Rajagopal Raghunathan
Biographic Data
| ID | 102734 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rajagopal Raghunathan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rajagopal |
| FAMILY NAME | Raghunathan |
| SIGNATURE | RAGHUNATHAN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Desire for Perfect Products
Some consumers evaluate products against demanding, ever-rising ideals of perfection. We introduce the desire for perfect products (DPP), a novel consumer trait capturing the extent to which consumers desire flawless products. Drawing on four qualitative studies, we identify three characteristics that distinguish high (vs. low) DPP consumers: (1) richer and more demanding ideal points, (2) greater susceptibility to upwardly revising those ideals …
The “Realizing Growth Potential” Emotion Regulation Strategy
Consumers as Naive Physicists
Marketers often use images to promote their products. For example, an advertisement for kitchen tools might display the tools alongside various ingredients, or an advertisement for a bookstore might showcase pictures of the store's interior. One underlying visual characteristic of such images is the degree of 'entropy'-or disorder-in their content. Motivated by a fundamental principle from physics-namely, that entropy can only increase over time-…
You are what you eat
The Sustainability Liability
Manufacturers are increasingly producing and promoting sustainable products (i.e., products that have a positive social and/or environmental impact). However, relatively little is known about how product sustainability affects consumers’ preferences. The authors propose that sustainability may not always be an asset, even if most consumers care about social and environmental issues. The degree to which sustainability enhances preference depends o…
Delight by Design
What is the relationship between product design benefits (hedonic versus utilitarian) and the postconsumption feelings of customer delight and satisfaction? The primary insights this research provides are as follows: (1) Products that meet or exceed customers’ utilitarian needs and fulfill prevention goals enhance customer satisfaction (e.g., a car with antilock brakes and vehicle stability assist), and (2) products that meet or exceed customers’…
The Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition and Its Effects on Taste Inferences, Enjoyment, and Choice of Food Products
Across four experiments, the authors find that when information pertaining to the assessment of the healthiness of food items is provided, the less healthy the item is portrayed to be, (1) the better is its inferred taste, (2) the more it is enjoyed during actual consumption, and (3) the greater is the preference for it in choice tasks when a hedonic goal is more (versus less) salient. The authors obtain these effects both among consumers who rep…
Informational Properties of Anxiety and Sadness, and Displaced Coping
Replicating Raghunathan and Pham (1999), results from two experiments confirm that while anxiety triggers a preference for options that are safer and provide a sense of control, sadness triggers a preference for options that are more rewarding and comforting. Results also indicate that these effects are driven by an affect-as-information process and are most pervasive when the source of anxiety or sadness is not salient. Finally, our results docu…
Gender role conflict, attitudes toward career counseling, career decision-making, and perceptions of career counseling advertising brochures
Gender role conflict, attitudes toward career counseling, career decision-making, and perceptions of career counseling advertising brochures
Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate
Three studies investigated the influence of mood states on the processing of positive and negative information regarding caffeine consumption and on the impact of this information on one's mood, attitudes, and intentions. The results were consistent with the predictions of the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis: First, the induction of positive mood in high (compared with low) caffeine consumers enhanced recall of negative information about caffeine c…
Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill
Consumers often browse through many products (a product context) before evaluating a particular target product. We examine the influence of four product context characteristics on happiness with a target product: pleasantness, sequence, domain match with target (i.e., whether products in the context set belong to the same category as the target), and context set size. When context and target match, pleasant and improving (compared to less pleasan…
All Negative Moods Are Not Equal
Affective states of the same valence may have distinct, yet predictable, influences on decision processes. Results from three experiments show that, in gambling decisions, as well as in job-selection decisions, sad individuals are biased in favor of high-risk/high-reward options, whereas anxious individuals are biased in favor of low-risk/low-reward options. We argue that these biases occur because anxiety and sadness convey distinct types of inf…
Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate
Three studies investigated the influence of mood states on the processing of positive and negative information regarding caffeine consumption and on the impact of this information on one's mood, attitudes, and intentions. The results were consistent with the predictions of the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis: First, the induction of positive mood in high (compared with low) caffeine consumers enhanced recall of negative information about caffeine c…
Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill
Consumers often browse through many products (a product context) before evaluating a particular target product. We examine the influence of four product context characteristics on happiness with a target product: pleasantness, sequence, domain match with target (i.e., whether products in the context set belong to the same category as the target), and context set size. When context and target match, pleasant and improving (compared to less pleasan…
Informational Properties of Anxiety and Sadness, and Displaced Coping
Replicating Raghunathan and Pham (1999), results from two experiments confirm that while anxiety triggers a preference for options that are safer and provide a sense of control, sadness triggers a preference for options that are more rewarding and comforting. Results also indicate that these effects are driven by an affect-as-information process and are most pervasive when the source of anxiety or sadness is not salient. Finally, our results docu…
Gender role conflict, attitudes toward career counseling, career decision-making, and perceptions of career counseling advertising brochures
Consumers as Naive Physicists
Marketers often use images to promote their products. For example, an advertisement for kitchen tools might display the tools alongside various ingredients, or an advertisement for a bookstore might showcase pictures of the store's interior. One underlying visual characteristic of such images is the degree of 'entropy'-or disorder-in their content. Motivated by a fundamental principle from physics-namely, that entropy can only increase over time-…
All Negative Moods Are Not Equal
Affective states of the same valence may have distinct, yet predictable, influences on decision processes. Results from three experiments show that, in gambling decisions, as well as in job-selection decisions, sad individuals are biased in favor of high-risk/high-reward options, whereas anxious individuals are biased in favor of low-risk/low-reward options. We argue that these biases occur because anxiety and sadness convey distinct types of inf…
Walking the Hedonic Product Treadmill
Consumers often browse through many products (a product context) before evaluating a particular target product. We examine the influence of four product context characteristics on happiness with a target product: pleasantness, sequence, domain match with target (i.e., whether products in the context set belong to the same category as the target), and context set size. When context and target match, pleasant and improving (compared to less pleasan…
Gender role conflict, attitudes toward career counseling, career decision-making, and perceptions of career counseling advertising brochures
Gender role conflict, attitudes toward career counseling, career decision-making, and perceptions of career counseling advertising brochures
Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate
Three studies investigated the influence of mood states on the processing of positive and negative information regarding caffeine consumption and on the impact of this information on one's mood, attitudes, and intentions. The results were consistent with the predictions of the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis: First, the induction of positive mood in high (compared with low) caffeine consumers enhanced recall of negative information about caffeine c…
The Unhealthy = Tasty Intuition and Its Effects on Taste Inferences, Enjoyment, and Choice of Food Products
Across four experiments, the authors find that when information pertaining to the assessment of the healthiness of food items is provided, the less healthy the item is portrayed to be, (1) the better is its inferred taste, (2) the more it is enjoyed during actual consumption, and (3) the greater is the preference for it in choice tasks when a hedonic goal is more (versus less) salient. The authors obtain these effects both among consumers who rep…
Informational Properties of Anxiety and Sadness, and Displaced Coping
Replicating Raghunathan and Pham (1999), results from two experiments confirm that while anxiety triggers a preference for options that are safer and provide a sense of control, sadness triggers a preference for options that are more rewarding and comforting. Results also indicate that these effects are driven by an affect-as-information process and are most pervasive when the source of anxiety or sadness is not salient. Finally, our results docu…
Delight by Design
What is the relationship between product design benefits (hedonic versus utilitarian) and the postconsumption feelings of customer delight and satisfaction? The primary insights this research provides are as follows: (1) Products that meet or exceed customers’ utilitarian needs and fulfill prevention goals enhance customer satisfaction (e.g., a car with antilock brakes and vehicle stability assist), and (2) products that meet or exceed customers’…
The Sustainability Liability
Manufacturers are increasingly producing and promoting sustainable products (i.e., products that have a positive social and/or environmental impact). However, relatively little is known about how product sustainability affects consumers’ preferences. The authors propose that sustainability may not always be an asset, even if most consumers care about social and environmental issues. The degree to which sustainability enhances preference depends o…
You are what you eat
Consumers as Naive Physicists
Marketers often use images to promote their products. For example, an advertisement for kitchen tools might display the tools alongside various ingredients, or an advertisement for a bookstore might showcase pictures of the store's interior. One underlying visual characteristic of such images is the degree of 'entropy'-or disorder-in their content. Motivated by a fundamental principle from physics-namely, that entropy can only increase over time-…
The “Realizing Growth Potential” Emotion Regulation Strategy
The Desire for Perfect Products
Some consumers evaluate products against demanding, ever-rising ideals of perfection. We introduce the desire for perfect products (DPP), a novel consumer trait capturing the extent to which consumers desire flawless products. Drawing on four qualitative studies, we identify three characteristics that distinguish high (vs. low) DPP consumers: (1) richer and more demanding ideal points, (2) greater susceptibility to upwardly revising those ideals …
Psychology (11 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Product (mathematics) (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (3 works) · Business (3 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (3 works)