Lisa E Bolton
Biographic Data
| ID | 136428 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lisa E Bolton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lisa E |
| FAMILY NAME | Bolton |
| SIGNATURE | BOLTON L E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4073-6365 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 8 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A common‐sense commentary on religious values and consumer behavior
Aglozo and Cohen (2025) lay out their view of religion and values, and this commentary builds on their work by considering the religious landscape, infusing values with their religious underpinnings, and discussing the implications for consumer research (such as sustainability)
Top Rated or Best Seller? Cultural Differences in Responses to Attitudinal versus Behavioral Consensus Cues
Marketers commonly use consensus cues about others’ behavioral choices (“best seller”) or their attitudes (“top rated”) when labeling products. This article suggests that the effectiveness of these types of cues may differ across cultures in ways that carry implications for marketing practice. Prior research shows that in contexts that give rise to an interdependent cultural self-construal, choices are often responsive to social expectations rath…
Conspiracy Beliefs and Consumption: The Role of Scientific Literacy
Conspiracy theories pose risks to consumers, businesses, and society. The present research investigates the role of scientific literacy in a variety of conspiracy beliefs with implications for consumer well-being and sustainability (e.g., regarding coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19], genetically modified organisms, and climate change). In contrast to the mixed effects of education in prior work, we find that scientific literacy undermines conspi…
People, Peace, Prosperity, and the Planet: A Journey toward Sustainable Development in Consumer Research
With its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations (UN) developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a 'blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.' This initiative raises the question: how has the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) shed light on the SDGs? This research analyzes 50 years of consumer research through the lens of the SDG and makes four contributions. First, the authors provide a content a…
How Do Consumers React to Production Waste
Production waste, or inefficiencies in product manufacturing, is a major contributor to environmental problems. Consider production waste in garment manufacturing-which has been criticized for wasteful use of natural resources (e.g., using excessive water and fabric) and wasteful disposal of resource residuals (e.g., discarding excessive wastewater and fabric scraps). The present research examines consumer reactions to production waste and its mi…
Hidden Barriers to Marketplace Disability Accessibility: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Perceived Trade-Offs
Disability is a basic human condition that affects a significant proportion of the world's population, yet many disability- and accessibility-relevant issues remain pressing and insufficiently addressed. With three experiments, the current research investigates potential reasons for why marketplace disability accessibility has not been universally accepted. Potential barriers to greater accessibility in marketplaces may arise because such efforts…
From Second-Hand to Third-Hand: Reuse and Resale Cycle
The promotion of reuse and resale has been receiving extensive attention worldwide for the sake of sustainability. The current research provides insights into this area and identifies a 'reuse and resale cycle,' whereby consumers are more willing to resell products they originally obtained second hand, compared to products they obtained brand new. One potential mechanism that accounts for this effect is the relatively weak connection consumers fo…
Get Your Science Out of Here: When Does Invoking Science in the Marketing of Consumer Products Backfire
In this research, we propose that although consumers view the scientific process as competent, they also perceive it as cold. Across 10 experimental studies, we demonstrate that these lay beliefs impact consumers' reactions to marketers touting the science behind their brands. Specifically, since hedonic attributes are associated with warmth, the coldness associated with science is conceptually disfluent with the anticipated warmth of hedonic pro…
Products in Disguise: Communicating Product Benefits with Surface Mimicry
In an effort to find a novel way to enhance the attractiveness of healthy food, this article proposes surface mimicry-that is, designing a product to visually resemble another product-as an effective intervention to communicate property information to consumers. Specifically, it advances the notion that exposure to surface mimicry primes property mapping, a thinking style that leads consumers to transfer property information from one product onto…
How Does Religion Affect Consumer Response to Failure and Recovery by Firms
How might religion influence consumer behavior in the marketplace? The present research proposes that failure and subsequent firm recovery efforts represent a domain that may be particularly sensitive to religion. Specifically, we demonstrate that religion salience promotes a more positive response to failure when accompanied by recovery. This effect is due to heightened forgiveness, a religious value held by many major world religions, which is …
How Do Consumers React to Company Moral Transgressions? The Role of Power Distance Belief and Empathy for Victims
This research proposes that consumers vary in their response to company moral transgressions as a function of power distance belief (PDB), which is the extent that consumers accept inequality (a prominent moral principle). Specifically, consumers with lower PDB tend to feel more empathy for victims, which in turn heightens harm perceptions and negative moral emotions, leading to less favorable reactions toward the transgressing company. A series …
Disorder and Downsizing
The consequences of overconsumption and the recent popularity of simple living point to consumer interest in reducing belongings. They also raise an interesting question-what is a useful approach to downsizing and decluttering? We investigate how dis/order (messy vs. tidy items) affects downsizing and find, across nine focal studies, that (a) consumers retain fewer items when choosing from a disordered set because (b) order facilitates the compar…
Contraction with Unpacking: When Unpacking Leads to Lower Calorie Budgets
Consumers set a lower consumption budget when they set individual calorie budgets for constituent categories (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks; categorical approach) versus when they set a total budget (overall approach). This contraction effect of unpacking a judgment is driven by motivated reasoning. Consumers are motivated to reduce calorie consumption, and this motive directs their cognitive elaboration for the budget decision to be…
Consumers Prefer 'Natural' More for Preventatives Than for Curatives
We demonstrate that natural products are more strongly preferred when used to prevent a problem than when used to cure a problem (the prevent/cure effect). This organizing principle explains variation in the preference for natural across distinct product categories (e.g., food vs. medicine), within product categories (e.g., between different types of medicines), and for the same product depending on how it is used (to prevent or to cure ailments)…
The Influence of Health Motivation and Calorie Ending on Preferences for Indulgent Foods
Food and beverage manufacturers now regularly display "just below" calorie amounts (e.g., 99, 199, 299) in advertisements, presumably to appeal to health-motivated consumers. "Just below" values are those that fall one or more digits below a round number, most commonly seen as nine-ending numbers. However, although nine-ending prices are known to stimulate purchase intent, it is unclear whether or when nine-ending calorie labeling shapes food pre…
Culture, Relationship Norms, and Dual Entitlement
According to the dual entitlement principle, consumers find it fair for firms to price asymmetrically to cost changes-that is, for firms to increase prices when costs increase but maintain prices when costs decrease. However, a meta-analysis reveals asymmetric pricing is less prevalent in collectivistic (vs. individualistic) countries (study 1). We propose a fairness-based explanation, demonstrating that interdependent consumers in collectivistic…
Performance Brand Placebos: How Brands Improve Performance and Consumers Take the Credit
This research examines how consumption of a performance branded product systematically improves objective outcomes in a variety of contexts. Five field and laboratory studies demonstrate that this performance brand effect emerges through psychological mechanisms unrelated to functional product differences, consistent with a placebo. Furthermore, whereas this effect emerges only when there is an expectation that the performance branded product aff…
Lay Theories of Medicine and a Healthy Lifestyle
This research proposes that consumers hold “lay theories of medicine” that guide their preferences and behaviors in the health domain. Lay theories of medicine incorporate lay beliefs about illnesses and symptoms (i.e., a form of lay diagnosis that may feature causal [un]certainty) and lay beliefs about health remedies (i.e., a treatment function that takes into account how consumers think remedies work, including the focus and action rapidity of…
How Does Drug and Supplement Marketing Affect a Healthy Lifestyle
This research investigates consumer reactions to the marketing of drugs and supplements and the consequences for a healthy lifestyle. A series of experiments provides evidence that drug marketing undermines intentions to engage in health-protective behaviors (i.e., a boomerang effect). The boomerang arises from two psychological mechanisms: (1) drugs reduce risk perceptions and perceived importance of, and motivation to engage in, complementary h…
Price Fairness: Good and Service Differences and the Role of Vendor Costs
Prior research suggests that consumers are forgiving of a price increase that is commensurate with increased vendor costs. We argue that the perceived fairness of the price increase will also depend on the alignability of the cost and price increases, such that alignable increases will be perceived as more acceptable than nonalignable increases. Moreover, we predict that when a cost increase is nonalignable, consumers will be more receptive to a …
Consumer Perceptions of Price (Un)Fairness
A series of studies demonstrates that consumers are inclined to believe that the selling price of a good or service is substantially higher than its fair price. Consumers appear sensitive to several reference points—including past prices, competitor prices, and cost of goods sold—but underestimate the effects of inflation, overattribute price differences to profit, and fail to take into account the full range of vendor costs. Potential corrective…
Consumer Perceptions of Price (Un)Fairness
A series of studies demonstrates that consumers are inclined to believe that the selling price of a good or service is substantially higher than its fair price. Consumers appear sensitive to several reference points—including past prices, competitor prices, and cost of goods sold—but underestimate the effects of inflation, overattribute price differences to profit, and fail to take into account the full range of vendor costs. Potential corrective…
Lay Theories of Medicine and a Healthy Lifestyle
This research proposes that consumers hold “lay theories of medicine” that guide their preferences and behaviors in the health domain. Lay theories of medicine incorporate lay beliefs about illnesses and symptoms (i.e., a form of lay diagnosis that may feature causal [un]certainty) and lay beliefs about health remedies (i.e., a treatment function that takes into account how consumers think remedies work, including the focus and action rapidity of…
How Do Consumers React to Company Moral Transgressions? The Role of Power Distance Belief and Empathy for Victims
This research proposes that consumers vary in their response to company moral transgressions as a function of power distance belief (PDB), which is the extent that consumers accept inequality (a prominent moral principle). Specifically, consumers with lower PDB tend to feel more empathy for victims, which in turn heightens harm perceptions and negative moral emotions, leading to less favorable reactions toward the transgressing company. A series …
Price Fairness: Good and Service Differences and the Role of Vendor Costs
Prior research suggests that consumers are forgiving of a price increase that is commensurate with increased vendor costs. We argue that the perceived fairness of the price increase will also depend on the alignability of the cost and price increases, such that alignable increases will be perceived as more acceptable than nonalignable increases. Moreover, we predict that when a cost increase is nonalignable, consumers will be more receptive to a …
Consumers Prefer 'Natural' More for Preventatives Than for Curatives
We demonstrate that natural products are more strongly preferred when used to prevent a problem than when used to cure a problem (the prevent/cure effect). This organizing principle explains variation in the preference for natural across distinct product categories (e.g., food vs. medicine), within product categories (e.g., between different types of medicines), and for the same product depending on how it is used (to prevent or to cure ailments)…
How Does Drug and Supplement Marketing Affect a Healthy Lifestyle
This research investigates consumer reactions to the marketing of drugs and supplements and the consequences for a healthy lifestyle. A series of experiments provides evidence that drug marketing undermines intentions to engage in health-protective behaviors (i.e., a boomerang effect). The boomerang arises from two psychological mechanisms: (1) drugs reduce risk perceptions and perceived importance of, and motivation to engage in, complementary h…
Disorder and Downsizing
The consequences of overconsumption and the recent popularity of simple living point to consumer interest in reducing belongings. They also raise an interesting question-what is a useful approach to downsizing and decluttering? We investigate how dis/order (messy vs. tidy items) affects downsizing and find, across nine focal studies, that (a) consumers retain fewer items when choosing from a disordered set because (b) order facilitates the compar…
Culture, Relationship Norms, and Dual Entitlement
According to the dual entitlement principle, consumers find it fair for firms to price asymmetrically to cost changes-that is, for firms to increase prices when costs increase but maintain prices when costs decrease. However, a meta-analysis reveals asymmetric pricing is less prevalent in collectivistic (vs. individualistic) countries (study 1). We propose a fairness-based explanation, demonstrating that interdependent consumers in collectivistic…
People, Peace, Prosperity, and the Planet: A Journey toward Sustainable Development in Consumer Research
With its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations (UN) developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a 'blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.' This initiative raises the question: how has the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) shed light on the SDGs? This research analyzes 50 years of consumer research through the lens of the SDG and makes four contributions. First, the authors provide a content a…
Hidden Barriers to Marketplace Disability Accessibility: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Perceived Trade-Offs
Disability is a basic human condition that affects a significant proportion of the world's population, yet many disability- and accessibility-relevant issues remain pressing and insufficiently addressed. With three experiments, the current research investigates potential reasons for why marketplace disability accessibility has not been universally accepted. Potential barriers to greater accessibility in marketplaces may arise because such efforts…
From Second-Hand to Third-Hand: Reuse and Resale Cycle
The promotion of reuse and resale has been receiving extensive attention worldwide for the sake of sustainability. The current research provides insights into this area and identifies a 'reuse and resale cycle,' whereby consumers are more willing to resell products they originally obtained second hand, compared to products they obtained brand new. One potential mechanism that accounts for this effect is the relatively weak connection consumers fo…
How Does Religion Affect Consumer Response to Failure and Recovery by Firms
How might religion influence consumer behavior in the marketplace? The present research proposes that failure and subsequent firm recovery efforts represent a domain that may be particularly sensitive to religion. Specifically, we demonstrate that religion salience promotes a more positive response to failure when accompanied by recovery. This effect is due to heightened forgiveness, a religious value held by many major world religions, which is …
Get Your Science Out of Here: When Does Invoking Science in the Marketing of Consumer Products Backfire
In this research, we propose that although consumers view the scientific process as competent, they also perceive it as cold. Across 10 experimental studies, we demonstrate that these lay beliefs impact consumers' reactions to marketers touting the science behind their brands. Specifically, since hedonic attributes are associated with warmth, the coldness associated with science is conceptually disfluent with the anticipated warmth of hedonic pro…
Conspiracy Beliefs and Consumption: The Role of Scientific Literacy
Conspiracy theories pose risks to consumers, businesses, and society. The present research investigates the role of scientific literacy in a variety of conspiracy beliefs with implications for consumer well-being and sustainability (e.g., regarding coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19], genetically modified organisms, and climate change). In contrast to the mixed effects of education in prior work, we find that scientific literacy undermines conspi…
How Do Consumers React to Production Waste
Production waste, or inefficiencies in product manufacturing, is a major contributor to environmental problems. Consider production waste in garment manufacturing-which has been criticized for wasteful use of natural resources (e.g., using excessive water and fabric) and wasteful disposal of resource residuals (e.g., discarding excessive wastewater and fabric scraps). The present research examines consumer reactions to production waste and its mi…
Products in Disguise: Communicating Product Benefits with Surface Mimicry
In an effort to find a novel way to enhance the attractiveness of healthy food, this article proposes surface mimicry-that is, designing a product to visually resemble another product-as an effective intervention to communicate property information to consumers. Specifically, it advances the notion that exposure to surface mimicry primes property mapping, a thinking style that leads consumers to transfer property information from one product onto…
Consumer Perceptions of Price (Un)Fairness
A series of studies demonstrates that consumers are inclined to believe that the selling price of a good or service is substantially higher than its fair price. Consumers appear sensitive to several reference points—including past prices, competitor prices, and cost of goods sold—but underestimate the effects of inflation, overattribute price differences to profit, and fail to take into account the full range of vendor costs. Potential corrective…
Price Fairness: Good and Service Differences and the Role of Vendor Costs
Prior research suggests that consumers are forgiving of a price increase that is commensurate with increased vendor costs. We argue that the perceived fairness of the price increase will also depend on the alignability of the cost and price increases, such that alignable increases will be perceived as more acceptable than nonalignable increases. Moreover, we predict that when a cost increase is nonalignable, consumers will be more receptive to a …
How Does Drug and Supplement Marketing Affect a Healthy Lifestyle
This research investigates consumer reactions to the marketing of drugs and supplements and the consequences for a healthy lifestyle. A series of experiments provides evidence that drug marketing undermines intentions to engage in health-protective behaviors (i.e., a boomerang effect). The boomerang arises from two psychological mechanisms: (1) drugs reduce risk perceptions and perceived importance of, and motivation to engage in, complementary h…
Lay Theories of Medicine and a Healthy Lifestyle
This research proposes that consumers hold “lay theories of medicine” that guide their preferences and behaviors in the health domain. Lay theories of medicine incorporate lay beliefs about illnesses and symptoms (i.e., a form of lay diagnosis that may feature causal [un]certainty) and lay beliefs about health remedies (i.e., a treatment function that takes into account how consumers think remedies work, including the focus and action rapidity of…
Performance Brand Placebos: How Brands Improve Performance and Consumers Take the Credit
This research examines how consumption of a performance branded product systematically improves objective outcomes in a variety of contexts. Five field and laboratory studies demonstrate that this performance brand effect emerges through psychological mechanisms unrelated to functional product differences, consistent with a placebo. Furthermore, whereas this effect emerges only when there is an expectation that the performance branded product aff…
Culture, Relationship Norms, and Dual Entitlement
According to the dual entitlement principle, consumers find it fair for firms to price asymmetrically to cost changes-that is, for firms to increase prices when costs increase but maintain prices when costs decrease. However, a meta-analysis reveals asymmetric pricing is less prevalent in collectivistic (vs. individualistic) countries (study 1). We propose a fairness-based explanation, demonstrating that interdependent consumers in collectivistic…
The Influence of Health Motivation and Calorie Ending on Preferences for Indulgent Foods
Food and beverage manufacturers now regularly display "just below" calorie amounts (e.g., 99, 199, 299) in advertisements, presumably to appeal to health-motivated consumers. "Just below" values are those that fall one or more digits below a round number, most commonly seen as nine-ending numbers. However, although nine-ending prices are known to stimulate purchase intent, it is unclear whether or when nine-ending calorie labeling shapes food pre…
Contraction with Unpacking: When Unpacking Leads to Lower Calorie Budgets
Consumers set a lower consumption budget when they set individual calorie budgets for constituent categories (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks; categorical approach) versus when they set a total budget (overall approach). This contraction effect of unpacking a judgment is driven by motivated reasoning. Consumers are motivated to reduce calorie consumption, and this motive directs their cognitive elaboration for the budget decision to be…
Consumers Prefer 'Natural' More for Preventatives Than for Curatives
We demonstrate that natural products are more strongly preferred when used to prevent a problem than when used to cure a problem (the prevent/cure effect). This organizing principle explains variation in the preference for natural across distinct product categories (e.g., food vs. medicine), within product categories (e.g., between different types of medicines), and for the same product depending on how it is used (to prevent or to cure ailments)…
How Does Religion Affect Consumer Response to Failure and Recovery by Firms
How might religion influence consumer behavior in the marketplace? The present research proposes that failure and subsequent firm recovery efforts represent a domain that may be particularly sensitive to religion. Specifically, we demonstrate that religion salience promotes a more positive response to failure when accompanied by recovery. This effect is due to heightened forgiveness, a religious value held by many major world religions, which is …
How Do Consumers React to Company Moral Transgressions? The Role of Power Distance Belief and Empathy for Victims
This research proposes that consumers vary in their response to company moral transgressions as a function of power distance belief (PDB), which is the extent that consumers accept inequality (a prominent moral principle). Specifically, consumers with lower PDB tend to feel more empathy for victims, which in turn heightens harm perceptions and negative moral emotions, leading to less favorable reactions toward the transgressing company. A series …
Disorder and Downsizing
The consequences of overconsumption and the recent popularity of simple living point to consumer interest in reducing belongings. They also raise an interesting question-what is a useful approach to downsizing and decluttering? We investigate how dis/order (messy vs. tidy items) affects downsizing and find, across nine focal studies, that (a) consumers retain fewer items when choosing from a disordered set because (b) order facilitates the compar…
Get Your Science Out of Here: When Does Invoking Science in the Marketing of Consumer Products Backfire
In this research, we propose that although consumers view the scientific process as competent, they also perceive it as cold. Across 10 experimental studies, we demonstrate that these lay beliefs impact consumers' reactions to marketers touting the science behind their brands. Specifically, since hedonic attributes are associated with warmth, the coldness associated with science is conceptually disfluent with the anticipated warmth of hedonic pro…
Products in Disguise: Communicating Product Benefits with Surface Mimicry
In an effort to find a novel way to enhance the attractiveness of healthy food, this article proposes surface mimicry-that is, designing a product to visually resemble another product-as an effective intervention to communicate property information to consumers. Specifically, it advances the notion that exposure to surface mimicry primes property mapping, a thinking style that leads consumers to transfer property information from one product onto…
Top Rated or Best Seller? Cultural Differences in Responses to Attitudinal versus Behavioral Consensus Cues
Marketers commonly use consensus cues about others’ behavioral choices (“best seller”) or their attitudes (“top rated”) when labeling products. This article suggests that the effectiveness of these types of cues may differ across cultures in ways that carry implications for marketing practice. Prior research shows that in contexts that give rise to an interdependent cultural self-construal, choices are often responsive to social expectations rath…
Conspiracy Beliefs and Consumption: The Role of Scientific Literacy
Conspiracy theories pose risks to consumers, businesses, and society. The present research investigates the role of scientific literacy in a variety of conspiracy beliefs with implications for consumer well-being and sustainability (e.g., regarding coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19], genetically modified organisms, and climate change). In contrast to the mixed effects of education in prior work, we find that scientific literacy undermines conspi…
People, Peace, Prosperity, and the Planet: A Journey toward Sustainable Development in Consumer Research
With its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations (UN) developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a 'blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.' This initiative raises the question: how has the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) shed light on the SDGs? This research analyzes 50 years of consumer research through the lens of the SDG and makes four contributions. First, the authors provide a content a…
How Do Consumers React to Production Waste
Production waste, or inefficiencies in product manufacturing, is a major contributor to environmental problems. Consider production waste in garment manufacturing-which has been criticized for wasteful use of natural resources (e.g., using excessive water and fabric) and wasteful disposal of resource residuals (e.g., discarding excessive wastewater and fabric scraps). The present research examines consumer reactions to production waste and its mi…
Hidden Barriers to Marketplace Disability Accessibility: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Perceived Trade-Offs
Disability is a basic human condition that affects a significant proportion of the world's population, yet many disability- and accessibility-relevant issues remain pressing and insufficiently addressed. With three experiments, the current research investigates potential reasons for why marketplace disability accessibility has not been universally accepted. Potential barriers to greater accessibility in marketplaces may arise because such efforts…
From Second-Hand to Third-Hand: Reuse and Resale Cycle
The promotion of reuse and resale has been receiving extensive attention worldwide for the sake of sustainability. The current research provides insights into this area and identifies a 'reuse and resale cycle,' whereby consumers are more willing to resell products they originally obtained second hand, compared to products they obtained brand new. One potential mechanism that accounts for this effect is the relatively weak connection consumers fo…
A common‐sense commentary on religious values and consumer behavior
Aglozo and Cohen (2025) lay out their view of religion and values, and this commentary builds on their work by considering the religious landscape, infusing values with their religious underpinnings, and discussing the implications for consumer research (such as sustainability)
Psychology (16 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Business (12 works) · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification (12 works) · Economics (12 works) · Marketing (8 works) · Microeconomics (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (5 works)