Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

For Men, Seeing Red Can Mean Paying More

sale-illo

The color red has a strange power over our unconscious minds. Recent research suggests it can increase one’s attractiveness, compel teachers to grade papers more harshly, and even prompt people to get vaccinated for sexually transmitted diseases. Now we can add to the list: It can trick men into overpaying for “sale priced” items. A study in the June issue of the Journal of Retailing reports that, in a series of experiments, “Male consumers perceived greater savings when prices were presented in red than when presented in black.” Red can increase one’s attractiveness, ... Read More

For Children, TV Commercials Are a Catalyst to Materialism

tv-kid-commercial

Concerned that your kids are becoming overly materialistic? Suspicious that their acquisitiveness has something to do with the steady stream of television commercials they see on a daily basis? Newly published research suggests your fears are well-grounded. A study of 8- to 11-year-olds from the Netherlands finds exposure to television advertising has “a positive causal effect on materialism.” Researchers led by Suzanna Opree of the University of Amsterdam identify an insidious equation: Ads exacerbate kids’ desire for material things, and this desire gradually leads them to equate ... Read More

Your Granddaddy’s TiVo

timemachinerobot

Turns out fast-forwarding through commercials with your TiVo isn’t exactly a new concept. Irritated audiences have been looking for ways to tune out broadcast advertisements since at least the Great Depression. In the early 1930s, Professor Gleason W. Kenrick of what is now Tufts University developed a machine that could be attached to a radio to automatically “delete” ads. It also targeted excessive on-air talking, which was apparently just as irksome pre–Rush Limbaugh as it is now. The device was a clunky looking, dial-studded box, but the March 1934 issue of Radio-Craft magazine ... Read More

It’s 10 P.M. Do You Know What Your Avatar Is Doing?

(ILLUSTRATION: RAYGUN STUDIO)

IN THE 1982 SCIENCE-FICTION NOVEL Software, an elderly character named Cobb Anderson trades in his frail human body for an android avatar and then sets out on an unusual mission: to start a cult. The old man’s new body allows him to alter his appearance at will, which turns out to be handy for gathering disciples. To gain trust and devotion, Anderson meets with his initiates one at a time—and then changes his face to resemble theirs. “I always use this trick on the recruits,” he says with a chuckle. A few years ago, a research psychologist at Stanford University named Jeremy ... Read More

Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads

A curious thing sometimes happens when we watch a violent movie, or a thrilling TV show, or when we listen to, say, Al Green. Afterward, we take that aggression or excitement that we’ve just built up and apply it to whatever’s at hand. Academics have a name for this phenomenon: excitation transfer theory. You might want to remember this as you’re watching some entertainment ripe for serious suspense this Sunday — the Super Bowl. “As you’re watching a suspenseful game, there’s a certain level of arousal that develops,” said Colleen Bee, an assistant professor of marketing ... Read More

As if Commercials Weren’t Bad Enough Already

After a two-year experiment, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, in conjunction with Samsung, have written a concept paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie explaining that they think it's possible to "generate potentially thousands of odors, at will, in a compact device small enough to fit on the back of your TV." To which we say: Gross. But here's how Sungho Jin, a world-renowned materials expert at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, described his invention: "For example, if people are eating pizza, the viewer smells pizza coming from a TV or cell phone. ... Read More

Assessing Cigarettes’ Right to Free Speech

Warning Messages on Cigarette Packs

Four major tobacco companies filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this month to fight the Food and Drug Administration's infamous new cigarette warning labels — those half-pack, graphic images of rotting lungs and teeth, dead bodies and presumed smokers on respiratory machines. Anyone who's looked at the images — due to appear on packs in September 2012 — couldn't be surprised that Big Tobacco balked. The companies are arguing that the new warnings violate their First Amendment rights to, in essence, not be forced to carry gross pictures designed to discourage sales on their ... Read More

This Really Is the Worst Election Ever

This U.S. election cycle has set some truly impressive benchmarks for negative campaign advertising. We had the creepy demon-wolf in sheep's clothing ad (an attack on Republican Senate primary candidate Tom Campbell in California). There was the infamous 30-second spot in Kentucky that asked this pertinent question about the state's Republican candidate for Senate: "Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up, tell her to bow down before a false idol, and say his god was 'Aqua Buddha'?" Erika Franklin Fowler, an assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University, particularly likes the ... Read More

Billion-Dollar Underdogs

Americans love the underdog whether it’s in sports, in history or political campaigns — and in the brands they buy. That’s right, Samuel Adams beer, Ben and Jerry’s and Google — at least the old Google — all belong right up there with the Alamo, David, and Lance Armstrong … well, the Lance we hoped wasn’t juiced. Neeru Paharia of Harvard University, Anat Keinan of the Harvard Business School, Jill Avery of the Simmons School of Management and Juliet B. Schor of Boston College demonstrate how consumers personally identify with underdog brands. Many Americans idealize ... Read More

Celebrity Product Endorsements on the Brain

For some of us, the increasingly popular practice of celebrity product endorsements is puzzling. What difference does it make if Brad Pitt recommends a particular pen, or Sally Field a certain cereal? Unless the famous spokesperson has a specific area of expertise — say, Tiger Woods endorsing a set of golf clubs — why would anyone care? A new study suggests the answer involves superstar-specific happy memories stored in our cerebral cortex. Using brain-scan technology, researchers found those positive emotions get transferred from the personality to the product, producing a more ... Read More