Choices in Consumer Research:

Unintended Consequences

Merrie BrucksEller College of Management

University of Arizona

How Do YOU Choose?

How Do YOU Choose?

Scholarly LiteratureAdvisor or MentorSubstantive Problems

What’s HOT

Personal Relevance

10 Profiles of Rising Stars

The Observer: October 2007Association for Psychological Science

“exemplars of today’s young psychological scientists; researchers who, although they may not be very advanced in years, have already made great advancements in science”

Virginia Kwan (Princeton) Serena Chen (Berkeley)Nate Kornell (UCLA) Penny S. Visser (Chicago)Teresa Treat (Yale) Jenny Saffran (Wisconsin)David Gallo (Chicago) Eva Pomerantz (Illinois)Todd S. Braver (Wash U) Sharon Thompson-Schill (Penn)

Self-Research Connections

“I was advised to do what interests me the most. I started with self-perception because I was most interested in “myself”

“I have been fascinated by self-improvement since I was a kid”

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that reality is a mental construction… but then I took an undergraduate course on memory and realized that perception was just the tip of the iceberg for my interests.”

During graduate school… I came to realize that I was most interested in the impact of relationships, past and present, on the self…That other people can play such a profound…role on shaping how we are is fascinating to me.”

I’ve always had a personal interest in politics, and my focus on attitudes and attitude strength really grew out of this interest.”

I grew up hearing dinner-table conversations about interesting language phenomena… Both the issues and the methods excited me then and they continue to excite me now.

The Problem-Solving Quest

“Developing a formal, rigorous, and mechanistic answer to the question of how cognitive control arises in the mind… I find it incredibly exciting to be contributing to this quest for understanding.”

“The potential of an integrative discipline of quantitative clinical-cognitive science remains largely untapped.

“I was assigned to analyze data from a drug trial of a potential treatment for cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimer’s disease…and I became hooked on cognitive neuroscience… As for the research questions I am drawn to now, I think they all have their roots, to some extent, in my early interest in logic and mathematics.

I was drawn to this line of work because I believed it would provide the foundation for promoting positive development among children.

This relatively unexplored niche fascinated me as an undergraduate.”

Is ACR Like Psychology?

Both are sciences of human behavior But CB researchers (in Business Schools)

are typically less constrained than psychologists

Not expected to bring in grants with overhead budgeted

Not usually affiliated with a “lab” Receive research support (summer, travel, GTA’s) for

unfunded projects

CB researchers are ambivalent about “relevance”

We have the freedom to pursue our own passions and interests (thankfully)

Anecdotal Evidence from AMA

“Consumer Behavior” Doctoral Student

Motivational: The self-research connection

“Managerial” Doctoral StudentStrategic: Importance of topic

“Modeling” Doctoral Student:Blank: Why would you ask such

question?

What Do We Study?

JDM:

Information processing:

CCT:

Autonomy,

status, learning and reasoning,making an impact on the thinking of others

Individuals’

learning,

preferences choice outcomes

Individual differences inmemory,attitudes, andaffect, persuasion

Power structures,

agency,

and

freedom

What do academicians value?

and

Agentic vs. Communal Goalsin Academia

Entrepreneurial approach to research Faculty “mobility” valued

Faculty and their families feel temporary in their communities

Compulsive working“If you choose an academic career you will need 40 hours a week to perform teaching and administrative duties, another 20 on top of that to conduct respectable research and still another 20 hours to accomplish really important research” (Edward O. Wilson 1998, as quoted by Joe Alba, ACR newsletter, June 1999)

Strained family ties Doc student: “Ok, honey, just wait four years…” After the defense: “um, now another six years…”

Consequences: Communal goals & behaviors less salient in faculty

lives.

Journal Selection Processes

Persistance, obsession, even masochism (Holbrook JM 1986), required by top journals

Self-selection biasesGatekeeping

Journal review process accentuates the bias on research topics

ACR conference is teeming with creative perspectives, presented by diverse authors

Top American journals do not reflect this diversity

The Research Mirror

“[Given the] countless thousands of insignificant

decisions… made by the consumer, to assume a thinking, reasoned, attitudinally influenced decision may well be a class example of anthropomorphism.” Hal Kassarjian, ACR Presidential Address 1977

“That body of consumer knowledge that we call consumer research reflects our own idiosyncrasies… To the extent that we are a homogeneous group, the field reflects what that segment of the population deems important, useful, and interesting.” Valerie Folkes, ACR Newsletter, Winter 2002

“Hidden Events”

“Hidden events are those phenomena whose existence we either (1) doubt or deny, of (2) do not know about at all.” (Zaltman, ACR Presidential Address 1993)

“A hidden event is not the same thing as a neglected topic,” which is purposefully ignored.

Causes of “hidden events”: a C.I.P. view Selective exposure and selective attention Perceptual biases and schematic biases in

assessing meanings Goal priming Memory accessibility False consensus bias

Fantasies, Feelings, Fun, etc.

Extending Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982

Faculty Priority Hidden EventAnalytical thought Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun

Achievement Foolishness, Futility

Independence, autonomy Family, Friendship, Fellowship

Self-Control Freud-ish notions (sub-, non-, pre- conscious)

Competence Frailty

Skepticism Faith

Ambition Free time

Presidential Perspectives

Marsha Richins (2000)Big picture, social influencesNon-social

Joe Alba (1999)Mindless, thoughtless behaviors

Thoughtful and capable

Debbie John (1996)Perspectives from childrenAdults

Beth Hirschman (1990)“Dark side” of consumptionBehaving in their self-interests

Morris Holbrook (1989)Lyricism in communicationExplainable by dispassionate discourse

Russ Belk (1986)Embeddedness in “rest of life”Isolated from “rest of life”

Gerry Zaltman (1982)“Hidden events”Conforming to pre-existing theories

Hal Kassarjian (1977)Low involvement, mundaneHigh involvement

President (Year)More Attention needed Consumers viewed as

American Global perspectives Jag Sheth (1984)

“Representativeness”

At the aggregate level, the body of consumer research (appearing in our most prestigious journals) does not achieve the goal of “representativeness” as set out by Terry Shimp, ACR Presidential Address 1993

“The fundamental and abiding purpose of consumer research is to acquire understanding and knowledge of consumer behavior.”

Actions: ACR (Org.) Level

Don’t: Over-manage direction of the field (Bagozzi 1992)

Do: Set up incentives, such as MSI and TCR

Do: Increase support for non-traditional doctoral students

Do: Increase diversity in gatekeeper roles: demographics (gender and ethnicity) psychographics (lifestyle, personality, family roles,

subcultures)

Do: Consider mentoring structures to partner struggling new authors with journal-savvy scholars

Actions: University Level

Don’t: Limit academic freedom.

Do: Reconsider doctoral screening process. Use indicators of: creativity, productivity, intellect Drop “comfort zone” criteria

Do: Increase flexibility in doctoral program requirements

for non-traditional students at leading universities

Do: Reconsider flexible tenure-track and tenured faculty contracts

Do: Reward faculty for research on “inconvenient” topics

Actions: Individual Level

Don’t: Let judgment and decision making biases select your topic for you.

Do: Consider the people, places, perceptions, and processes that are hidden from academic view

Do: Then choose a research topic that you find fascinating.

Thank you

Angela Lee and Dilip Soman

ACR members Board of Directors Advisory Council Voting Members

Thank you

Family

Dedicated to the memory of my father, Norman Brucks

Melanie

Rick

Marilyn

Eric

Choices in Consumer Research:

Unintended Consequences

Merrie BrucksEller College of Management

University of Arizona

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts today