Heightened interpersonal security diminishes the monetary value of possessions

AI-based chatbots in conversational commerce and their effects on product and price perceptions

The rise of AI-based chatbots has gradually changed the way consumers shop. Natural language processing (NLP) technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are likely to accelerate this trend further. However, consumers still prefer to engage with humans and resist chatbots, which are often perceived as impersonal and lacking the human touch. While the predominant tendency is to make chatbots appear more humanlike, little is known about how anthropomorphic verbal design cues in chatbots influence perceived product personalization and willingness to pay a higher product price in conversational commerce contexts. In the current work, we set out to test this through one pre-test (N = 135) and two online experiments (N = 180 and 237). We find that anthropomorphism significantly and positively affects perceived product personalization, and that this effect is moderated by situational loneliness. Moreover, the results show that the interaction between anthropomorphism and situational loneliness has an impact on the willingness to pay a higher product price. The research findings can be used for future applications of AI-driven chatbots where there is a need to provide personalized and data-driven product recommendations.

The Effect of Ostracism on Adults' Materialism: The Roles of Security and Self-Construal

With consumer culture becoming more prominent, the value of materialism is growing rapidly. This study explored the formation of materialism in adults, based on the temporal need–threat model of ostracism and the theory of materialistic values. Specifically, this study examined the link between ostracism and materialism from the perspective of security and the moderating role of self-construal in this process. A sample of 1,272 Chinese adults (M_age = 35.90 ± 11.59, 47.2% male) was recruited to complete the Ostracism Experiences Scale, the Material Values Scale, the Security Questionnaire, and the Self-Construal Scale. The results showed that (1) ostracism positively predicted materialism in Chinese adults; (2) security partially mediated the relationship between ostracism and materialism; (3) and self-construal moderated this mediation model. The moderating effect of self-construal on the relationship between ostracism and security was significant. Specifically, the direct effect of ostracism on security was much stronger for adults with interdependent self-construal than for those with independent self-construal. However, self-construal had no significant moderating effect on the direct effect of ostracism on materialism. These findings suggest that ostracism may affect materialism by damaging adults’ feelings of security, and independent self-construal can buffer the damage of ostracism on security.

Money: An Integrated Review and Synthesis From a Psychological Perspective

Many empirical studies have demonstrated the psychological effects of various aspects of money, including the aspiration for money, mere thoughts about money, possession of money, and placement of people in economic contexts. Although multiple aspects of money and varied methodologies have been focused on and implemented, the underlying mechanisms of the empirical findings from these seemingly isolated areas significantly overlap. In this article, we operationalize money as a broad concept and take a novel approach by providing an integrated review of the literature and identifying five major streams of mechanisms: (a) self-focused behavior; (b) inhibited other-oriented behavior; (c) favoring of a self–other distinction; (d) money’s relationship with self-esteem and self-efficacy; and (e) goal pursuit, objectification, outcome maximization, and unethicality. Moreover, we propose a unified psychological perspective for the future—money as an embodiment of social distinction—which could potentially account for past findings and generate future work.

Multiple Paths to Belonging That We Should Study Together

We propose a broadened conceptualization of what it means to belong by reviewing evidence that there is more than one way to achieve a sense of belonging. We suggest four paths-a communal-relationship path, a general-approbation path, a group-membership path, and a minor-sociability path-and review some evidence for the existence of each. We call for researchers to recognize that multiple paths to belonging exist and to study whether and how the paths combine and interact to influence people's sense of belonging. Choosing the communal-relationship path and the general-approbation path as an example, we highlight times when these paths may (a) mesh well and produce additive boosts to a person's sense of belonging, (b) substitute for one another, and (c) conflict with one another and cause ambivalence. We further call for the development of refined measures of the need to belong and of having a sense of achieved belonging as well as new measures of striving to achieve belonging through specific paths. We suggest that broadening the conceptualization of belonging will help integrate existing literature and generate future research.

Object attachment: Humanness increases sentimental and instrumental values

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

People who hoard form intense attachments to their possessions and save items for sentimental and instrumental reasons. Feeling socially excluded may encourage these individuals to anthropomorphize objects (i.e., perceive them as human-like) to fulfill unmet belonging needs, which may increase the sentimental and instrumental values of objects, and then lead to stronger object attachment.

METHODS

We randomly assigned 331 participants with excessive acquisition tendencies to be excluded, included, or overincluded in an online ball-tossing game before presenting them with five objects that had human characteristics. Participants then completed measures assessing anthropomorphism, sentimental and instrumental values, and object attachment.

RESULTS

Inconsistent with this study hypothesis, socially excluded participants did not rate unowned objects as more human-like than the included or overincluded participants; however, stronger anthropomorphism predicted greater instrumental and sentimental values, which then predicted greater object attachment.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Sentimental and instrumental values may explain how stronger anthropomorphism may lead to greater object attachment. Learning that leads to anthropomorphism may help us better understand object attachment.

Your love makes me feel more secure: Boosting attachment security decreases materialistic values

Enhanced interpersonal security has been shown to diminish the desire for money and possessions. In the present study, we focus on attachment security to examine the relationship between attachment security and materialism. By employing the experience in close relationships - short scale and material values scale, we observed a positive relationship between attachment insecurity and materialism in Study 1. In Study 2, we primed participants' feeling of attachment security to further explore the impact of attachment security on materialistic values. The results showed that participants in the security-priming group exhibited lower levels of state materialism (Study 2a) and a longer time to respond to materialism-related words (Studies 2b and 2c) than participants in the neutral condition. However, attachment styles did not moderate the attachment security-materialism relationship. Our findings reveal that regardless of attachment style, boosting attachment security can effectively decrease materialism.

Interpersonal Insecurity and Risk-Taking Propensity Across Domains and Around the Globe

During social interactions, individuals frequently experience interpersonal insecurity, including feelings of not being loved, protected, trusted, or cared for; these feelings cause numerous behavioral consequences. The present research explores the relationship between interpersonal insecurity and risk-taking propensity in multiple risk domains and around the globe based on risk-sensitivity theory and research on group identity. In Study 1, participants ( N = 209) reported their interpersonal insecurity and risk-taking propensity across seven risk domains. The results show that risk-taking propensity generally increases with interpersonal insecurity. However, this relationship was negative in the cooperation domain and null in the financial domain. In Study 2 ( N = 128,162), data from the World Values Survey from 77 countries reveal a positive correlation between risk-taking propensity and interpersonal insecurity with in-group members but a negative relationship between risk-taking propensity and interpersonal insecurity with out-group members.

The Effect of Self-Esteem on Corrupt Intention: The Mediating Role of Materialism

The present set of studies aimed to explore the effect of self-esteem on corrupt intention and the mediating role of materialism in generating this effect. In Study 1, we used questionnaires to investigate the correlation among self-esteem, materialism, and corrupt intention. In Study 2, we manipulated self-esteem to explore the causal effect of self-esteem on materialism and corrupt intention. In Study 3, we manipulated materialism to examine whether inducing materialism can reduce the relationship between self-esteem and corrupt intention. The three studies converged to show that increased self-esteem caused a low level of materialism, which in turn decreased corrupt intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Differential heart rate responses to social and monetary reinforcement in women with obesity

Obesity is often accompanied by weight stigmatization; subsequently, individuals with obesity frequently face social rejection. It has been shown that recurrent negative social experiences can alter the perception of social cues. However, the way individuals with obesity process social stimuli is not well understood. This study aims to investigate obesity-related alterations in social compared to nonsocial information processing. Women with obesity (n = 14) and without obesity (n = 14) participated in a social and a monetary incentive delay task in which they anticipated and received positive, negative, and neutral outcomes in the form of faces or money. During the experiment, phasic heart rate changes and reaction times were measured. Women with obesity, compared to lean women, exhibited a stronger differentiation during the anticipation of monetary and social reinforcement, showing slower reaction times to social cues compared to monetary cues. During the outcome processing phase, women with obesity relative to controls demonstrated diminished heart rate responses particularly to negative social outcomes. Interestingly, differences in cardiac responses in participants with obesity were moderated by weight-related teasing experiences. In women with obesity, a higher BMI was associated with blunted cardiac responses to social cues relative to monetary cues only if they reported more emotional pain after weight-related teasing. Our results contribute to a better understanding of social information processing in obesity and give first evidence for the role of negative social experiences in reinforcement processing.

Materialistic Values and Goals

Materialism comprises a set of values and goals focused on wealth, possessions, image, and status. These aims are a fundamental aspect of the human value/goal system, standing in relative conflict with aims concerning the well-being of others, as well as one's own personal and spiritual growth. Substantial evidence shows that people who place a relatively high priority on materialistic values/goals consume more products and incur more debt, have lower-quality interpersonal relationships, act in more ecologically destructive ways, have adverse work and educational motivation, and report lower personal and physical well-being. Experimentally activating materialistic aims causes similar outcomes. Given these ills, researchers have investigated means of decreasing people's materialism. Successful interventions encourage intrinsic/self-transcendent values/goals, increase felt personal security, and/or block materialistic messages from the environment. These interventions would likely be more effective if policies were also adopted that diminished contemporary culture's focus on consumption, profit, and economic growth.

Toward an Integrative Theory of Psychological Defense

According to theories of "psychological defense," humans are motivated to protect themselves against various types of psychological threat, including death awareness, uncertainty, and other inherently anxiety-provoking experiences. Protective mechanisms include strengthening close relationships; maintaining appraisals of self-worth, accomplishment, and agency; and cultivating meaningful views of the world. Thus, defensiveness theories incorporate research from many areas of psychology (e.g., information-processing biases, attitudes, and interpersonal and intergroup relations), to help explain why people think, feel, and act in the diverse ways that they do. Currently, the study of psychological defense is hindered by contradictory empirical results and a proliferation of theories that make very similar predictions. This article examines a cross-section of defensiveness theories and research, highlighting conclusions that can be drawn and areas where conceptual and research problems linger. It suggests that the field needs methodological innovation (e.g., more reliable and valid manipulations and measures of unconscious constructs, more diverse methodological approaches), a more complete and reliable body of data, and some fresh new ideas from psychological scientists across disciplines.

Cuing Consumerism

Correlational evidence indicates that materialistic individuals experience relatively low levels of well-being. Across four experiments, we found that situational cuing can also trigger materialistic mind-sets, with similarly negative personal and social consequences. Merely viewing desirable consumer goods resulted in increases in materialistic concerns and led to heightened negative affect and reduced social involvement (Experiment 1). Framing a computer task as a “Consumer Reaction Study” led to a stronger automatic bias toward values reflecting self-enhancement, compared with framing the same task as a “Citizen Reaction Study” (Experiment 2). Consumer cues also increased competitiveness (Experiment 3) and selfishness in a water-conservation dilemma (Experiment 4). Thus, the costs of materialism are not localized only in particularly materialistic people, but can also be found in individuals who happen to be exposed to environmental cues that activate consumerism—cues that are commonplace in contemporary society.