch encouragement) as the between-subjects factors revealed that restricting touch during an in-store product demonstration resulted in significantly more money being spent, a larger number of products being purchased, and more expensive products being purchased. These findings show that consumer lay theory can directly contradict customers' actual purchase behavior.
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(2016): Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion. In: Personality and Social Psychology Review 5 (4), S. 296-320. DOI: 10.1207/S15327957PSPR0504_2
Abstract: We hypothesize that there is a general bias, based on both innate predispositions and experience, in animals and humans, to give greater weight to negative entities (e.g., events, objects, personal traits). This is manifested in 4 ways: (a) negative potency (negative entities are stronger than the equivalent positive entities), (b) steeper negative gradients (the negativity of negative events grows more rapidly with approach to them in space or time than does the positivity of positive events, (c) negativity dominance (combinations of negative and positive entities yield evaluations that are more negative than the algebraic sum of individual subjective valences would predict), and (d) negative differentiation (negative entities are more varied, yield more complex conceptual representations, and engage a wider response repertoire). We review evidence for this taxonomy, with emphasis on negativity dominance, including literary, historical, religious, and cultural sources, as well as the psychological literatures on learning, attention, impression formation, contagion, moral judgment, development, and memory. We then consider a variety of theoretical accounts for negativity bias. We suggest that I feature of negative events that make them dominant is that negative entities are more contagious than positive entities.
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(2016): Beyond dependence. An identity approach to social power and domination. In: Human Relations 59 (1), S. 105-139. DOI: 10.1177/0018726706062760
Abstract: Outlines a new approach to the social psychology of power. Specifically, it challenges the currently influential conflict-oriented dependence analysis in which power operates as an almost exclusively repressive force. Drawing on relevant work from other social science disciplines, the article presents an identity model of power in which both consensus and conflict play important roles. The model theorizes power as a productive as well as repressive force, and differentiates between social power to achieve desired outcomes and social power over others (domination). The implications of the model for two classic issues in the power literature are considered: the relationship between power and status, and challenges to power (resistance and social change). The model's empirical potential is also discussed. zitiert von 142
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(2016): Customer Care in a Consumer Society. Smiling and Sometimes Meaning it?. In: Organization 5 (1), S. 27-53. DOI: 10.1177/135050849851003
Abstract: This article proposes a focus for research by drawing on two emerging and largely distinct streams of literature--on service/emotion work and organizations in consumer society. in particular, experiences of "customer care" and related "corporate culture" initiatives are examined. Here, employee ambivalence is highlighted and is typically portrayed in terms of: protecting a privileged or "real" sense of self; (re-)asserting control; and/or as being constituted through gender, class and other cultural relations and interactions with customers. Little attention has been given to parallel postmodern literatures documenting both the pervasiveness of a constituting discourse of the sovereign consumer and the emergence of multiple selves in a "de-traditionalized" consumer society. Here, the theoretical primacy given to discourse typically precludes an empirical consideration of subjectivity which is viewed as ephemeral. It is argued that such an epistemology has given rise to an exaggeration of the dominance and coherence of discourse, neglecting internal contradictions, alternative representations and associated practices of resistance.
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(2016): Interkulturelle Psychologie. Verstehen und Handeln in internationalen Kontexten. Göttingen: Hogrefe
Abstract: Dieses Buch beleuchtet auf der Grundlage von psychologischen Theorien und Forschungsergebnissen die psychischen Prozesse, die beim Aufeinandertreffen von Menschen aus verschiedenen Kulturen beteiligt sind. Anhand von Fallbeispielen werden typische interkulturelle Begegnungssituationen geschildert und analysiert. Weitere Kapitel thematisieren, wie interkulturelle Handlungskompetenz entsteht, und zeigen Möglichkeiten auf, diese anhand von interkulturellen Trainings zu fördern. - Inhalt: (1) Einführung: Kultur und interkulturelle Interaktion. (2) Interkulturelles Handeln und psychologische Prozesse. (3) Entwicklung des Selbstbildes, des Fremdbildes und des vermuteten Fremdbildes. (4) Entwicklung des Fremdverstehens. (5) Entwicklung und Wirkungen interpersonaler Interaktionsprozesse in interkulturellen Kontexten [Sozialer Vergleich; Gerechtigkeit; soziale Interdependenz; Macht und soziale Dominanz; soziale Netzwerke; Konflikte; Minoritäten]. . (6) Stress und Stressbewältigung im Kontext interkulturellen Handelns. (7) Entwicklung interkultureller Handlungskompetenz. (8) Interkulturelle Trainings. (9) Interkulturelle Psychologie in der Praxis. zitiert von 4
Keywords: conflict, Context, Cross Cultural Communication, Cross Cultural Psychology, Cultural Sensitivity, dominance, Entreprises multinationales, Ethnopsychologie, Gestion interculturelle, Interpersonal Control, Interpersonal Interaction, Justice, Kulturforschung/ kulturelle Unterschiede, Self-Concept, Sensitivity Training, Social Comparison, social networks, Social Perception, Stress