Executive functions' (EF) role in adolescents' advanced theory of mind (aToM) was examined. In Study 1, adolescents (N = 189 in 2017, M-age = 13.1 years, 55.6% female from racially/ethnically diverse schools) completed the Flexibility and Automaticity of Social Cognition task (FASC), and shifting and inhibition measures. Study 2 (N = 289 in 2018 and 2019, M-age = 15.7 years, 59.9% female, 56.4% Hispanic/Latino) replicated Study 1 in older adolescents using automated scoring of FASC flexibility. Flexibility of social cognition varied based on ambiguity and language use; automaticity of social cognition varied by ambiguity. The role of EF was less conclusive; shifting and inhibition predicted some flexibility and automaticity measures. Ambiguity, language, and EF, particularly shifting, influence aToM into adolescence.

Karma is the notion that one's current actions will have consequences in the future. The present research links the belief in karma with a guilt appeal and examines how believing in karma influences the individuals' donation behaviors. The results of four studies demonstrate that for people who hold a strong belief in karma, guilt appeals can arouse the motivation to engage in prosocial activities to remedy past demerits. This "remedy demerits" motivation is the reason why individuals who hold a strong (vs. weak) belief in karma are more likely to donate time (rather than money) and donate money in lump sums (rather than in installments) when the charitable appeal is framed in terms of guilt. Our findings contribute to the literature on specific beliefs, individuals' prosocial behaviors, and the motivations of individuals who believe in karma as concerns their responses to charitable appeals. Charitable organizations can apply the findings by targeting their donor solicitations to individuals who believe in karma to enhance engagement in prosocial activities, and by using karma priming advertisements to induce individuals to think karmically, thus more efficiently promoting specific donation choices.

Bike share programs (BSPs), which are a form of public transportation service that makes bicycles available for shared use on a short-term basis, have developed dramatically. As a new mode of BSP, dockless shared bikes (DSBs) are receiving increasingly more attention. Unlike the existing research on DSBs which concentrates on demand forecasting, static and dynamic repositioning, and transportation planning optimization, the present research focuses on the parking status, which is a unique characteristic of DSBs that is not relevant for stationbased shared bikes. The results of a field study and a laboratory study revealed that consumers would have higher (lower) willingness to use upright (fallen) DSBs since they would consider fallen status as a signal of high risk. The effect is so strong that it occurs even for DSBs that are picked up while being observed by the consumer. In addition, the joint effect of motor fluency is also discussed. Our findings contribute to the literature on DSBs, risk perception, and motor fluency and provide insights into understanding consumers' decision-making process in choosing DSBs, optimizing the system efficiently and accurately, saving unnecessary costs, and decreasing environmental impacts.

Using in-store ambulatory eye-tracking, the authors investigate the extent to which lateral and vertical biases drive consumers’ attention in a grocery store environment. The data set offers a complete picture of both where the shopper is located and the shopper’s field of view and visual fixations during the trip. The authors address two research questions: First, do shoppers have a higher propensity to pay attention to products on their left or right side as they traverse an aisle (i.e., is the right side the “right” side)? Second, do shoppers tend to pay more attention to products at their eye level (i.e., is eye level “buy level”)? The authors utilize the exogenous variations in the direction by which shoppers traverse an aisle to identify lateral bias. The exogenous variation of shoppers’ eye-level positions is used to identify vertical bias. The authors find that shoppers pay more attention to products on their right side when traversing an aisle. Contrary to many practitioners’ belief, eye level is not “buy level”; rather, the product level that has the greatest propensity to capture shoppers’ attention is approximately 14.7 inches below eye level (which is around chest level).

We examined the influence of the type (positive vs. negative) and source (patients' online community vs. general online community) of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on consumers' health care-seeking decisions. Participants in this 2 × 2 between-subjects study comprised 160 patients who had sought medical advice at a large Tier 3, Class A hospital in China in 2019. The results show that negative (vs. positive) eWOM had a greater influence on consumers' health care-seeking decisions, with similar results for the patients' (vs. general) online community. In addition, positive eWOM from the patients' (vs. general) online community had a greater influence on participants' health careseeking decisions but the result was not significant for negative eWOM. Credibility of eWOM also mediated the relationship between eWOM and health care-seeking decision. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

As social media has developed, online interaction between consumers and companies has increased rapidly. This research explores how companies' replies to consumers' past online comments affect consumers' predictions of their chances of winning randomly determined associated rewards (e.g., a random drawing). The results of two studies show that consumers who left positive comments (encouragement/appreciation) and then received a reply from the company predicted a higher likelihood of winning a random drawing than those whose comments did not receive company replies. Both the boundary and the underlying mechanism of the effect are discussed in the research. The present research contributes to the literature on companies' online reply patterns by linking their online replies with consumer predictions concerning randomly determined rewards, extends consumer efforts from offline purchases to online comments, and provides insights into the differences between consumer predictions regarding traditional offline promotional events and online promotional events.

Over the past 5 years, with the popularization of smart phones, the mobile app market has developed rapidly. Understanding the factors that can influence consumers’ download intentions has become crucial to researchers, mobile app developers and publishers. Regulatory focuses, which can be classified into promotion focus and prevention focus, influence consumer behavior. This research discusses how design instability affects consumers’ intention to download mobile apps using descriptions manipulated by different regulatory focuses. The results of two studies demonstrated that consumers with more promotion focus (prevention focus) would have higher download intention for apps with unstable (stable) icons. Other elements, such as the salience of stability, the boundary condition, and consumer involvement, are also discussed in this research. Our findings not only provide app publishers with deep insights into consumers’ decision-making in app selection but also contribute to the literature on app icon visual design and the regulatory focus theory.

With the development of the advertisement industry, consumers are surrounded by increasing numbers of different types of visual stimuli (e.g., images on billboards, websites, and newspapers or videos on TV and social media). The present research aims to explore the effect of the connection between visual stimuli and objects in consumers’ hands on purchase intention based on motor simulation theory and motor fluency. The results of two studies demonstrate that when right-handed consumers review an image of food with tableware on the right (vs. left) side, they will have higher purchase intention for the food, while the effect reverses when their right hand is under high motor resource load. In addition, when right-handed consumers review an image of food with tableware on the right side and have nothing (vs. an object) in their right hand, they will have higher purchase intention for the food. However, if the image does not include tableware, placing tableware (vs. nothing or other objects) in the right hand of the consumers will induce higher purchase intention for the food. Our findings not only contribute to the literature on motor simulation, motor fluency, and motor resources but also provide valid insights for managerial applications.

Patients are increasingly choosing health-care institutions based on online comments; thus, we examined the influence of different forms of word-of-mouth (electronic or traditional) on patients' health-care-seeking behavior. Data were collected from 415 patients who during 2015–2016 sought medical advice at a large 3rd-grade, class-A hospital in China. Results showed that, compared to those influenced by traditional word-of-mouth, patients influenced by electronic word-of-mouth paid significantly more attention to reviews of the health-care institutions, and also spent more time and energy choosing an appropriate health-care institution. In addition, treatment method (invasive vs. noninvasive) had a moderating influence on patients' confidence in the health-care institution. That is, those influenced by traditional word-of-mouth had greater confidence than those influenced by electronic word-of-mouth in invasive procedures provided by the chosen health-care institution, although there was no difference in confidence for patients undergoing noninvasive procedures. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

In a sales context, a common promotional tactic is to supplement a required purchase (i.e., the focal product) by offering a free product (i.e., the supplementary product). We examined the underlying mechanism driving consumers' evaluation of the supplementary product after such a promotion, with 120 undergraduate student participants at a large public university in Taiwan. Results showed that consumers demonstrated higher (lower) willingness to pay for a supplementary product that had higher (lower) levels of attribute complementarity with the focal product. However, this effect occurred only when the price of the focal product was much higher than consumer's internal reference price for the supplementary product. Our findings contribute to the literature on bundled products, reference price theory, and consumers' postpromotion perception of supplementary products' price. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

In sales, a common promotional tactic is to supplement a required purchase (i.e., a focal product) by offering a free or discounted product (i.e., a supplementary product). The present research examines the contextual factors driving consumer evaluations of the supplementary product after the promotion has been terminated. Two experiments are used to demonstrate that consumers use multiple anchors to determine the value of a supplementary product. Consumers use other types of price information, such as the internal reference price (IRP), promotional price, and original price of the supplementary product, as anchors to adjust their willingness to pay. Among the multiple anchors, the consumer’s IRP is not only the crucial anchor to estimate the willingness to pay but also the criterion to determine whether other price information can serve as anchors. Price information, such as the promotional and original price of the supplementary product, which is higher (lower) than the IRP, will increase (decrease) the willingness to pay. However, these anchors are only employed when the price information is considered to be plausible. Assimilation and contrast effects occur when the IRP is used by consumers as a criterion to judge the reasonableness of other anchors. When the external price information belongs (does not belong) to consumers’ distribution of IRP, assimilation (contrast) effects occur, and consumers will regard the external reference price (ERP) to be a plausible (implausible) price. Limitations and future avenues for research are also discussed.