No abstract

We investigated a novel avenue for buffering against threats to meaning frameworks: vintage consumption. Although the appeal of vintage goods, defined as previously owned items from an earlier era, is strong and growing, this paper is among the first to examine the possible psychological ramifications of vintage consumption. Six studies found that vintage items mitigated the typical reactions to meaning threats. Four of these studies also showed that vintage consumption facilitates mental connections among the past, present, and future. As a result, people whose meaning structures had been threatened, for example, by being reminded of their own eventual death, preferred vintage products more than others who had not experienced a meaning threat, and more than similar non‐vintage products. These findings suggest that meaning disruptions stimulate a desire for intertemporal connections, a desire that vintage products—as existing and continuing symbols of bygone eras—seem to satisfy.

Mortality threats are among the strongest psychological threats that an individual can encounter. Previous research shows that mortality threats lead people to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption (i.e., overeating), as a maladaptive coping response to threat. In this paper, we propose that reminders of heroes when experiencing mortality threat increases perceptions of personal power, which in turn buffers the need to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption. We test and find support for our predictions in a series of four studies that include real‐world Twitter data after a series of terrorist attacks in 2016–2017, and three experimental studies conducted online and in the field with behavioral measures after Day of the Dead and during COVID‐19 pandemic. These findings advance the literature on compensatory consumption, mortality threats, and the psychological functions of heroes.

Brands often use scarcity appeals to promote sales. However, there is limited research investigating how consumers react when they are unable to obtain items that are advertised using scarcity appeals in terms of limited quantity. In two studies, experimental and correlational, we show that consumers who do not get the product associated to scarcity appeals (vs. not) have higher intentions to switch to competitor brands. This effect is mediated by consumer anger. We present theoretical contributions in research on scarcity appeals and consumer emotions (i.e., anger) and we discuss managerial implications of how scarcity appeals can sometimes backfire and lead to consumers switching to other competitor brands when they fail to obtain the product advertised as limited in quantity.

According to the Worldometer statistics, in April 2020 the number of Covid-19-related deaths has surpassed 190,000, creating a general fear of death in people (Long, 2020). Not surprisingly, this has had a tremendous effect on tourism. It is estimated that it will take to tourism almost one year to recover from these losses (Faus, 2020). While it is impossible for tourists to visit museums, parks, or other touristic destinations, because of the Covid-19 lockdown policies, we suggest that there is still a light of hope: virtual tours. Previous literature on tourism shows that the use of web-based virtual tours improves consumer perceptions of the destination before the actual (physical) experience (Cho, Wang, & Fesenmaier, 2002). Tussyadiah, Wang, Jung, & tom Dieck (2018) investigated the use of virtual reality in tourism (e.g., MET, MoMA, Uffizi) and found that it has a positive effect on the intention to physically visit the place. The present research aims to show a first evidence of what is the effect of virtual tours (interactive vs. non interactive) on willingness to donate to the museum, willingness to pay for virtual tours when, as in these times, consumers not only cannot visit a place, but they are also afraid to go out. Mortality threat remains the biggest fear humans face (Becker, 1973). Research on Terror Management Theory (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991) suggests that mortality threat affects behavior in several ways: by lowering life satisfaction, wellbeing, or meaning in life (Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010). However, being exposed to something that is important to one's selfesteem can provide relief to mortality threats (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999). Moreover, people have more positive attitudes towards brands or products that provide them relief from mortality threats (e.g., Sarial-Abi, Vohs, Hamilton, & Ulqinaku, 2017). We extend these findings in the tourism context, because mortality threats can prevent people from traveling (Fennell, 2017). Moreover, providing solutions to tourism during a struggling, uncertain, and threatening time is crucial and critical (Ritchie & Jiang, 2019). Adding to previous research on these topics, we propose virtual tours with a greater element of innovation (interactivity) as a way to address the threatened tourists. If technology innovation (as the bases of interactive virtual tours) adoption is important to one's self-esteem, then, given the importance of the latter one to mitigate mortality threats, interactive virtual tours should result in more positive attitudes towards the museum offering that. Fig. 1 shows our conceptual model.