Rod Duclos

• Sepehri, A.; Duclos, R.; Haghighi, N., 2022, "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Unforeseen Cost of Tags in Online Retailing", International Journal Of Research In Marketing, June 39(2): 336 - 348.
  Abstract: The advent of internet shopping brings countless options for consumers. In response, online retailers aim to facilitate search by attaching descriptive terms to their inventory (e.g., product genres or categories). Called “tagging,” such a practice has been shown to increase product visibility/exposure in an otherwise limitless sea of options. Across five distinct platforms covering a gamut of consumer domains (i.e., food recipes, mobile games, books, videos, and journal publications), we find that the benefits of tagging for product visibility/exposure come with unexpected costs. Indeed, though assigning more tags to a product does indeed boost its visibility/exposure online, doing so also hurts said product’s perceived quality. This effect emerges regardless of proxies used to quantify (i) visibility/exposure or (ii) product liking. We draw on categorization and learning research to explain these results. While multi-tagging increases the likelihood of a product to appear in consumers’ search, it also increases the likelihood of a mismatch between what consumers really sought and what said product can actually deliver.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.10.004

• Sepehri, A.; Markowitz, D.; Duclos, R., 2021, "The Location of Maximum Emotion in Deceptive and Truthful Texts", Social Psychological and Personality Science, August 12(6): 996 - 1004.
  Abstract: Meta-analytic evidence suggests that verbal patterns of emotion betray deceit, but it is presently unclear whether the location of maximum emotion in lies and truths matters to reveal deception. We contribute to the deception literature by offering analyses at the sentence level to locate where emotion is most pronounced in deceptive versus truthful texts. Using two public data sets—news articles (Study 1) and hotel reviews (Study 2)—we found that maximum emotion occurs toward the beginning of deceptive texts while maximum emotion appears later for truthful texts. In addition to demonstrating the effect across diverse settings, we used two different measurements for emotion and separated the results by valence, replicating the maximum emotion effect each time. The predictive nature of maximum affect ranged from 54% to 56% across data sets, a rate consistent with most deception studies using 50-50 lie–truth base rates. Implications for future research and deception theory are discussed.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1948550620949730

• Duclos, R.; Sepehri, A.; Kristofferson, K.; Vinoo, P.; Elahi, H., 2021, "The Power of Indirect Appeals in Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Why “S/He” Can Raise More Money For Me Than “I” Can For Myself", Journal Of Consumer Psychology, July 31(3): 612 - 620.
  Abstract: The proliferation of peer-to-peer fundraising-platforms (e.g., GoFundMe, Rally, Fundly) poses conceptual and substantive challenges for behavioral scientists and fundraisers. In this article, we explore how fundraisers should craft their appeals to maximize their chance of success. Four field- and laboratory-studies find that direct appeals (i.e., narratives written in the first-person by the intended recipient) raise less money than otherwise-identical indirect-appeals (i.e., narratives written in the third-person, seemingly by a third party on behalf of the intended recipient). The cause? Prospective donors ascribe lesser (greater) credibility to direct (indirect) appeals, which in turn curtails (increases) their giving. Since the narrative voice (direct vs. indirect) in which appeals are crafted is often discretionary (i.e., adjustable), our findings offer prescriptive guidelines for fundraisers.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1232

• Gunasti, K.; Kara, S.; Ross, W. T.; Duclos, R., 2021, "How language affects consumers' processing of numerical cues", Journal of Consumer Behaviour, March 20(2): 460 - 473.
  Abstract: We show that linguistic numeral structures affect consumers' comparative evaluations of numbers, prices, and alphanumeric brand names. For example, 80 (eighty) in English is perceived as 4 × 20 (quatre-vingts or four twenties) in French and as 8 × 10 (ba-shi or eight tens) in Chinese. Thus, the difference between 80 and 20 is expressed with different degrees of numerosity, the number of units into which a stimulus is divided: (a) 2 × 10 versus 8 × 10 in Chinese, (b) 20 versus 4 × 20 in French, or (c) simply 20 versus 80 in English. In four studies involving a total of 732 bilinguals who speak two of these three languages, we examine how different linguistic properties can lead to differences in comparison of numerical values and inferences made about product attributes. We demonstrate the mediating role of numerosity induced by certain linguistic structures while ruling out alternative explanations for this phenomenon such as cultural differences, processing fluency, and numeracy. Our research contributes to literatures on number cognition, numerosity, branding, and linguistics while providing insights for international marketers by encouraging practitioners to use different numbers in their marketing, branding, and pricing efforts in ways that best fit the linguistic structure of the country in which they sell a product.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cb.1876

• Duclos, R.; Khamitov, M., 2019, "Compared to Dematerialized Money, Cash Increases Impatience In Intertemporal Choice", Journal of Consumer Psychology, July 29(3): 445 - 454.
  Abstract: When it comes to trading time for money (or vice versa), people tend to be impatient and myopic. Often dramatically so. For illustration, half of people would rather collect $15 now than $30 in three months. This willingness to forego 50% of the reward to skip a 3-month wait corresponds to an annual discount rate of 277%. This article investigates how money’s physical form biases intertemporal choice. We ask, what happens to (im)patience (i.e., discount rates) when time is traded against cash rather than against an equivalent sum of dematerialized money? We find that intertemporal decisions pitting time against cash (rather than against dematerialized money) increase impatience. The underlying mechanism relates to the pain of parting from money. Letting go of cash (dematerialized money) we can have now is psychologically more (less) painful, which in turn reduces (increases) our willingness to wait for larger-later payoffs. Importantly, heightening prevention focus (i.e., concerns for safety and security) moderates this bias. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the research, particularly for the psychology of saving behavior.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1098

• Duclos, R., 2015, "The psychology of investment behavior: (De)biasing financial decision-making one graph at a time", Journal of Consumer Psychology, April 25(2): 317 - 325.
  Abstract: Consumers' welfare largely depends on the soundness of their financial decisions. To this effect, the present research examines how people process graphical displays of financial information (e.g., stock-prices) to forecast future trends and invest accordingly. In essence, we ask whether and how visual biases in data interpretation impact financial decision-making and risk-taking. Five experiments find that the last trading day(s) of a stock bear a disproportionately (and unduly) high importance on investment behavior, a phenomenon we coin end-anchoring. Specifically, a stock-price closing upward (downward) fosters upward (downward) forecasts for tomorrow and, accordingly, more (less) investing in the present. Substantial investment asymmetries (up to 75%) emerge even as stock-price distributions were generated randomly to simulate times when the market conjuncture is hesitant and no real upward or downward trend can be identified. Allying experimental manipulations to eye-tracking technology, the present research begins to explore the underpinnings of end-anchoring.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2014.11.005

• Duclos, R.; Barasch, A., 2014, "Prosocial Behavior in Intergroup Relations: How Donor Self-Construal and Recipient Group-Membership Shape Charitableness", Journal of Consumer Research, June 41(1): 93 - 108.
  Abstract: This research examines the interplay of self-construal orientation and victim groupmembership on prosocial behavior. Whereas consumers primed with an independent self-construal demonstrate similar propensities to help needy in-group and out-group others, an interdependent orientation fosters stronger commitments to aid in-group than out-group members. This interaction holds in both individualistic (i.e., the United States) and collectivistic (i.e., China) nations and seems driven by a belief system. For interdependents, the prospect of helping needy in-group (relative to out-group) members heightens the belief that helping others contributes to their own personal happiness, which in turn increases their propensity to act benevolently. Such in-groupout-group distinctions do not seem to operate among independents. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical implications of our findings for the cross-cultural, intergroup-relations, and prosocial literatures before deriving insights for practice.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/674976

• Hoeffler, S.; Ariely, D.; West, W.; Duclos, R., 2013, "Preference Exploration and Learning: The Role of Intensiveness and Extensiveness of Experience", Journal of Consumer Psychology, July 23(3): 330 - 340.
  Abstract: In this article, the authors partition the construct of experience into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) and examine the impact of the two specific types of experience on preference learning. In the first three studies, the authors' theory that experience can be partitioned into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) of experience and that extensiveness has a greater impact on preference learning is supported in environments where prior experience is measured. Further, in study 4 they demonstrate that extensiveness or breadth of experience exerts a larger influence on preference learning in an experiment where each unique type of experience is manipulated as well as measured.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2012.10.007

• Duclos, R.; Wan, E. W.; Jiang, Y., 2013, "Show Me the Honey! Effects of Social Exclusion on Financial Risk-Taking", Journal of Consumer Research, June 40(1): 122 - 135.
  Abstract: This research examines the effects of social exclusion on a critical aspect of consumer behavior, financial decision-making. Specifically, four lab experiments and one field survey uncover how feeling isolated or ostracized causes consumers to pursue riskier but potentially more profitable financial opportunities. These daring proclivities do not appear driven by impaired affect or self-esteem. Rather, interpersonal rejection exacerbates financial risk-taking by heightening the instrumentality of money (as a substitute for popularity) to obtain benefits in life. Invariably, the quest for wealth that ensues tends to adopt a riskier but potentially more lucrative road. The article concludes by discussing the implications of its findings for behavioral research as well as for societal and individual welfare.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://ssrn.com/abstract=2405768

• Yan, D.; Duclos, R., 2013, "Making Sense of Numbers: Effects of Alphanumeric Brands on Consumer Inference", International Journal of Research in Marketing, June 30(2): 179 - 184.
  Abstract: This research examines when and how the presence of seemingly innocuous, non-diagnostic numbers in brand names (e.g., 7-UP) impacts consumers' judgments. Building on anchoring theory, our central proposition is that numbers contained in alphanumeric brand names can act as implicit anchors that subsequently bias (either upward or downward) consumers' assessment of a product's price, weight, volume, etc. We qualify this proposition, however, by showing that such anchoring effects occur primarily when (a) the numeric component of a name appears relevant to the judgment at hand and (b) consumers evaluate product attributes superficially (rather than systematically).

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2012.09.007

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