Miranda R. Goode

• Jurewicz., Z.; Goode, M. R.; Thomson, M., 2024, "A tonic for the highly stressed: Memories of extraordinary group experiences lead to greater cohesion and well-being", Journal of Business Research, February 172: 114426 - 114426.
  Abstract: We investigate extraordinary group experiences to better understand how highly stressed consumers gain and preserve long-term well-being from their associated memories. We report the results of three studies that use experiments, a survey, and organizational data from Make-A-Wish. We find that groups who are profoundly stressed and share an extraordinary experience (e.g., families with a critically ill child) create memories that improve their well-being via enhanced cohesion, the perception that the group is stable, bonded, and enduring. We show that highly stressed consumers recharge basic psychological needs through extraordinary experiences and the benefits of these experiences are prolonged by collectively rehearsing the associated memories, a process that causes consumers to come together and experience increased well-being even years after the experience. Through our investigation of special memories, cohesion, and well-being, our results suggest that investments in extraordinary group experiences by the charitable wish sector and stressed consumers is money well spent with long-term benefits.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323007853

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114426

• Moorhouse, M.; Goode, M. R.; Cotte, J.; Widney, J., 2023, "Helping Those That Hide: Anticipated Stigmatization Drives Concealment and a Destructive Cycle of Debt", Journal of Marketing Research, December 60(6): 1135 - 1153.
  Abstract: Debt accumulation has been linked to materialism, impulsivity, shortsightedness, self-control, and lifestyle preferences. However, applying stigma theory allows novel insights into debt accumulation for middle-class individuals who access a variety of credit-related products. The authors define anticipated stigmatization of debt as the negative judgment and discrimination an individual expects to experience because of their consumer indebtedness. Results from a series of studies demonstrate that although financial stress motivates behaviors designed to reduce debt, debtors who anticipate stigmatization perform a variety of concealment behaviors (secrecy, social spending, and help avoidance) that hinder debt reduction and have negative effects on well-being. To understand how to help these individuals, the authors collaborated with a financial education company, designing a field experiment to examine the efficacy of a behavior change course. Individuals who anticipated stigmatization and formed new social connections in a community-based condition reduced their consumer debt. Although the emotional effect of community-based support has been examined in other stigma contexts, this study is the first to investigate the effect on well-being in a debt context and link social benefits to actual behavior change in terms of debt reduction behaviors and debt repayment.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437221146521

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00222437221146521

• Lawlor, A.; Girard, T.; Wodnicki, P.; Goode, M. R., 2023, "Crisis management: personal financial well-being and public attitudes toward government intervention", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, August 43(9-10): 777 - 794.
  Abstract: Purpose: Crises precipitate strong fiscal responses by government – sometimes toward austerity, other times toward renewed social spending. This variation in approaches to crisis handling has the potential to highlight factors that drive public opinion toward government interventions that may be quite different from those in non-crisis times. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issues. Design/methodology/approach: This article brings together theories of government policymaking in crises, policy responsiveness and economic voting to assess how personal financial (egocentric) concerns and/or national financial (sociotropic) concerns may influence opinions toward government handling of direct financial supports in a crisis and, more generally, opinions toward social policy interventions. The authors assess this dynamic in the Canadian context using original national survey data collected in the initial stage of the pandemic-based crisis in June and July of 2020 (N = 1290). Findings: The authors find strong evidence in support of sociotropic concerns shaping government approval and support for greater social policy interventions, but limited evidence to support egocentric concerns, suggesting that social policy attitudes may be more insulated from personal factors than anticipated. Research limitations/implications: The authors’ findings suggest that crises may prompt enhanced support for interventionist social policy measures that may lack broad-based support in non-crisis times. Originality/value: The authors’ findings speak to the ongoing discussion around the possibility for crises to function as policy windows for enhanced social spending and for entrenching targeted financial supports for vulnerable individuals.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2022-0184

• Whelan, J.; Goode, M. R., 2022, "Reminders of money increase patient empowerment", Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences-Revue Canadienne Des Sciences De L Administration, March 39(1): 64 - 80.
  Abstract: The passage of price transparency legislation in the US combined with efforts to enhance the customer experience suggest that patients are more likely to encounter reminders of money when thinking about and making healthcare decisions. Because money is symbolically and empirically associated with empowerment, we propose that money reminders in the healthcare domain will increase patient empowerment. Across three experiments, we find that reminding people of money increases patient empowerment, as indicated by an established patient empowerment scale (Study 1), heightened desire for autonomy when making healthcare decisions (Study 2), and greater reactance to imagining a doctor's refusal to prescribe a requested drug (Study 3). We show that this effect is attenuated when the health condition is serious (as opposed to minor).

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cjas.1650

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1650

• Castelo, N.; White, K.; Goode, M. R., 2021, "Nature Promotes Self-Transcendence and Prosocial Behavior", Journal Of Environmental Psychology, August 76
  Abstract: Spending time in nature has many psychological benefits for people, including stress reduction and improved mood. Using behavioral measures and field study settings, we demonstrate that exposure to nature also leads to prosocial behaviors, such as increasing charitable donations. We show these prosocial effects are explained by an increased sense of self-transcendence, whereby a person feels connected to something greater than oneself or the social groups one belongs to. When self-transcendence is not experienced, such as when people feel separate or distinct from others, these effects are no longer observed. The theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101639

• Goode, M. R.; Iwasa-Madge, D., 2019, "The numbing effect of mortality salience in consumer settings", Psychology and Marketing, June 36(6): 630 - 641.
  Abstract: Nationwide Insurance and Johnnie Walker Scotch aired advertisements that encouraged people to contemplate death.What are the immediate emotional and perceptual outcomes of such advertisements? With five studies, thinking about death was found to attenuate emotional reactions and perceptions, a novel finding in the literature. This attenuation was observed with neural and self‐report measures along with retrospective and prospective assessments of emotion and is an outcome not yet investigated in mortality salience research. Contemplating death dampened people's expectations of emotion in a future consumption experience and diminished the attractiveness of the experience. Similarly, contemplating death affected backward‐looking assessments of emotion, for example, when nostalgic memories are brought to mind. Importantly, this dampening effect of mortality salience was replicated with advertisements that portrayed death‐related concepts and attenuated emotional reactions to subsequent advertisements.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.21201

• Whelan, J.; Goode, M. R.; Cotte, J.; Thomson, M., 2016, "Consumer Regulation Strategies: Attenuating the Effect of Consumer References in a Voting Context", Psychology & Marketing, October 33(11): 899 - 916.
  Abstract: Consumption cues (e.g., brands, money, and advertisements) can have powerful effects on cognition, perception, and behavior, yet how people regulate responses to such cues is not well understood. This is surprising given that consumption cues are increasingly present in nontraditional consumer contexts, such as healthcare, education, and politics. This research develops a measure of two types of consumer regulation strategies, cue-based and budget-based (studies 14), and demonstrates that these strategies influence how people respond to consumption cues in a political context (study 5). Specifically, in a study involving the 2012 American Presidential Election, priming survey participants as consumers (versus citizens) influenced both voting intentions and self-reported voting behavior, and the newly developed consumer regulation scale was instrumental in detecting this effect. These findings suggest there may be merit in the escalating debate and concern over referring to voters as consumers.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.20927

• Goode, M. R.; Hart, K.; Thomson, M., 2016, "Say no more The liability of strong ties on desire for special experiences", Journal of Consumer Psychology, January 26(1): 91 - 97.
  Abstract: Interpersonal connections are often involved in the planning, consuming, and reminiscing of special consumption experiences. Yet we have limited understanding of how consumers in different stages (planning versus reminiscing) influence one another and how this might vary as a function of relationship strength. From two experiments, our findings suggest that when planning a novel special experience, consumers should be cautious of others’ reminiscences and, specifically, of memories shared by strong ties. In our first study, we found that a memory shared by a strong tie increases a consumer’s desire to switch a novel experience. In study 2, we unpacked this effect by examining the role of savoring and internalization of memory details. When a memory was shared by a stronger (versus weaker) tie, the expected utility of savoring was reduced, and desire to switch to a new experience increased. Post analyses suggest this may be due to differences in the extent to which the memory is assimilated as one’s own experience.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2015.04.001

• Goode, M. R.; Dahl, D. W.; Moreau, C. P., 2013, "Innovation Aesthetics: The Relationship between Category Cues, Categorization Certainty and Newness Perceptions", Journal of Product Innovation Management, March 30(2): 192 - 208.
  Abstract: Recent research notes a disconnect between what marketers deem new and innovative versus what consumers actually perceive. Many factors may contribute to this, however, we investigate the factor that has significant potential to first attract a consumer to a new product, visual aesthetic design. Findings from four studies indicate that if a consumer cannot affix a category label to a new product with certainty, as can happen with innovative aesthetics, a product’s newness will be underappreciated and product evaluations will suffer. By utilizing a categorization framework and specifically accounting for the role of categorization certainty, we provide insight into the effects of innovative visual aesthetics and why newness perceptions are inherently subjective, and therefore, potentially hazardous to new product adoption.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2012.00995.x/abstract

• Noseworthy, T. J.; Goode, M. R., 2011, "Contrasting Rule-Based and Similarity-Based Category Learning: The Effects of Mood and Prior Knowledge on Ambiguous Categorization", Journal of Consumer Psychology, July 21(3): 362 - 371.
  Abstract: This study adopts a dual-system view of category learning. The findings suggest that consumers who learn a dominant feature as a verbal rule for a product category will classify a new ambiguous product according to that feature even if it more closely resembles a different product category. The findings also demonstrate that dominant features can bias categorization towards a less prototypical category in the event that the new product breaks the rule. We refer to this phenomenon as criterial inferencing. Lastly, we offer unique empirical evidence to suggest that mood influences category learning and thus attenuates the criterial inferencing bias.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740811000295

• Goode, M. R.; Dahl, D. W.; Moreau, C. P., 2010, "The Effect of Experiential Analogies on Consumer Perceptions and Attitudes", Journal of Marketing Research, April 47(2): 274 - 286.
  Abstract: Consumers desire products that provide meaningful experiences. A marketer's success therefore often depends on familiarizing consumers with the unique experience offered by a product. Marketers recognize the value in communicating about a product experience through analogy, yet little research has been conducted to determine if and why these analogies are persuasive. By comparing a product to a familiar but disparate experience, an analogy has the power to focus consumers on the evaluative, emotional and multi-sensory information associated with the product experience. This focus on subjective product experience enables the identification of base preference (i.e., a consumer's liking for the comparison experience) as an important moderator of analogical persuasiveness. Additionally, the emotional knowledge transfer perspective utilized in this research contributes further to understanding the role of emotional knowledge and experienced emotion in analogical thinking.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.47.2.274

• Vohs, K. D.; Mead, N. L.; Goode, M. R., 2008, "Merely Activating the Concept of Money Changes Personal and Interpersonal Behaviour", Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 17(3): 208 - 212.
  Abstract: Money plays a significant role in people's lives, and yet little experimental attention has been given to the psychological underpinnings of money. We systematically varied whether and to what extent the concept of money was activated in participants' minds using methods that minimized participants' conscious awareness of the money cues. On the one hand, participants reminded of money were less helpful than were participants not reminded of money, and they also preferred solitary activities and less physical intimacy. On the other hand, reminders of money prompted participants to work harder on challenging tasks and led to desires to take on more work as compared to participants not reminded of money. In short, even subtle reminders of money elicit big changes in human behavior.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/17/3/208.abstract

• Vohs, K. D.; Mead, N. L.; Goode, M. R., 2006, "The Psychological Consequences of Money", Science, November 314(5802): 1154 - 1156.
  Abstract: Money has been said to change people's motivation (mainly for the better) and their behavior toward others (mainly for the worse). The results of nine experiments suggest that money brings about a self-sufficient orientation in which people prefer to be free of dependency and dependents. Reminders of money, relative to nonmoney reminders, led to reduced requests for help and reduced helpfulness toward others. Relative to participants primed with neutral concepts, participants primed with money preferred to play alone, work alone, and put more physical distance between themselves and a new acquaintance.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://www.sciencemag.org/content/314/5802/1154

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