Publications
Publications
- January 2022
- Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
Rejections Make the Heart Grow Fonder: The Benefits of Articulating Risks When Declining Social Invitations
By: Ashley Whillans, Anne Wilson and Tobias Schlager (Shared Authorship)
Abstract
Across six studies (N=3,591), we explore the interpersonal consequences of COVID-19 risk communication when rejecting social invitations. In Study 1, consumers underestimate the benefits and overestimate the social costs of explicitly rejecting social invitations for risk-related reasons. In Studies 2a&b, consumers are more likely to communicate risk when they are focused on welfare (vs. social) concerns. In Studies 3a&b, we replicate and extend these results in the context of actual social invitations. In Study 4, we observe similar effects in a consumer context, showing the positive benefit of risk communications by brands. Together, these results highlights the unexpected benefits of COVID-19 risk communication.
Keywords
COVID; Social Invitations; Interpersonal Perception; Health Pandemics; Risk and Uncertainty; Interpersonal Communication
Citation
Whillans, Ashley, Anne Wilson, and Tobias Schlager (Shared Authorship). "Rejections Make the Heart Grow Fonder: The Benefits of Articulating Risks When Declining Social Invitations." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 7, no. 1 (January 2022): 124–132.