IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v44y2017i4p778-793..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retracted: Witnessing Moral Violations Increases Conformity in Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Ping Dong
  • Chen-Bo Zhong
  • Darren DahlEditor
  • Jennifer ArgoAssociate Editor

Abstract

Consumers frequently encounter moral violations (e.g., financial scandal, cheating, and corruption) in their daily lives. Yet little is known about how exposure to moral violations may affect consumer choice. By synthesizing insights from research on social order and conformity, we suggest that mere exposure to others’ immoral behaviors heightens perceived threat to social order, which increases consumers’ endorsement of conformist attitudes and hence their preferences for majority-endorsed choices in subsequently unrelated consumption situations. Five studies conducted across different experimental contexts and different product categories provided convergent evidence showing that exposure to moral violations increases consumers’ subsequent conformity in consumption. Moreover, the effect disappears (a) when the moral violator has already been punished by third parties (study 4) and (b) when the majority-endorsed option is viewed as being complicit with the moral violation (study 5). This research not only demonstrates a novel downstream consequence of witnessing moral violations on consumer choice but also advances our understanding of how conformity can buffer the negative psychological consequences of moral violations and how moral considerations can serve as an important basis for consumer choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Ping Dong & Chen-Bo Zhong & Darren DahlEditor & Jennifer ArgoAssociate Editor, 2017. "Retracted: Witnessing Moral Violations Increases Conformity in Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 778-793.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:44:y:2017:i:4:p:778-793.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucx061
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bearden, William O & Netemeyer, Richard G & Teel, Jesse E, 1989. "Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(4), pages 473-481, March.
    2. Jeffrey P. Carpenter & Peter Hans Matthews, 2012. "Norm Enforcement: Anger, Indignation, Or Reciprocity?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 555-572, May.
    3. Jing Wang & Rui (Juliet) Zhu & Baba Shiv, 2012. "The Lonely Consumer: Loner or Conformer?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(6), pages 1116-1128.
    4. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2003. "The nature of human altruism," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6960), pages 785-791, October.
    5. Echo Wen Wan & Jing Xu & Ying Ding, 2014. "To Be or Not to Be Unique? The Effect of Social Exclusion on Consumer Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(6), pages 1109-1122.
    6. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, "undated". "Third Party Punishment and Social Norms," IEW - Working Papers 106, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    7. Kirk Kristofferson & Katherine White & John Peloza, 2014. "The Nature of Slacktivism: How the Social Observability of an Initial Act of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(6), pages 1149-1166.
    8. Rui (Juliet) Zhu & Jennifer J. Argo, 2013. "Exploring the Impact of Various Shaped Seating Arrangements on Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(2), pages 336-349.
    9. Nicole L. Mead & Roy F. Baumeister & Tyler F. Stillman & Catherine D. Rawn & Kathleen D. Vohs, 2011. "Social Exclusion Causes People to Spend and Consume Strategically in the Service of Affiliation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(5), pages 902-919.
    10. Keisha M. Cutright & Eugenia C. Wu & Jillian C. Banfield & Aaron C. Kay & Gavan J. Fitzsimons, 2011. "When Your World Must Be Defended: Choosing Products to Justify the System," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(1), pages 62-77.
    11. Daniel P. Skarlicki & Joandrea Hoegg & Karl Aquino & Thierry Nadisic, 2013. "Does injustice affect your sense of taste and smell? : The mediating role of moral disgust," Post-Print hal-02313032, HAL.
    12. Xun (Irene) Huang & Ping Dong & Anirban Mukhopadhyay, 2014. "Proud to Belong or Proudly Different? Lay Theories Determine Contrasting Effects of Incidental Pride on Uniqueness Seeking," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 697-712.
    13. Lily Lin & Darren W. Dahl & Jennifer J. Argo, 2013. "Do the Crime, Always Do the Time? Insights into Consumer-to-Consumer Punishment Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(1), pages 64-77.
    14. Young Eun Huh & Joachim Vosgerau & Carey K. Morewedge, 2014. "Social Defaults: Observed Choices Become Choice Defaults," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 746-760.
    15. Jonah Berger & Chip Heath, 2007. "Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(2), pages 121-134, June.
    16. Burnkrant, Robert E & Cousineau, Alain, 1975. "Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(3), pages 206-215, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wei Song & Xiaotong Jin & Jian Gao & Taiyang Zhao, 2020. "Will Buying Follow Others Ease Their Threat of Death? An Analysis of Consumer Data during the Period of COVID-19 in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Mansur Khamitov & Yany Grégoire & Anshu Suri, 2020. "A systematic review of brand transgression, service failure recovery and product-harm crisis: integration and guiding insights," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 519-542, May.
    3. Kichko, Sergey & Picard, Pierre M., 2021. "Effect of conformism on firm selection, product quality and home bias," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 402-418.
    4. Sergey Kichko & Pierre M. Picard, 2018. "Heterogeneity in Conformism, Firm Selection, and Home Bias," HSE Working papers WP BRP 187/EC/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Jianan Li & Xiaotong Jin & Taiyang Zhao & Tiannv Ma, 2021. "Conformity Consumer Behavior and External Threats: An Empirical Analysis in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    6. Ina Garnefeld & Andreas Eggert & Markus Husemann-Kopetzky & Eva Böhm, 2019. "Exploring the link between payment schemes and customer fraud: a mental accounting perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 595-616, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yixing Lisa Gao & Anna S. Mattila, 2016. "The Impact of Option Popularity, Social Inclusion/Exclusion, and Self-affirmation on Consumers’ Propensity to Choose Green Hotels," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 575-585, July.
    2. Christine Clavien & Colby J Tanner & Fabrice Clément & Michel Chapuisat, 2012. "Choosy Moral Punishers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-6, June.
    3. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    4. Lee, Jacob C. & Kim, Jungkeun & Kwak, Kyuseop, 2018. "A multi-attribute examination of consumer conformity in group-level ordering," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 41-48.
    5. Chang, En-Chung & Xie, Chunya & Fan, Xiaomeng, 2022. "Defending the rules: How exposure to immoral behavior influences the boundary preference," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 654-663.
    6. Im, Changkuk & Lee, Jinkwon, 2022. "On the fragility of third-party punishment: The context effect of a dominated risky investment option," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Wang, Jiawei, 2023. "The relationship between loneliness and consumer shopping channel choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Matthias Sutter & Peter Lindner & Daniela Platsch, 2009. "Social norms, third-party observation and third-party reward," Working Papers 2009-08, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    9. Karla Hoff & Mayuresh Kshetramade & Ernst Fehr, 2011. "Caste and Punishment: the Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(556), pages 449-475, November.
    10. Bangwool Han & Minho Kim, 2019. "Hofstede’s Collectivistic Values and Sustainable Growth of Online Group Buying," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Choi, Sungwoo & Wan, Lisa C. & Mattila, Anna S., 2024. "Unintended indulgence in robotic service encounters," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    12. Bartoš, Vojtěch, 2021. "Seasonal scarcity and sharing norms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 303-316.
    13. Fehr, Dietmar & Sutter, Matthias, 2019. "Gossip and the efficiency of interactions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 448-460.
    14. Cárdenas Juan Camilo & Casas-Casas Andrés & Méndez Nathalie Méndez, 2014. "The Hidden Face of Justice: Fairness, Discrimination and Distribution in Transitional Justice Processes," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 33-60, January.
    15. Kee-Young Kwahk & Byoungsoo Kim, 2017. "Effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions: evidence from Taobao," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 803-829, December.
    16. Boschini, Anne & Muren, Astri & Persson, Mats, 2011. "Men among men do not take norm enforcement seriously," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 523-529.
    17. Jeffrey Carpenter & Peter Matthews, 2009. "What norms trigger punishment?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 12(3), pages 272-288, September.
    18. Fluet, Claude & Galbiati, Rpbertp, 2016. "Lois et normes : les enseignements de l'économie comportementale," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 92(1-2), pages 191-215, Mars-Juin.
    19. Leibbrandt, Andreas & López-Pérez, Raúl, 2012. "An exploration of third and second party punishment in ten simple games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 753-766.
    20. Jeffrey P. Carpenter & Peter Hans Matthews, 2012. "Norm Enforcement: Anger, Indignation, Or Reciprocity?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 555-572, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:44:y:2017:i:4:p:778-793.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.