Discussion
Results from this study provided evidence that whimsicallycute stimuli lead to more indulgent (lowbrow) movie choices, compared to both neutral and kindchenschema cute stimuli, supporting hypothesis 1a. In addition, the study showed that whimsically cute stimuli prime mental representations of fun (supporting hypothesis 1b) and increase consumers’ focus on approaching self-rewards. Importantly, the study provided support for hypothesis 2 as it explicated
the underlying mediational process and showed that whimsically cute products prime mental representations of fun, which cause consumers to approach self-rewards, leading
to more indulgent choices.Results revealed that kindchenschema cute stimuli, which prime mental representations of vulnerability and caretaking,did not significantly reduce consumers’ likelihood to indulge,as compared to neutral stimuli. As discussed earlier,prior research has linked exposure to cute kindchenschema stimuli (e.g., cute babies) to motivations and behaviors that are protective, caretaking, attentive, and careful (e.g.,
Glocker et al. 2008; Lorenz 1943; Sherman et al. 2009,
2013). These findings would suggest that exposure to cute
products in the marketplace should lead to more careful
(hence less indulgent) behavior. Our article is the first to
examine the effects of exposure to cute kindchenschema
products on downstream behavioral indulgence, and our
findings did not reveal a significant decline in indulgence
after exposure to kindchenschema cute (vs. neutral) stimuli.
One reason why shopping with a kindchenschema cute gift
card did not lead to a significant decline in indulgence, even
though it primed mental representations of vulnerability and
caretaking, could be related to prior research, which has
shown that the self-relevance of the prime can influence the
magnitude of the impact of priming on behavior (Dijksterhuis
and Bargh 2001). According to the activation-striving