Tag Archives: psychology

Cases

How Eataly transforms food into a Wow moment

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When I visited Eataly at Santana Row in San Jose to shop interesting Italian food items, I had a special experience. First, I was greeted by a big circular display of cured meats and cheeses (Salumi e Formaggi). The bright lights made the food look fresh.

Around this circle, I noticed more salumi and prosciutti hanging on the walls, with their origins detailed above.

As I walked further, I found sections for fresh fish (La Pescheria) and handmade bread (La Panetteria), both well-designed and full of options.

There was also a wine area where I could taste.

What impressed me most was the store’s deliberate use of design elements. Bright lighting made items look premium. Each food section had clear labels on the ceiling. The walls had different colors. Glass was used everywhere to make the store feel open and elegant. These details created a vibrant environment.

A high-arousal store environment, like Eataly, is ideal for customers seeking a recreational experience. This grocery store appeals to shoppers, like me, who enjoy exploring new products and are willing to pay more for the enhanced experience. Eataly is more than just selling fresh food; it creates a “wow” moment that encourages customers to perceive value beyond the product.

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Reference

Kaltcheva, V. D., & Weitz, B. A. (2006). When should a retailer create an exciting store environment?. Journal of marketing, 70(1), 107-118.

Addressing inconsistent results in the literature, the conceptual framework that the authors develop proposes that the consumer’s motivational orientation moderates the effect of the arousal produced by a store environment on the pleasantness of the environment. Two experiments support the framework. When consumers have a recreational motivational orientation, high arousal has a positive effect on pleasantness, but when consumers have a task-oriented motivational orientation, high arousal decreases pleasantness. In addition, high arousal increases consumer intentions to visit and make purchases in the store for recreationally oriented consumers, but it has a negative impact on shopping behavior for task-oriented consumers. Pleasantness mediates the effect of arousal on shopping behavior.

Cases

Uber and Lyft: More than just a ride

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At San Jose International Airport, app-based ride share services like Uber and Lyft dominate the curbside scene. Travelers lining up next to the Uber signs look for their cars while taxis become rare.

Similarly, at Stanford University Hospital, designated areas show that ride share is now mainstream in California.

While many view Uber and Lyft as modern conveniences replacing taxis, I see them as cafes such as Starbucks or Tim Hortons—another space where people talk. Over the past two months, I learned a lot about California from Uber drivers.

Some drivers were quiet, but others shared their stories. One driver at San Jose said he worked as a software marketer for 20 years and remembered meeting Steve Jobs. Another driver at Mountain View worked two jobs to support his family. A driver in San Diego was a history teacher driving to make ends meet. Another in LA said he was preparing a birthday party for his son.

In the US, many people do things by themselves. But inside an Uber or Lyft, there is a chance to meet someone and talk. It might help people feel less lonely, even for a short time.

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Reference

Talmage, C. A., Knopf, R. C., Wu, T., Winkel, D., Mirchandani, P., & Candan, K. S. (2021). Decreasing loneliness and social disconnectedness among community-dwelling older adults: The potential of information and communication technologies and ride-hailing services. Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 45(2), 89-117.

This study explores self-reports of 241 older adults (aged 63–95) regarding loneliness and social disconnectedness, and the potential for information and communication technologies (ICT) and ride-hailing services to mitigate these phenomena. The samples are drawn from four older adult living communities in Maricopa County, Arizona. Lonelier older adults and older adults desiring greater social connections with friends, family, and outsiders appear to use ICT less and might benefit from ride-hailing services more than their less lonely and more socially connected counterparts. These findings are nuanced and depend on ICT device, type of ride-hailing service, and purpose of use. While desires for ride-hailing services were generally low, these services show promise in alleviating loneliness and increasing social connectedness, especially as older adults prepare to cease driving. Advice for implementing interventions and strategies to decrease the loneliness and increase social connectedness of community-dwelling older adults is elucidated and shared.

Cases

From push to wave: How California crosswalks adapt to post-pandemic needs

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Crosswalk signals in Mountain View, California, have undergone an important upgrade. The old system required pedestrians and cyclists to press a button to activate the walk signal. For cyclists, this often meant stopping and dismounting, creating an inconvenience.

In contrast, the new system is a touchless design that allows pedestrians and cyclists to wave their hand to activate the signal. This improvement makes it more convenient for everyone, especially cyclists who no longer need to stop and manually press a button.

This shift may also reflect changing attitudes towards physical touch in public spaces after the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer researchers highilghted the importance of the “need for touch,” but this need may have diminished as people increasingly avoid touching shared surfaces. The new touchless crosswalk system may be an adaptation to this evolving preference, signaling a broader trend toward touchless design in public spaces.

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Reference

Peck, J., & Childers, T. L. (2003). Individual differences in haptic information processing: The “need for touch” scale. Journal of consumer research, 30(3), 430-442.

This research details the development of the “Need for Touch” (NFT) scale designed to measure individual differences in preference for haptic (touch) information. The 12-item NFT scale consists of autotelic and instrumental dimensions. Results are reported that support the scale’s hypothesized internal structure as well as its reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. Individual differences in chronic accessibility to haptic information across groups varying in NFT were also found in two experiments. Additionally, NFT moderated the relationship between direct experience and confidence in judgment.

Cases

Psychology behind dynamic toll pricing in California

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A recent drive on an express lane showed tolls as high as $9 to Broadway and $10 to I-380, depending on real-time conditions. What makes this interesting is that the price for using the same road is not predetermined; it is decided on the spot.

Dynamic toll pricing may adjust based on traffic volume, creating an anchor for drivers to evaluate the value of the express lane. If traffic is heavy, the higher toll can feel worth it when compared to the frustration of sitting in congestion. This shifting price serves as a real-time incentive or deterrent, depending on how drivers value their time at that moment.

Mental accounting, the tendency to categorize resources such as money and time, is a key principle at work. The price is not just about the toll but about the potential loss of time stuck in traffic. For many, the higher toll feels like a small price to pay to avoid the larger loss of wasted time, especially during busy hours.

Dynamic pricing taps into our varying perceptions of time. During a stressful commute, paying $10 to save several minutes is more appealing than when traffic is light. The system uses behavioral cues to nudge drivers into seeing the express lane as a valuable, time-saving option.

In essence, dynamic toll pricing leverages human psychology to adjust behavior in real time, making the express lane more than just a road—it is a reflection of what happens when we convert time into money.

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Reference

Soman, D. (2001). The mental accounting of sunk time costs: Why time is not like money. Journal of behavioral decision making, 14(3), 169-185.

The sunk-cost effect, an irrational attention to non-recoverable past costs while making current decisions, has been documented widely in the domain of monetary costs. In this paper, I study the effect of past time investments on current decisions. In three experiments using choice situations, I demonstrate that the sunk-cost effect is not observed for past investments of time, but the effect reappears when the investments are expressed as monetary quantities. I further propose that this ‘pseudo-rationality’ is due to the fact that individuals lack the ability to account for time in the same way as they account for money. In two additional experiments, I facilitate the accounting of time and show that the irrational sunk-cost effect reappears. In a final experiment, I test my propositions in a setting where subjects make real investments of time and subsequently make real choices.

Cases

Vintage speakers that do not play: The art of deception in cafe design

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Salon de Jungui Lee is a cafe in Jeju island. With minimal construction and a commitment to preserving its essence, the owner of the old house transformed it into a cafe that embodies her philosophy of refined simplicity.

This cafe is a popular destination among Korean coffee lovers. Coffee is excellent, but its desserts are not overly sweet, not sticky, nor heavy treats. To me, each bite was a carefully orchestrated symphony of taste and texture.

Beyond taste, its atmosphere was unique. The pinnacle was the air conditioner vent. Instead of a tasteless plastic vent, a repurposed traditional Korean window frame was hanging on the ceiling. It was functional, beautiful, and deeply rooted in cultural heritage.

While enjoying coffee, dessert, and unique air conditioner vent, I naturally assumed that the vintage speaker pumped out the tunes. However, it was actually a cleverly disguised modern Bose system connected to an iPhone.

Salon de Jungui Lee taught me a valuable lesson about experience. It is not just about the individual components – the coffee, the desserts, or the décor. It is about how these elements come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

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Reference

Hogarth, R. M. (2005). Deciding analytically or trusting your intuition? The advantages and disadvantages of analytic and intuitive thought. In The Routines of Decision Making (pp. 67–82).

Recent research has highlighted the notion that people can make judgments and choices by means of two systems that are labeled here tacit (or intuitive) and deliberate (or analytic). Whereas most decisions typically involve both systems, this chapter examines the conditions under which each system is liable to be more effective. This aims to illuminate the age-old issue of whether and when people should trust “intuition” or “analysis.” To do this, a framework is presented to understand how the tacit and deliberate systems work in tandem. Distinctions are also made between the types of information typically used by both systems as well as the characteristics of environments that facilitate or hinder accurate learning by the tacit system. Next, several experiments that have contrasted “intuitive” and “analytic” modes on the same tasks are reviewed. Together, the theoretical framework and experimental evidence leads to specifying the trade-off that characterizes their relative effectiveness. Tacit system responses can be subject to biases. In making deliberate system responses, however, people might not be aware of the “correct rule” to deal with the task they are facing and/or make errors in executing it. Whether tacit or deliberate responses are more valid in particular circumstances requires assessing this trade-off. In this, the probability of making errors in deliberate thought is postulated to be a function of the analytical complexity of the task as perceived by the person. Thus the trade-off is one of bias (in implicit responses) versus analytical complexity (when tasks are handled in deliberate mode). Finally, it is noted that whereas much attention has been paid in the past to helping people make decisions in deliberate mode, efforts should also be directed toward improving ability to make decisions in tacit mode since the effectiveness of decisions clearly depends on both. This therefore represents an important frontier for research.

*Event

Take a deep dive into customer experience with a behavioral lens

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I recently gave a lecture at the California State University Long Beach (CSULB). Two professors at the Department of Design, Shelley Takahashi and Max Beach, invited me for their Duncan Anderson Design Lecture Series.

Through the years, the Duncan Anderson Design Lecture Series has invited top professionals to share their knowledge and experience with design students at CSULB. This coming year marks the expansion of that series to a bi-monthly event. Thanks to Cecelia Anderson-Malcolm and the Duncan Anderson Endowment, CSULB now has an ongoing design lecture series to rival those at private design schools. The CSULB Industrial Design Program is working closely with IDSA-LA, and its student chapters, to schedule an exciting line-up of speakers. Please let your chapter officers know of professionals you want to meet and hear at future events.

In this lecture, I introduced why designers have to adopt behavioral science to understand customer experience deeply. For instance, prospect theory neatly elucidates why once people have a single extraordinary experience, they can no longer revert to previously satisfactory mundane experiences. It is because the extraordinary experience can become a reference point, while the mundane experiences transform into sources of negative affect. Since loss looms larger than gain, people avoid mundane experiences.

Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263-292.

Abstract

This paper presents a critique of expected utility theory as a descriptive model of decision making under risk, and develops an alternative model, called prospect theory. Choices among risky prospects exhibit several pervasive effects that are inconsistent with the basic tenets of utility theory. In particular, people underweight outcomes that are merely probable in comparison with outcomes that are obtained with certainty. This tendency, called the certainty effect, contributes to risk aversion in choices involving sure gains and to risk seeking in choices involving sure losses. In addition, people generally discard components that are shared by all prospects under consideration. This tendency, called the isolation effect, leads to inconsistent preferences when the same choice is presented in different forms. An alternative theory of choice is developed, in which value is assigned to gains and losses rather than to final assets and in which probabilities are replaced by decision weights. The value function is normally concave for gains, commonly convex for losses, and is generally steeper for losses than for gains. Decision weights are generally lower than the corresponding probabilities, except in the range of low probabilities. Overweighting of low probabilities may contribute to the attractiveness of both insurance and gambling.

Publications

Orderly spaces can promote impulse buying

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Shi, Y., & Joo, J. (2023). Effect of space order on impulse buying: Moderated by self-construal. Behavioral Sciences, 13 (8), 638.

Abstract:

Objective: Impulse buying is a recognized phenomenon as consumers have abundant shopping opportunities. We investigate whether orderly space encourages consumers to buy impulsively and whether this relationship is moderated by self-construal. Specifically, we hypothesize that consumers show greater impulse buying intentions when space is orderly than disorderly. We also hypothesize that when interdependent self-construal is primed, the effect of orderly space on consumers’ increased impulse buying intentions will be attenuated. Background: Our hypotheses are based on the research about emotions that consumers experience while they shop in a retail store. When the store is orderly, consumers experience pleasure. In contrast, disorganized shelves, unsorted merchandise, and messy clothing racks evoke negative emotions. A recent study shows consumers’ positive emotional responses to a retail environment result in heightened impulse buying. Methods: Two experiments were carried out to test the two hypotheses. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (space order: orderly vs. disorderly) between-subjects design. Participants randomly received one of the two store images and were asked to indicate their impulse-buying intentions. Experiment 2 employed a 2 (space order: orderly vs. disorderly) × 2 (self-construal: independent vs. interdependent) between-subjects design. Participants were randomly given one of the two store images and one of the two self-construal priming tasks to measure their impulse buying intentions. Results: As hypothesized, Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants exerted stronger impulse-buying intentions in an orderly space. Experiment 2 also showed that when participants were primed by inter- dependent self-construal, their impulse buying intentions did not differ, regardless of whether the space was orderly. Implications: Our findings provide insights for offline store managers. To nudge visitors to buy impulsively, managers should organize their spaces orderly. However, the effect of space order on consumers’ impulse buying will disappear when consumers’ interdependent self-construal is activated. Our findings contribute to the academic research into the factors that lead consumers to buy impulsively.

Keywords

impulse buying, space order, self-construal, off-line store, sales

Publications

If people have to control themselves, avoid cuteness

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Yoon, N., Park, W., & Joo, J. (2022). Dark side of cuteness: Effect of whimsical cuteness on new product adoption. In G. Bruyns & H. Wei (Eds.), [ _ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes (pp. 617–633). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

A wide range of businesses actively use cute characters such as the globally popular LINE FRIENDS characters for product design to increase consumers’ product adoption. Prior research has found that whimsical cuteness—which elicits fun and playful mental representations—can lead to higher product adoption. The effectiveness, however, has been investigated mostly in indulgent contexts. This article aims to uncover the opposite phenomenon, that is, whimsical cuteness could be detrimental for product adoption, in particular, in a non-indulgent context. In a pre-test, we measured the different types of cuteness of nine LINE FRIENDS characters, selecting one pair of characters differed only in terms of whimsical cuteness. Additionally considering product newness, the main study tested whether product adoption differed depending on the level of whimsical cuteness and product newness. The results demonstrate that participants were less likely to adopt a non-indulgent product when it was highly whimsically cute compared to less whimsically cute because the indulgence provoked by fun and playful mental representations conflicted against the restraint reinforced by a product for self-control. The adverse effect increases when the product has lower product newness whereas high product newness dampens the effect. The findings suggest that practitioners should carefully consider product nature and newness when applying whimsically cute features to product design and marketing promotions. This study has originality in that it is the first to demonstrate the adverse effect of whimsical cuteness on new product adoption and verify the moderating effect of product newness.

Keywords

Whimsical cuteness, New product adoption, Product newness, Self-control, LINE FRIENDS

The key practical significance is that a product design which makes products seem whimsically cute has potentially detrimental effects on consumers’ product adoption, especially when the products are non-indulgent. Although nudge is an interesting lens for designers (Chen et al. 2019), our finding suggests that whimsical cuteness can have counter-nudging effects (Saghai 2013; Sunstein 2017) that make consumers not to adopt self-control products, contrary to the expectation of designers and marketers. For instance, cute characters with high whimsical cuteness might in fact hinder consumers’ adoption of products for self-control such as diet foods and time and study management products. Thus, practitioners should beware of using whimsically cute characters on products related to self-control (pg. 629).

Publications

Play a video game and meet a psychiatrist

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Piao, S., & Joo, J. (2022). A Behavioral Strategy to Nudge Young Adults to Adopt In‐Person Counseling: Gamification. In G. Bruyns & H. Wei (Eds.), [ _ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes (pp. 1348–1363). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

Mental illness has always been an important issue for young adults. Moreover, initiatives resulting from the outbreak of COVID‐19 have had an even greater impact on the mental health of young adults. This study sought to examine the effect of gamification on whether young adults adopt in‐person counseling. One hundred twenty young adults (42 males and 78 females) with an average age of 29 years participated in our experiment. In the experiment, a 2 (Gamification: no vs. yes) × 2 (Vividness: low vs. high) between‐subjects design was employed. In the “yes” gamification condition, participants decided whether or not to read introductory material about in‐person counseling, and also whether or not to adopt in‐person counseling in the future. The results of the study show that: (1) gamification increased adoption, (2) participants’ perception of subjective usability of in‐person counseling mediated the effect of gamification to adoption, and (3) vividness of presentation moderated subjective usability. Our study demonstrated that gamification nudges young adults to adopt in‐person counseling while subjective usability mediates the relationship, and vividness moderates the relationship between gamification and subjective usability. Our findings provide counselors fresh insights into motivating people to access counseling services.

Keywords

Gamification, Adoption, Usability, Vividness, Counselling

“… gamification has the primary purpose of promoting human motivation and performance in a particular activity. The importance of gamification has been thoroughly discussed theoretically and practically in an increasing number of research studies for health professions education (Van Nuland et al. 2015; Verkuyl et al. 2017;Buttetal. 2018). Ourexperimental study found that gamification does have a positive effect on people adopting in-person counselling” (pg. 1360).

Publications

Why do reusable cups turn into unnecessary waste?

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Jung, B., & Joo, J. (2021). Blind Obedience to Environmental Friendliness: The Goal Will Set Us Free. Sustainability, 13(21), 12322.

Abstract

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.

Keywords

behavioral decision making; environmentally friendly; choice–evaluation discrepancy; intention–action gap; preference reversal; goal