We use terror management theory (TMT) to show that the nature of the threatening consequences included in fear‐appeal communications influences the responses to the messages promoted in such communications. On the basis of differences between death‐related consequences and non‐death‐related consequences, they provide an explanation for maladaptive responses to fear appeals. Results from 2 experiments indicate that participants who were highly committed to a worldview of drinking alcohol rejected socially acceptable attitudes toward drinking and driving when the message containing such attitudes was accompanied by a fear appeal that contained death as a consequence, but not when fear appeals contained the fear of arrest or serious injury. Participants perceived their level of experienced fear to be the same across the experimental conditions. The results have implications for considering the qualitative nature of the threatening consequence in fear‐appeal research and for using TMT to understand maladaptive responses to fear‐appeal communications.

PurposeThis research proposes studying how consumers' familiarity with products impacts the degree to which consumers are sensitive to a seller's violation of procedural fairness norms in pricing. Past research has either studied the role of familiarity or the role of fairness in influencing consumer behavior. However, it is unclear how familiarity and fairness combine to influence consumer behavior. The present research proposes filling this gap.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment is designed to manipulate consumers' perceptions of procedural fairness of a seller's pricing tactic, and consumers' levels of familiarity with a product. Each variable is manipulated to be either high or low. Thus, outcomes are observed for four purchase conditions.FindingsResults indicate that the degree to which consumers rely on procedural fairness to evaluate a product is related to consumers' level of familiarity with a product. Consumers who are less familiar with a product are more likely to rely on procedural fairness to form purchase intentions. Also, unlike their more knowledgeable counterparts, consumers who are less familiar with a product are more likely to equate procedural fairness with perceived quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe research stresses the need to differentiate between the roles played by procedural and distributive fairness in shaping consumer behavior. The authors study only procedural fairness, but a natural next step for future research is to study simultaneously the role of both facets of fairness.Practical implicationsThe results of our study underscore the importance of following procedural fairness norms especially for retailers who deal in product categories where the pace of innovation is so rapid that it creates a large dispersion in knowledge of product attributes among consumers. The study' findings suggest that in such situations, consumers may rely excessively on cues that signal a seller's adherence to or violation of social norms relevant to business practices. Thus, the authors encourage sellers to monitor keenly levels of product knowledge among their customer base. This would enable sellers to identify situations that merit an enhanced sensitivity to upholding social norms such as procedural fairness.Originality/valueThe paper brings to attention the interaction between consumers' familiarity with a product and procedural fairness in pricing. Although an expectation of procedural fairness underlies all exchanges this research identifies consumers' familiarity as a variable that influences the degree to which procedural fairness is relied on in shaping consumer behavior.

PurposeThis paper aims to study how buyers' gender and risk proclivity, and the time remaining in an internet auction, influence whether buyers buy at fixed prices or bid.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a simulated internet auction. Participants choose between bidding in an auction and buying at a fixed price. Data are analyzed using a logistic regression model. The results from the laboratory study are validated with data from eBay.com.FindingsFemale participants’ odds of choosing the buy‐it‐now (BIN) option are higher than their odds of bidding in an auction (BID) when less time is remaining in an auction. Contrarily, for males, when less time is remaining, BID is preferred over BIN. Unexpectedly, when substantial time is remaining, males have greater odds of choosing BIN over BID except when they are high risk‐seekers. Simulation results correspond closely with eBay data.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that not only do gender differences manifest themselves in ways that are to be expected, such as females being more risk‐averse than males, but that competitiveness among males may lead to an uncharacteristic choice to buy at fixed prices if substantial time is remaining in an auction. Furthermore, the latent competitive nature of females is revealed by secondary research. Finally, the research validates laboratory results with field data to practice methodological triangulation.Originality/valueA comparison of determinants of bidding versus buying at fixed prices is missing from the extant literature. The present study fills this gap.

Purpose -This research aims to study how buyers' budget constraints influence buyers' perceptions of discounts presented in a dollars-off versus percentage-off format. A comparison of perceptions of discount format under budget constraints is missing from the past literature. The current research aims to fill this gap. Design/methodology/approach -The research is based on two experiments. In the first experiment, a study by Kahneman and Tversky is replicated and extended by including budget constraints. In the second experiment participants are given either a high or a low budget and then asked to compare objectively equivalent discounts that are presented in either dollars-off or percent-off terms. Participants' willingness to buy is recorded and used to gauge the efficacy of the discount formats under budget constraints. Findings -The research extends previous findings derived from the psychophysics of pricing. It demonstrates that, although it is believed that the attractiveness of an absolute discount is inversely proportional to the objective price, such evaluations are also influenced by the presence of budget information. Specifically, consumer budget interacts with discount formats such that the $-off versus percent-off discounts may not be appropriate for expensive or inexpensive products respectively, as shown in past research. Instead, the value of the discount in proportion to the available budget may play a significant role in deal evaluation. Therefore it is an important issue retailers should consider when deciding what discount presentation format to use. Originality/value -Although past research views price as a constraint, the findings indicate that price in itself may not be a constraint unless viewed within the context of a budget. Consumers implicitly make this comparison, but past research has not specifically tested for the effects of budgets and, instead, has relied on income as a proxy for a consumer's spending power. The results provide evidence that using income instead of budget may be an oversimplification.

Fear appeal communications have sustained the interest of researchers for over a half century. The dominant paradigm guiding fear appeal research asserts that differences in level of fear lead to differences in the persuasiveness of a message. Research grounded in the level of fear perspective has produced equivocal results, failed to explain why fear appeals sometimes backfire, and has not provided an a priori explanation for who may reject fear appeal messages. By emphasizing differences between individuals’ responses to the fear of death versus the fear of physically or socially undesirable consequences, terror management theory (TMT) offers a complementary theoretical perspective that may overcome the shortcomings of extant fear appeal research. This article reviews extant theoretical approaches to fear appeal research and summarizes the central tenets of TMT. A comparison of extant theories to TMT suggests that incorporating TMT into future fear appeal research may improve both the explanatory and predictive power of fear appeal theories.