Residential mobility breeds familiarity-seeking.

Abstract

Why are American landscapes (e.g., housing developments, shopping malls) so uniform, despite the well-known American penchant for independence and uniqueness? We propose that this paradox can be explained by American mobility: Residential mobility fosters familiarity-seeking and familiarity-liking, while allowing individuals to pursue their personal goals and desires. We reason that people are drawn to familiar objects (e.g., familiar, national chain stores) when they move. We conducted 5 studies to test this idea at the levels of society, individuals, and situations. We found that (a) national chain stores do better in residentially mobile places than in residentially stable places (controlling for other economic and demographic factors; Study 1); (b) individuals who have moved a lot prefer familiar, national chain stores to unfamiliar stores (Studies 2a and 2b); and (c) a residential mobility mindset enhances the mere exposure and familiarity-liking effect (Studies 4 and 5). In Study 5, we demonstrated that the link between mobility and familiarity-liking was mediated by anxiety evoked by mobility.

Interest in Complex Novelty

“…Complex new products and technologies are more likely to become successful when they are introduced in settings where people have high coping potential. People are more likely to be interested in complex novelty when they are, for instance, in control or certain as compared to lacking control or feeling uncertain (Oishi et al, 2012;Rutjens et al, 2013;van Horen & Pieters, 2013). It is also conceivable that there are situations of extreme levels of coping potential that might result in actively approaching complex novelty.…”

“…People could, for instance, feel more competent dealing with complex novelty, or the understanding could provide them with a base to become interested in other complex novel things (see also Carbon et al, 2013;Gillebaart et al, 2012;Oishi et al, 2012). Thus, besides increasing coping potential through product-specific understanding, the manipulations of Experiments 1 and 2 could also generalize to a more general feeling of being able to deal with complex novelty.…”

“…For instance, when people experience high as opposed to low personal control, they are more likely to accept disorder and randomness (e.g., Rutjens, van Harreveld, van der Pligt, Kreemers, & Noordewier, 2013; see also Kay et al, 2009) and thus possibly also novelty. In addition, people who feel certain are more likely to go for novel products, whereas people who feel uncertain are more likely to prefer familiarity (Oishi, Miao, Koo, Kisling, & Ratliff, 2012; see also van Horen & Pieters, 2013). Finally, people who focus on fascination or growth appreciate novelty more than people who focus on danger or maintaining or attaining security (Carbon, Faerber, Gerger, Forster, & Leder, 2013;promotion vs. prevention focus, Gillebaart, Förster, & Rotteveel, 2012).…”

“…Translating this to interest in complex novelty, this suggests that when people are in a state of high coping potential, they feel they can deal with the unfamiliarity and difficulty component of complex novelty, whereas when they are in a state of low coping potential, this same unfamiliarity and difficulty component can be experienced as challenging or even stressful (e.g., Oishi et al, 2012). As such, people are predicted to be more interested in complex novelty when they feel they have high versus low coping potential.…”

Places and Traces of Personality

“…For example, residential mobility rates have been shown to be related to levels of civic engagement and crime rates (Kang & Kwak, 2003;Sampson, 2012). Other research has shown associations with economic factors, such as the prevalence of national chain stores (Oishi, Miao, Koo, Kisling, & Ratliff, 2012) or local wages and economic vitality (Ottaviano & Peri, 2006;Vey & Forman, 2002). Moreover, higher immigration rates seem to promote further population mobility in terms of self-reinforcing processes (Crowder, Hall, & Tolnay, 2011;Pendakur & Young, 2013).…”