Cafe Venetia is a local coffee shop in Palo Alto. It serves Italian-style coffee including cafe lattes and espresso.
What makes this cafe special is its computer-free rule. On the patio wall, there is a sign that says “Computer Free Zone.” Each outdoor table has a small plate that reads “Computer-Free Table.”
The cafe encourages people to be present: read a book, have a conversation, or watch people pass by. The owner probably believes coffee should be enjoyed without the distraction of meetings or emails.
It is interesting that big tech companies like OpenAI and Google pull us deeper into virtual worlds, while a café in their own hometown encourages us to stay present.
Without these computer-free rules, we might easily get pulled into digital distractions through classic platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, or newer AI agents like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Today, we need rules to create distance from the virtual world and enjoy something “unique, meaningful, and authentic.”
This article addresses a simple theoretical question of high substantive relevance: What makes a consumption experience special in a consumer’s mind? To answer this question, the authors report an extensive multi-method investigation involving a grounded theory analysis of numerous consumer narratives and in-depth interviews, a field survey, a scale development study, a natural language processing analysis of more than 3 million Yelp reviews, a preregistered multi-factor causal experiment (and its preregistered replication), a blind comparison of hundreds of matched visual Instagram posts by third-party observers, and several small application studies. The findings converge in identifying three major psychological pillars of what makes consumption experiences feel special to consumers, each pillar involving different facets: (a) uniqueness, which arises from the rarity, novelty, irreproducibility, personalization, exclusivity, ephemerality, and surpassing of expectations of the experience; (b) meaningfulness, which pertains to the personal significance of the experience in terms of symbolism, relationships, self-affirmation, and self-transformation; and (c) authenticity, which relates to the perceived genuineness and realness of the experience in terms of its psychological proximity to some original source, iconicity, human sincerity, and connection to nature. As illustrated in the General Discussion, the findings have important substantive implications for the engineering of hedonic consumption experiences.
Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.
During a break in the game, I noticed a non-Korean person wearing a jersey with his name in Korean (이정후) printed in bold Korean letters on the back. It was not J. H. Lee.
Later, back at home, I went to mlbshop.com out of curiosity. The official Nike t-shirt with “J. H. Lee” was priced at $44.99. But the same shirt, with “이정후” on the back, cost $49.99. It was five dollars more and sold out.
I checked the prices of other players’ shirts. Matt Chapman’s shirt also cost $44.99. Logan Webb’s was slightly cheaper at $39.99. Jorge Soler, who is no longer on the team, was listed for just $19.99. Among them, the version with Korean script was the most expensive.
From a marketing perspective, this price difference reflects the interesting psychology of fans. One reason could be uniqueness. Fans might want to be unique and choose the Korean version to feel rare. Another reason might be authenticity. Wearing the player’s name in his native language could feel more genuine. Finally, there might also be a sense of community. Wearing the Korean version might signal a shared cultural identity.
Fans often sacrifice convenience and pursue originality. They want to express identity, value, and/or a sense of belonging.
Although consumers put substantial effort toward their appearance, engaging in beauty work is often seen as inauthentic, posing challenges for beauty companies that increasingly rely on social media-driven product promotion where authenticity perceptions are consequential. This article draws on existentialist notions of authenticity (wherein the true self is created rather than innate) to explore how framing beauty work as self-expression alters others’ perceptions and, in turn, marketing outcomes. First, an archival analysis of Instagram posts demonstrates that rebranding beauty work as self-expression is positively associated with word-of-mouth about beauty products. Six studies then test how motivational information alters perceptions of people who engage in beauty work. Lowered authenticity perceptions arise from observers’ default assumption that beauty work is motivated by self-enhancement and serves primarily to conceal appearances. By contrast, self-expression enhances authenticity by leading others to see beauty work as a form of creation rather than concealment. This pattern extends to when people engage in a variety of beauty work transformations but not when beauty work is designed to restore appearances or is framed as connected to the innate self. These findings provide insight into judgments of authenticity and the management of a stigma associated with product use.
When I went skiing with my brother for the first time in South Lake Tahoe, he suggested we stop by Jalisco’s Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant he liked. The name “Jalisco” is a mark of quality since the region is known as the soul of Mexican cuisine and the birthplace of tequila.
At first, I did not find this restaurant appealing. The menu stretches across the wall and is hard to follow. It is packed with tacos, tortas, burritos, à la carte items, chips, and sauces. It is not minimal. As research on the paradox of choice suggests, too many options overwhelmed me.
But I noticed that the complex menu did not seem to bother other customers. People ordered confidently as if they already knew what they wanted. In fact, every time I go to the ski resort, I stop by and order the same burritos. It has become a routine for me.
When something becomes a routine, decisions happen automatically. I go to the same restaurant, order the same food, and leave satisfied every time. Routine, like an AI agent, takes over the work of deciding.
Current psychological theory and research affirm the positive affective and motivational consequences of having personal choice. These findings have led to the popular notion that the more choice, the better—that the human ability to manage, and the human desire for, choice is unlimited. Findings from 3 experimental studies starkly challenge this implicit assumption that having more choices is necessarily more intrinsically motivating than having fewer. These experiments, which were conducted in both field and laboratory settings, show that people are more likely to purchase gourmet jams or chocolates or to undertake optional class essay assignments when offered a limited array of 6 choices rather than a more extensive array of 24 or 30 choices. Moreover, participants actually reported greater subsequent satisfaction with their selections and wrote better essays when their original set of options had been limited. Implications for future research are discussed.
At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, I stopped by a souvenir shop featuring local designers. One product package caught my eye: a candle sealed inside a sardine can. It was one of the most unexpected and playful mismatches between form and function I have seen.
Designs like this stand out. But are they effective? Research suggests that consumer responses to such mismatches depend on the type of product. For functional products, incongruent designs can enhance preference. For experiential products, however, congruent designs are better. In other words, mismatch works best when the product is seen as utilitarian.
Yet this sardine-can candle, clearly a hedonic product, seems to challenge the logic. Despite its experiential nature, the mismatch in form adds charm.
The real question is whether the surprise created by the product package fade after the first glance or continues through the purchase experience. This souvenir suggests it endures. I bought two candles partly to appreciate the creativity the designers put into it. The unexpected packaging not only captures attention but also transforms the ordinary into something curiously extraordinary.
Marketers struggle with how best to position innovative products that are incongruent with consumer expectations. Compounding the issue, many incongruent products are the result of innovative changes in product form intended to increase hedonic appeal. Crossing various product categories with various positioning tactics in a single meta-analytic framework, the authors find that positioning plays an important role in how consumers evaluate incongruent form. The results demonstrate that when a product is positioned on functional dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for moderately incongruent form than for congruent form. However, when a product is positioned on experiential dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for congruent form than for moderately incongruent form. Importantly, an increase in perceived hedonic benefits mediates the former, whereas a decrease in perceived utilitarian benefits mediates the latter. The mediation effects are consistent with the view that consumers must first understand a product’s functionality before engaging in hedonic consumption.
At Heavenly ski resort and Kirkwood ski resort, a full set of colorful condiments stood quietly near the dining area. They include ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, ranch, barbecue sauce, and even Bull’s Eye sauce. All were arranged in a neat row of colorful pumps, like Lego.
I noticed that every container, no matter the flavor, was marked with the same brand, Heinz. I always thought Heinz was only about ketchup, its hero product. But here, it offered more than that.
Usually, consumers determine the success of brand extension. But in this case, the producer takes the lead. By offering a well-designed and complete set, Heinz makes it easy for lodge managers to decide. Once the managers accept the set, skiers follow. They cannot select a different kind of mustard like Dijon, or switch to another brand. Brand extension may not be shaped only by end users like us, but rather co-created by those in the middle who make the decisions behind the scenes.
The same rule applies to the student cafe in Stanford. There is a set of container of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard with Heinz and then there are a few Tabasco pumps.
Two studies were conducted to obtain insights on how consumers form attitudes toward brand extensions, (i.e., use of an established brand name to enter a new product category). In one study, reactions to 20 brand extension concepts involving six well-known brand names were examined. Attitude toward the extension was higher when (1) there was both a perception of “fit” between the two product classes along one of three dimensions and a perception of high quality for the original brand or (2) the extension was not regarded as too easy to make. A second study examined the effectiveness of different positioning strategies for extensions. The experimental findings show that potentially negative associations can be neutralized more effectively by elaborating on the attributes of the brand extension than by reminding consumers of the positive associations with the original brand.
One woman became known for drawing colorful lines. She gave her time and money to paint a big wall in San Francisco.
This 90-minute documentary made me stop and question. Why do these artists offer their talent so freely, expecting nothing in return? Am I overlooking something more meaningful that I should be pursuing?
I often move between two minds, and lately this swing feels even more intense. When I attend AI seminars, efficiency becomes my top priority. When I speak with museum curators, I feel drawn to beauty or simply to helping others. Art and AI seem to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Nostalgia has a strong presence in the marketing of goods and services. The current research asked whether its effectiveness is driven by its weakening of the desire for money. Six experiments demonstrated that feeling nostalgic decreased people’s desire for money. Using multiple operationalizations of desire for money, nostalgia (vs. neutral) condition participants were willing to pay more for products (experiment 1), parted with more money but not more time (experiment 2), valued money less (experiments 3 and 4), were willing to put less effort into obtaining money (experiment 5), and drew smaller coins (experiment 6). Process evidence indicated that nostalgia’s weakening of the desire for money was due to its capacity to foster social connectedness (experiments 5 and 6). Implications for price sen- sitivity, willingness to pay, consumer spending, and donation behavior are dis- cussed. Nostalgia may be so commonly used in marketing because it encourages consumers to part with their money.
I had the honor of judging four runner-up teams in Track 2 at the Sunstone Innovation Challenge at CSU Long Beach. Together with three other judges, we reviewed business plans and live pitches.
The four teams presented ideas and shared insights on product-market fit (PMF), market size (TAM, SAM, SOM), and go-to-market strategies across channels. They also laid out pre-launch timelines and key metrics to measure success.
Our judging rubric covered from market opportunity and business model to market validation and team structure. Each judge brought a unique perspective, focusing on aspects such as the scalability and/or financial strength of the business model.
I observed that understanding materials and experience with prototyping were critical when teams developed product concepts, and a deep understanding of customer needs was essential when generating service concepts.
Ultimately, the team, “Rise and UnWind,” was finalized with its clever idea of a coffee shop by day and speakeasy by night, supported by the team’s experience in the F&B industry.
On a sunny Saturday, I watched a classic movie titled To Be or Not to Be at the Stanford Theatre, a historic theater in Palo Alto. This movie experience felt like quiet therapy. I want to keep returning to this theatre for several reasons.
First, the analog ticketing gave me human connection. I received a red paper ticket at the tall glass booth, and another person inside cut it in half and handed it back. This mechanical process made me feel warmly connected.
Second, it was affordable in an expensive area. The ticket was $7, which is cheaper than a typical restaurant tip, and a small popcorn was only $1.50. In a place like Palo Alto where everything feels expensive, this low price made me feel comfortable.
Third, and most important, was the atmosphere. Most of the audience were senior couples, quietly watching the movie. Nobody used smartphones and nobody spoke loudly. I did not interact with them, but I felt comfort simply being near them. This calm environment helped me slow down my thoughts that dynamic AI talks never could. Although we often study seniors, we know little about how we feel when quietly sharing space with seniors. Perhaps, we enjoy being near them, watching them chat softly and walk slowly.
Independent theaters like the Stanford Theatre may represent the future of cinema. Multiplexes continue to be positioned as destinations for young couples, but moviegoers are turning away from them. Instead of focusing on couples looking for extraordinary experience, theaters should become places for individuals seeking quiet and reflection.
Previous research has shown that trait concepts and stereotypes become active automatically in the presence of relevant behavior or stereotyped-group features. Through the use of the same priming procedures as in previous impression formation research, Experiment 1 showed that participants whose concept of rudeness was primed interrupted the experimenter more quickly and frequently than did participants primed with polite-related stimuli. In Experiment 2, participants for whom an elderly stereotype was primed walked more slowly down the hallway when leaving the experiment than did control participants, consistent with the content of that stereotype. In Experiment 3, participants for whom the African American stereotype was primed subliminally reacted with more hostility to a vexatious request of the experimenter. Implications of this automatic behavior priming effect for self-fulfilling prophecies are discussed, as is whether social behavior is necessarily mediated by conscious choice processes.
“…We constructed two versions of the scrambled sentence task: one elderly prime version, which contained words related to the elderly stereotype, and another, neutral version. For the elderly prime version, the critical stimuli were worried, Florida, old, lonely, grey, selfishly, careful, sentimental, wise, stubborn, courteous, bingo, withdraw, forgetful, retired, wrinkle, rigid, traditional, bitter, obedient, conservative, knits, dependent, ancient, helpless, gullible, cautious, and alone… In the neutral version, the elderly prime words were replaced with the words unrelated to the elderly stereotype (e.g., thirsty, clean, private).”
“…Participants in the elderly priming condition (M = 8.28 s) had a slower walking speed compared to participants in the neutral priming condition (M= 7.30 s), t(2S) = 2.86,p< .01, as predicted…”
“…Thus, our results are in harmony with those of Carver et al. (1983), who advanced a “behavioral schema” model as an explanation for modeling effects. According to the behavioral schema model, the perceptual and actional representations of the same type of behavior share many features in common and thus develop strong connections. As a result, if one has just perceived another person acting in a generous or an aggressive way, for example, one’s behavioral schema for generosity or aggression is activated and accessible, and so one is more likely to behave that way oneself in subsequent situations for which generosity or aggression is a relevant response.“
During this opportunity, I shared my research on green consumption conducted with Bohee Jung (Jung & Joo, 2021). We borrowed the concept of choice–preference inconsistency from consumer behavior research to test whether consumers over-choose green options even when they do not evaluate them highly.
We found that while 76% chose the green option, only 49% actually rated it more favorably. A similar gap can be seen in real-world cases like the hype around Starbucks plastic reusable cups. Although companies are often accused of greenwashing, consumers themselves contribute by over-choosing green products they do not fully use.
In the past, researchers focusing on environmentally friendly consumption have devoted attention to the intention–action gap, suggesting that consumers have positive attitudes toward an environmentally friendly product even though they are not willing to buy it. In the present study, we borrow insights from the behavioral decision making literature on preference reversal to introduce an opposite phenomenon—that is, consumers buying an environmentally friendly product even though they do not evaluate it highly. We further rely on the research on goals to hypothesize that choice–evaluation discrepancies disappear when consumers pursue an environmentally friendly goal. A two (Mode: Choice vs. Evaluation) by three (Goal: Control vs. Quality vs. Environmentally friendly) between-subjects experimental design was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings obtained from 165 undergraduate students in Korea showed that, first, 76% of the participants chose an environmentally friendly cosmetic product whereas only 49% of the participants ranked it higher than a competing product, and, second, when participants read the sentence “You are now buying one of the two compact foundations in order to minimize the waste of buying new foundations,” the discrepancy disappeared (64% vs. 55%). Our experimental findings advance academic discussions of green consumption and the choice–evaluation discrepancy and have practical implications for eco-friendly marketing.
At first glance, this is just an ordinary drinking water tap. But Stanford University has made it something meaningful.
A sign above the tap reads:
This drinking water originates from the Tuolumne River watershed in Yosemite National Park and is conveyed to the Bay Area by a regional water system. The Tuolumne River watershed is the homeland of Indigenous peoples, especially speakers of Sierra Miwok and Northern Paiute and their descendants. These people have cared for and revered this land since time immemorial. We invite you to seek deeper knowledge about the water you draw from this tap.
A simple water tap, something people might otherwise overlook, becomes a reminder of history and respect. Story can enrich everyday experiences, making the ordinary feel significant.
Stories fascinate people and are often more easily remembered than facts. Much has been written about the power of stories in branding, but very little empirical evidence exists of their effects on consumer responses. In the present study, we investigate how a firm-originated story influences consumers’ brand experience, by comparing the brand experiences of two groups of consumers. One group was exposed to the story and one group was not. An existing brand was used in the study, which had not been launched in the focal country. In-depth interviews were conducted with individuals in the two experimental conditions. The comparison revealed remarkable differences between the two groups. Consumers who were exposed to the story described the brand in much more positive terms and were willing to pay more for the product. The study contributes to brand management research and practice by demonstrating the power of storytelling on consumer experiences. The results are also important from a managerial point of view. They demonstrate how brand stories can be used to create and reinforce positive brand associations. A review of past research in combination with the findings demonstrates that more research is needed on the effect of stories on consumer brand responses.
