Author: Steve Tyler

Navigating the Complexity of Sustainability Communications: The Influence of Product Type, Media Type, and Brand Realism Summary This research paper (Park & Minton, Psychology & Marketing) investigates when sustainability messages build consumer trust and persuade, using the Persuasion Knowledge Model as its theoretical lens. Across three experiments (total N = 1,153), the authors test sustainability […]

Beyond Traditional Metrics: Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale for Consumer Financial Well‐Being Summary This paper develops and validates a new, multidimensional Consumer Financial Well‑Being (CFW) scale and tests it across two national contexts (India and the United Kingdom). The authors frame CFW as a second‑order reflective construct composed of four first‑order dimensions: Financial Wisdom, […]

Experiencing Dehumanization, Seeking Uniqueness: The Effect of Organizational Dehumanization on Uniqueness‐Seeking Consumption Summary This paper examines how organizational dehumanization — the sense of being treated like a machine or interchangeable cog — acts as a deep, ontological self-threat and drives people to seek uniqueness through consumption. Across one preliminary survey and five follow-up studies, the […]

Love Affair With Thin Air: Mortality, Mastery, and the Consumerism of Mountaineering Summary This paper reframes mountaineering not as mere thrill-seeking but as a sustained identity project shaped by mortality salience. Drawing on ethnography of a Mount Rainier expedition, depth interviews and netnography, the authors apply Terror Management Theory (TMT) to show how climbers find […]

Charity Without Choice: The Impact of Receiving Prosocial Gifts on Subsequent Donations Summary This paper investigates how receiving prosocial gifts — donations made to a charity in someone’s name — affects the recipient’s willingness to donate to the same charity later. Across four experiments (total N across studies = hundreds), the authors show that when […]

Cross Ownership Versus Merger Under Product Differentiation Summary This paper compares passive cross ownership (CO) — where firms hold non‑controlling shares in rivals — with full mergers in an oligopolistic industry with horizontally differentiated products. The main finding: under Cournot (quantity) competition, insiders (the firms that cooperate) can be better off under symmetric CO than […]