We demonstrate that brand relationships affect perceptions of a brand’s closeness to the self, resulting in mindset congruency effects when matched with an appropriate construal level. Brand relationships that are closer (distal) to the self yield improved evaluations when brand information is...

While brand punishment – through either individual or collective action – has received ample attention by consumer psychologists, absent from this literature is that such punishment can take the form of unethical actions that can occur even when the consumer is not personally harmed. Across...

DeVoe and House (2012; Experiment 3) demonstrated that the process of thinking about one's income in relation to time (i.e., as an hourly wage) affected the enjoyment that participants derived from pleasurable experiences. Participants compelled to think of “time is money” experienced more...

We examine how and why consumers engage in retributional acts directed towards brands that are perceived as harmful. Consumers are shown to lie, cheat, and steal as they attribute lower moral worth to harmful brands and this effect is shown to persist in the absence of any attributable brand...

Research on consumer-brand relationships (CBR) has examined the CBR - brand loyalty link, but surprisingly little is known about the cultural and institutional settings that enable this link. We meta-analyze how and why different CBR constructs (e.g. love, identification) drive loyalty better in...

Consumers develop committed and meaningful relationships with brands, yet still sometimes buy or use options that compete directly with these ‘relationship partners’, an activity that might be understood as a form of cheating or infidelity. Using data from three studies, we assess whether...