Course Syllabus - BA 591
Special Topics in Consumer Research
Jim Bettman – Spring 2006
Purpose:
The purpose of this seminar is to examine recent work in, or relevant to, consumer
research. We will select a set of topics to be considered over the semester, often
triggered by a new article of particular interest or student interests. For each topic
considered, a few articles will be chosen, and we will read and discuss those. Our
goals will be to gain exposure to the latest ideas in consumer research and to develop
research ideas. In particular, each week we should generate in class the
design/idea for at least one new study in the focal topic area.
Classes will be held in Seminar Room 2 of the Academic Center of the Fuqua School.
The first class is on Wednesday, January 11 from 1:15-3:45 pm. The next class is on
Monday, January 23 from 1:15-3:45; the rest of the classes are also on Mondays from
1:15-3:45 (with no class on March 13, which is Duke’s spring break).
Student Responsibilities:
Each student should come to the seminar prepared to discuss each article in depth and
to present their ideas about the major ideas, contributions, or shortcomings of each
article if asked to do so. Students should also examine the research ideas of the other
students, as described next.
As noted above, we will also generate an idea for a study each week. Each student will
be responsible for writing up an approximately one-page (double-spaced) note for each
class focusing on an idea for a study that relates to that week’s readings, e.g., a new
study or studies designed to extend a particular paper or to build a bridge between
papers. Please specify the research question, why it is important, and a brief overview
of the proposed design (e.g., the independent and dependent variables) and
hypotheses. I may call on people in class to outline their ideas. Please submit your
ideas to me no later than 9 am on the morning of class so that others can examine
them. I will forward these ideas to each class member. I will also send out copies of
the papers for each session via email and put copies of them on the I drive under
BA591 Section 13.
Finally, each student will be expected to do a research paper, which can be a critical
literature review, a design for a study, etc. I will set aside 1-2 hours at specific times
during the semester when we will discuss preliminary ideas for the papers, and I will ask
each student to present an idea at those times. Papers are typically 20-30 pages in
length and will be due by 12n on May 5, the Friday of exam week. On March 27 we will
have each student present their paper idea for roughly 10-15 minutes; please prepare a
brief set of overheads outlining your idea (no more than 2-3) that you will present; try to
keep your presentation to 5 minutes or so in order to allow time for feedback from me
and the others in the class.
1
Papers for BA591, Fall 2005
Session 1 - Goals and Goal Progress – January 11, 2006
a. Kivetz, Ran, Oleg Urminsky, and Yuhuang Zheng (2006), “The Goal-Gradient
Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and
Customer Retention,” Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (February).
b. Fishbach, Ayelet and Ravi Dhar (2005), “Goals as Excuses or Guides: The
Liberating Effect of Perceived Goal Progress on Choice,” Journal of Consumer
Research, 32 (December), 370-377.
Session 2 – Using Products to Signal Identity – January 23, 2006
a. Berger, Jonah and Chip Heath (2006), “Where Do People Diverge from Others?
Domains of Divergence, Identity-Signaling, and Consumer Choice,” Working
Paper, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
b. Escalas, Jennifer Edson and James R. Bettman (2005), “Self-Construal, Reference
Groups, and Brand Meaning,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (December),
378-389.
c. Tian, Kelly Tepper, William O. Bearden, and Gary L. Hunter (2001), “Consumers’
Need for Uniqueness: Scale Development and Validation,” Journal of Consumer
Research, 28 (June), 50-66.
Session 3 – Media Effects on the Self – January 30, 2006
a. Shrum, L. J., James E. Burroughs, and Aric Rindfleisch (2005), “Television’s
Cultivation of Material Values,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (December),
473-479.
b. Smeesters, Dirk and Naomi Mandel (2006), “Positive and Negative Media Image
Effects on the Self,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (March).
c. Martino, Steven C., Rebecca L. Collins, David E. Kanouse, Marc Elliott, and Sandra
H. Berry (2005), “Social Cognitive Processes Mediating the Relationship
Between Exposure to Television’s Sexual Content and Adolescents’ Sexual
Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89 (December), 914924.
Session 4 – Placebo Effects in Marketing – February 6, 2006
a. Shiv, Baba, Ziv Carmon, and Dan Ariely (2005), “Placebo Effects of Marketing
Actions: Consumers May Get What They Pay For,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 42 (November), 383-393.
b. Borsook, David and Lino Becerra (2005), “Placebo: From Pain and Analgesia to
Preferences and Products,” Journal of Marketing Research, 42 (November), 394398.
c. Berns, Gregory S. (2005), “Price, Placebo, and the Brain,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 42 (November), 399-400.
d. Rao, Akshay R. (2005), “The Quality of Price as a Quality Cue,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 42 (November), 401-405.
e. Irmak, Caglar, Lauren G. Block, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons (2005), “The Placebo
Effect in Marketing: Sometimes You Just Have to Want It to Work,” Journal of
2
Marketing Research, 42 (November), 406-409.
f. Shiv, Baba, Ziv Carmon, and Dan Ariely (2005), “Ruminating About Placebo Effects
of Marketing Actions,” Journal of Marketing Research, 42 (November), 410-414.
Session 5 – Charitable Giving and Prosocial Behavior– February 13, 2006
a. Penner, Louis A., John F. Dovidio, Jane A. Piliavin, and David A. Schroeder (2005),
“Prosocial Behavior: Multilevel Perspectives,” Annual Review of Psychology, 56,
365-392.
b. Small, Deborah A., George Loewenstein, and Paul Slovic (in press), “Sympathy and
Callousness: The Impact of Deliberative Thought on Donations to Identifiable and
Statistical Victims,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
c. Kogut, Tehila and Ilana Ritov (2005), “The Singularity Effect of Identified Victims in
Separate and Joint Evaluations,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes, 97 (2), 106-116.
d. Small, Deborah A., and Uri Simonsohn (2006), “Friends of Victims: The Impact of
Personal Relationships with Victims on Social Preferences for Other Victims,”
Working Paper, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Session 6 – Mortality Salience – February 20, 2006
a. Ferraro, Rosellina, Baba Shiv, and James R. Bettman (2005), “Let Us Eat and Drink,
for Tomorrow We Shall Die: Effects of Mortality Salience and Self-Esteem on
Self-Regulation in Consumer Choice,” Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (June),
65-75.
b. Landau, Mark J., Jamie L. Goldenberg, Jeff Greenberg, Omri Gillath, Sheldon
Solomon, Cathy Cox, Andy Martens, and Tom Pyszczynski (2006), “The Siren’s
Call: Terror Management and the Threat of Men’s Sexual Attraction to Women,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90 (January), 129-146.
c. Landau, Mark J., Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, Tom Pyszczynski, and Andy
Martens (in press), “Windows Into Nothingness: Terror Management,
Meaninglessness, and Negative Reactions to Modern Art,” Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology.
Session 7 – Culture and Consumer Behavior – February 27, 2006
a. Briley, Donnel A. and Jennifer L. Aaker (2006), “Bridging the Culture Chasm:
Ensuring that Consumers are Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise,” Journal of Public
Policy and Marketing.
b. Briley, Donnel A. and Jennifer L. Aaker (2006), “When Does Culture Matter? Effects
of Personal Knowledge on the Correction of Culture-based Judgments,” Journal
of Marketing Research.
c. Briley, Donnel A., Michael W. Morris, and Itamar Simonson (2005), “Cultural
Chameleons: Biculturals, Conformity Motives, and Decision Making,” Journal of
Consumer Psychology, 15 (4), 351-362.
Session 8 – Costs of Choice – March 6, 2006
a. Iyengar, Sheena S. and Mark R. Lepper (2000), “When Choice is Demotivating: Can
One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” Journal of Personality and Social
3
Psychology, 79 (December), 995-1006.
b. Iyengar, Sheena S. and Wei Jiang (2006), “The Psychological Costs of Ever
Increasing Choice: A Fallback to the Sure Bet,” Working Paper, Columbia
University.
c. Iyengar, Sheena S., Rachel E. Wells, and Barry Schwartz (2006), “Doing Better but
Feeling Worse: Looking for the “Best” Job Undermines Satisfaction,”
Psychological Science, 17 (February), 143-150.
Session 9 – Experiential and Rational Cognition – March 20, 2006
a. Epstein, Seymour (in press), “Intuition from the Perspective of Cognitive-Experiential
Self-Theory,” in A New Look on Intuition in Judgment and Decision Making, ed.
Henning Plessner, Cornelia Betsch, and Tilmann Betsch.
b. Epstein, Seymour and Rosemary Pacini (2001), “The Influence of Visualization on
Intuitive and Analytical Information Processing,” Imagination, Cognition, and
Personality, 20 (3), 195-216.
c. Novak, Thomas P. and Donna L. Hoffman (2005), “Consumer Thinking Style, Task
Congruence, and Performance: New Measures of Task-Specific Experiential and
Rational Cognition,” Working Paper, Vanderbilt University.
Session 10 – Student Paper Idea Presentations – April 3, 2006
Session 11 – Advertising, Subcultures, and Non-Target Markets – April 10, 2006
a. Aaker, Jennifer L., Anne M. Brumbaugh, and Sonya A. Grier (200 ), “Non-Target
Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on
Advertising Attitudes,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 9 (3), 124-139.
b. Brumbaugh, Anne M. (2002), “Source and Nonsource Cues in Advertising and Their
Effects on the Activation of Cultural and Subcultural Knowledge on the Route to
Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (September), 258-269.
c. Grier, Sonya A., Anne M. Brumbaugh, and Corliss G. Thornton (2006), “Crossover
Dreams: Consumer Responses to Ethnic-Oriented Products,” Journal of
Marketing, 70 (April).
d. Luna, David and Laura A. Peracchio (2005), “Advertising to Bilingual Consumers:
The Impact of Code-Switching on Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Research,
31 (March), 760-765.
Session 12 – Thin Slices and Consumer Behavior – April 17, 2006
a. Ambady, Nalini, Mary Anne Krabbenhoft, and Daniel Hogan (2006), “The 30-Sec
Sale: Using Thin-Slice Judgments to Evaluate Sales Effectiveness,” Journal of
Consumer Psychology, 16 (1), 4-13.
b. Alba, Joseph W. (2006), “Let the Clips Fall Where They May,” Journal of Consumer
Psychology, 16 (1), 14-19.
c. Kardes, Frank R. (2006), “When Should Consumers and Managers Trust Their
Intuition?” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16 (1), 20-24.
d. Peracchio, Laura A. and David Luna (2006), “The Role of Thin-Slice Judgments in
Consumer Psychology,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16 (1), 25-32.
4