(01/04) Gender-Ambiguous Voices and Social Disfluency

with Kurt Munz

• Published in Psychological Science (2024) 

• 2021 Bocconi Junior Research Grant 

• Download Paper | Link to Journal | Open Science 

Recently, gender-ambiguous (non-binary) voices have been added to voice assistants to combat gender stereotypes and foster inclusion. However, if people react negatively to such voices, these laudable efforts may be counterproductive. In five preregistered studies (N = 3,684) we find that people do react negatively, rating products described by narrators with gender-ambiguous voices less favorably than when they are described by clearly male or female narrators. This is due to the voices creating a feeling of unease related to difficulty understanding the gender of the narrator, what we call social disfluency, that spills over to affect evaluations of the products being described. These effects are best explained by low familiarity with voices that sound ambiguous. Thus, initial negative reactions can be overcome with more exposure.

(02/04) Disfluency Increases Reliance on Heuristic Cues in Consumer Choice

with Kurt Munz

• Under 2nd round of review at Journal of Consumer Research 

• Best Presentation Award at 8th  Mediterranean Symposium for Consumer Behavior Research Conference, ie Business School 

Marketing materials often create difficulties for consumers through elements like unconventional fonts or distracting background images, leading to disfluency—a sense of difficulty processing information. Scholars disagree as to whether disfluency prompts consumers to think more carefully and systematically or to resort to simpler heuristic-based decision-making strategies. Ten preregistered experiments (N = 7,226) show that disfluency increases heuristic processing during consumer choices. As a consequence, consumers rely more on heuristic cues like a brand, a recommendation, or the country of origin when experiencing disfluency, results that meaningfully advance on past research. This research also helps to explain why previous research showed mixed results, noting that disfluency impacts consumer choices differently than tasks with objective answers.

(03/04) Abbreviated Brand Names and Brand Support

• Manuscript in preparation for submission to Journal of Marketing 

An increasingly popular strategy for naming brands involves using abbreviations in different forms: initialisms (e.g., “KFC” instead of “Kentucky Fried Chicken”), acronyms (e.g., “NASA” instead of “National Aeronautics and Space Administration”), or coined abbreviations (e.g., “LEGO” instead of “Leg Godt”). However, there is limited understanding of how these abbreviated brand names influence consumers’ perceptions of the brand and, ultimately, their willingness to support it. This research demonstrates that consumers generally show less support for new-to-market brands with abbreviated names compared to those with full names. Mediation and moderation analyses reveal that these effects are driven by conceptual fluency—full brand names make processing brand information easier, thereby enhancing understanding and brand imagery. The findings are robust across various types of abbreviations, including acronyms, initialisms, and coined abbreviations. While marketers might choose abbreviated names to positively influence consumer perceptions, this strategy can sometimes backfire. However, the backfire effect observed in many studies is less pronounced for brands conveying more conceptual and meaningful information about their offerings, trying clearly describes what it refers to or brands in disfavored categories such as tobacco where a meaningful connection is undesirable. Additionally, abbreviations can be beneficial for brands in technology, where they can convey novelty and innovation by appearing less familiar or when the unabbreviated name carries negative associations.