This research explores ridicule as a mechanism through which adolescents exchange information about consumption norms and values. The author finds that adolescents use ridicule to ostracize, haze, or admonish peers who violate consumption norms. Targets and observers learn stereotypes about...

Critics within the consumer behavior field have consistently debated three fundamental issues about the field's defining properties and goals: (1) whether consumer behavior should be an independent discipline, (2) what is (and is not) consumer behavior, and (3) whether our field should be...

A series of experiments examined the amount that consumers were willing to pay for products bundled together in a promotion. Describing one of the disparate products in the bundle as "free" decreased the price consumers were willing to pay for each product when sold individually. However, a...

We compared effects of information about a stereotypical service provider with that about a counterstereotypical service provider on inferences about the similarity of employees within the firm and the firm's similarity to other firms (across-brand differentiation). Our three experiments varied...

Sharing is a fundamental consumer behavior that we have either tended to overlook or to confuse with commodity exchange and gift giving. Sharing is a distinct, ancient, and increasingly vital consumer research topic that bears on a broad array of consumption issues ranging from sharing household...

Researchers have analyzed various forms of extraordinary consumption experiences, using Victor Turner’s conceptualization of antistructure with a particular focus on their rather romantic and communal aspects. While such a focus contributed greatly to our understanding of these experiences, it...

In this research we examine the role of the nationalist ideology of swadeshi in a contemporary anticonsumption movement and show that its deployment is linked to the experiences of colonialism, modernity, and globalization in India. Specifically, we offer a postcolonial understanding of...

China's ideological transition from a communist country toward a consumer society provides an unprecedented context in which to explore the rise of consumerism in a contemporary society. We examine how advertising appropriates a dominant anticonsumerist political ideology to promote consumption...