THE SIGNATURE EFFECT: SIGNING INFLUENCES CONSUMPTION-RELATED BEHAVIOR
BY PRIMING SELF-IDENTITY
INTRODUCTION
Article: examines the possibility that the act of signing your name might influence your consumption-related behaviour => how much time you spend in a retail store
=> what you buy there
Signing your name: acts as a general self-identity prime.
Self-Identity = the totality of all selves, identities, and schemas that form one’s sense of self.
Theory of affordances: the general priming of one’s self-identity (here: signing) makes it more likely that situational affordance activate the relevant aspect of one’s self-identity which leads to behaviour that is congruent with the activated aspect.
SIGNATURES AND IDENTITY
Basic premise: individuals strongly associate their signature with their identity. It has legal, social and economical implications.
People believe that the unique manner in which they sign their name reflects their personality and character traits.
Previous rese arch: examined how signing a particular document influences behaviour as it pertains to the signed document.
 Result: even though violating the contract or honour code was legally and economically inconsequential, the signature influences the behaviour of the participants.
 Strong relationship between signature and identity.
This study: proposition that signing one’s name acts as a general self-identity prime and the way it predictably influence consumption-related behaviour.
SELF-IDENTITY, PRIMING AND BEHAVIOUR
Self-identity: all of the selves, identities (including social identities), and self-schemas that comprise people’s sense of who they are.
Prior research: the aspects of one’s self-identity can be differentially activated and the activation of a particular aspect makes it more likely that one’s subsequent responses are congruent with that aspect.
Although the nature of prime-to-behaviour effects is well established for contexts in which a specific identity or schema is primed, little is known about how a general selfidentity prime – such as signing one’s name – might influence behaviour.
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In order for a prime to affect a person’s behaviour: the situation must provide an affordance. Affordances serve as cues in the environment that can guide judgements and behaviour.
Key hypothesis: signing one’s name acts as a general self-identity prime and this interacts with the situational environment to activate the aspect of one’s self-identity that is afforded (cued) by de situation.
OVERVIEW OF STUDIES
Each study: sign or print own name on a blank piece of paper (ostensibly for a separate study)
Study 1 (controlled lab) and Study 2 (actual retail environment):
How signing your name influences the relationship between how closely consumers associate their self-identity with a specific product domain and their level of engagement in a shopping task in that domain.
Study 3: How signing effects how closely people identify with referent social groups.
Study 4: How signing their name influences the extent to which consumers signal their social identity through their product choices.
STUDY 1
Previous research: consumers are highly engaged with products and activities that they associate with their self-identity
Prediction: signing their name causes consumers to become more engaged when shopping in a product domain that they associate with their self-identity and less engaged in a domain that is distant from their sense of self.
Test: examination of the engagement of consumers in a shopping task as a function of how closely they associate the product domain with their self-identity
Two products: dishwasher and camera
Method
Group one: instruction paper and a blank paper that said ‘please sign (print) your name on the line below’.
Group two: instruction paper, at the end: ‘Therefore, you will be asked to sign your name later in this session’.
Participants were randomly assigned to a product category. Each category: three products (with a description of 15 dimensions), they had to choose one.
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Descriptions: not visible in the beginning, participants had to push a bottom for each description they wanted to see. They were told that they could make a choice at any moment, even before they read all the descriptions.
After that, participant had to answer a series of questions about the product category.
(Measures of how frequently they use the product, about their expertise about the product category, the importance of the product for them, the association with their selfidentity with the product domain).
Result
Discussion
Producing their signature caused participants to behave in a manner congruent with the afforded aspect of their self-identity
 Increased engagement when shopping in a product domain they associated closely with their self-identity, decreased engagement when not.
Signing name (not printing): changes behaviour relative to a control group (no signing, no printing)
STUDY 2
Field study. Product: running shoes.
Prediction: Signing leads tot greater engagement with the shopping task for consumers who identify closely with running and reduces engagement for costumers who do not identify with running.
Method.
2 stages.
First: laboratory. Participants had to answer a series of questions about running (same kind of questions as in study 1)
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Second: on the field. They were randomly assigned to sing of print their name (for a study about hand-writing). The next task was to go to the store and choose a pair of running shoes. They were told that one participant would receive his/her chosen pair of shoes and a cash amount equal to $200 minus the price of the shoes.
After this task, participants had to complete a brief questionnaire (how many shoes they tried on, the brand name of the selected shoe, its model name and its pre-tax price). The amount of time they spent in the store was also measured.
Result
Two measures used: number of pairs tried on and time spent in the shop.
The participants who had signed their name: identity –running closeness (measured in stage 1 of the study) had a significant positive impact on how many pairs of running shoes they tried on and on the time they spent shopping, whereas no such effect was observed for those who had printed their name.
Discussion
Studies 1 and 2 support the hypothesis that signing one’s name acts as a general selfidentity prime. Providing their signature induces consumers to behave in a manner congruent with the afforded aspects of their self-identity.
STUDY 3
We all possess social identities (associations with social groups), which are central to how we view ourselves. We define ourselves through our (non) membership in ingroups (out-groups). Hypothesis: signing one’s name in a context that affords a particular social identify activates one’s identification with the afforded social group.
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Two key predictions:
Signing one’s name leads participants to identify more (less) closely with the ingroup (out-group)
Signing causes individuals to take less time to answer the questions regarding the group they selected (based on prior work showing that activation of an identity leads people to respond more quickly to statements pertaining to that identity).
Method.
Laboratory study. Four conditions: signing or printing and in- our out-group.
Participants were asked to name a social group to which to belonged or one to which they didn’t belonged. Then they responded to three questions pertaining to the group they had selected: how closely they identify with the group, how much they like its members and how similar they believe they are to its members.
Results
Discussion.
Signing one’s name acts as a general self-identity prime.
Prediction 1 and 2 were confirmed.
STUDY 4
Examination of the effect of signing on product choices in situations that afford a social identity. Participants had to make choices in 19 different preference domains that vary in the extent to which they are relevant to signalling one’s social identity. As in study 3, they were asked to name an in-group or an out-group.
For each of the 19 domains, participants were asked tot indicate which of the three available options they would choose. These options varied in terms of how popular they were with the members of that specific social group. Choosing the most popular option indicated conformity to the social group and vice versa.
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Three predictions:
Signing causes consumers to make choices that are more congruent with the afforded social group. Signing one’s name should lead to more conformations with the in-group or more diverging from the out-group.
Signing one’s name has a stronger influence on choice in preference domains that are more relevant to signalling one’s identity than in domains that are not as relevant in this regard
Signing causes decision times to be longer for identity-incongruent than for identity congruent choices.
Method
Laboratory study. Four conditions: signing or printing and in- our out-group.
Three stages.
First stage: signing or printing one’s name, naming an in- or an out-group and answering some questions (same as in study 3)
Second stage: participants had to choose one of the three options in the 19 domains, also used in study 3. For each domain there was a fake pie graph that represented the proportion of group members that chose each option.
Third stage: participants were asked a series of questions about the social group they selected (see also study 3).
Result
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Discussion
This study provides strong evidence that singing one’s name acts as a general selfidentity prime.
All three hypotheses were confirmed.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
The study introduced the hypothesis that signing one’s name acts as a general selfidentity prime, thus making it more likely that situational affordances activate the relevant aspects of one’s self-identity.
Converging evidence from four studies demonstrates that signing promotes behaviour congruent with the specific aspect on one’s self-identity that is afforded by the situation.
Several key contributions in understanding consumer behaviour.
Signing one’s name influences subsequent behaviour in a predictable manner, and thus enhances our understanding of the significance of the act of signing.
The act of producing one’s signature affects one’s subsequent responsiveness tot identity-relevant cues.
The study extends work suggesting that a given intervention can produce different effects on behaviour by demonstrating that an identity-relevant actions such as producing one’s signature can have contrasting effects on one’s behaviour depending on which aspect of one’s self-identity is afforded in a particular situation.
Although a signature does not necessarily imply commitment, it does always represent one’s identity.
Key Finding: providing a signature predictably influences subsequent behaviour. This suggests novel interventions that sellers could use in order to influence consumer behaviour. However, such signature interventions should be used cautiously, as signing tends to reduce engagement in consumers who lack such identification;
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