The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence restores this important field to its once preeminent position within social psychology. Editors Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as they explore a variety of topics within social influence, seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical theories and the role of social influence in applied settings today.




Social Influence and Consumer Behavior


Book Description

This collection of innovative essays examines the effects of social influence on consumer behavior processes and outcomes. The research focus is on social and consumer theory in helping to understand the interface between these two domains, with chapters investigating this interface from multiple perspectives thus providing diverse theoretical contributions to the discussion. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Social Influence.




Social Influence and Sustainable Consumption


Book Description

This forward-looking volume examines the role of social influence--including social media--in creating and fostering sustainable consumer behavior. Using the concepts behind social influence theory as a launching point, it describes humans' need for social networks and identifies the core components of buying, such as consumer goals and the gathering of opinions. From here, chapters examine ways social influence can encourage and support sustainable consumption, from buying green products to recycling packaging materials to supporting environmentally responsible brands. Real-world examples, critical thinking questions, a breakdown of strategies for influencing behavior, and pertinent references give the book extra dimensions of value. Among the featured topics: Social influence: why it matters. Values, attitudes, opinions, goals, and motivation. What we buy and who we listen to: the science and art of consumption. Decision making and problem solving. Households: productivity and consumption. Sustainably managing resources in the built environment. Between its nuanced understanding of social connections and its up-to-date lens on technology, Social Influence and Sustainable Consumption is must reading for researchers in the fields of consumer psychology, consumer behavior, and consumer sustainability.




When I'm 64


Book Description

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64. Approximately 26 percent of these will be racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the older population will be more diverse and better educated than their earlier cohorts. The range of late-life outcomes is very dramatic with old age being a significantly different experience for financially secure and well-educated people than for poor and uneducated people. The early mission of behavioral science research focused on identifying problems of older adults, such as isolation, caregiving, and dementia. Today, the field of gerontology is more interdisciplinary. When I'm 64 examines how individual and social behavior play a role in understanding diverse outcomes in old age. It also explores the implications of an aging workforce on the economy. The book recommends that the National Institute on Aging focus its research support in social, personality, and life-span psychology in four areas: motivation and behavioral change; socioemotional influences on decision-making; the influence of social engagement on cognition; and the effects of stereotypes on self and others. When I'm 64 is a useful resource for policymakers, researchers and medical professionals.




Social Influences on Eating


Book Description

This book examines how the social environment affects food choices and intake, and documents the extent to which people are unaware of the significant impact of social factors on their eating. The authors take a unique approach to studying eating behaviors in ordinary circumstances, presenting a theory of normal eating that highlights social influences independent of physiological and taste factors. Among the topics discussed: Modeling of food intake and food choice Consumption stereotypes and impression management Research design, methodology, and ethics of studying eating behaviors What happens when we overeat? Effects of social eating Social Influences on Eating is a useful reference for psychologists and researchers studying food and nutritional psychology, challenging commonly held assumptions about the dynamics of food choice and intake in order to promote a better understanding of the power of social influence on all forms of behavior.




Economic Psychology


Book Description

A comprehensive overview of contemporary economic psychology Economic Psychology presents an accessible overview of contemporary economic psychology. The science of economic mental life and behavior is increasingly relevant as people are expected to take more responsibility for their household and personal economic decisions. The text will, in addition to reviewing current knowledge on each topic presented, consider the practical and policy implications for supporting economic decision making. Economic Psychology examines the central aspects of adult decision making in everyday life and includes the theories of economic decision making based on risk, value and affect, and theories of intertemporal choice. The text reviews the nature and behavioral consequences of economic mental representations about such things as material possessions, money and the economy. The editor Robert Ranyard—a noted expert on economic psychology—presents a life-span developmental approach, from childhood to old age. He also reviews the important societal issues such as charitable giving and economic sustainability. This vital resource: Reviews the economic psychology in everyday life including financial behaviour such as saving and tax-paying and matters such as entrepreneurial activity Offers an introduction to the field and traces the emergence of the discipline, from Adam Smith to George Katona and Herbert Simon Includes information on societal issues such as charitable giving and pro-environmental behaviour Considers broader perspectives on economic psychology: life-span psychological development from childhood to old age Written for students of psychology, Economic Psychology reviews the most important information on contemporary economic psychology with a focus on individual and household economic decision making, ranging widely across financial matters such as borrowing and saving, and economic activities such as buying, trading, and working.




Six Degrees of Social Influence


Book Description

Over the course of the last four decades, Robert Cialdini's work has helped spark an intellectual revolution in which social psychological ideas have become increasingly influential. The concepts presented in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, have spread well beyond the geographic boundaries of North America and beyond the field of academic social psychology into the areas of business, health, and politics. In this book, leading authors, who represent many different countries and disciplines, explore new developments and the widespread impact of Cialdini's work in research areas ranging from persuasion strategy and social engineering to help-seeking and decision-making. Among the many topics covered, the authors discuss how people underestimate the influence of others, how a former computer hacker used social engineering to gain access to highly confidential computer codes, and how biology and evolution figure into the principles of influence. The authors break new ground in the study of influence.




Family Decision-Making


Book Description

The authors present a new model of the process of family decision-making that takes into account the importance of sex roles. They use a series of couples as examples that illustrate the model at various stages of the life cycle. They also consider how decision-making is changing. A major contribution to the study of sexual politics and bargaining within relationships. 'The authors are to be commended for their attempt to bring order to the complexities of family decisioning, and their work should stimulate further research in the area. Their focussing upon couples and families rather than individuals and their extension of the concept of "family" to nontraditional arrangements also are commendable.' -- Journal of Marriage




The Routledge Handbook of Housing Economics


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Housing Economics brings together an international panel of contributors to present a comprehensive overview of this important field within economics. Housing occupies an increasingly central role in modern society, dominating consumer assets and spending, forming an important part of social policy and being a large enough market to impact the macroeconomy. This handbook tackles these themes, along with other critical issues such as intergenerational housing inequality and the efficiency and social justice of housing interventions. This volume is structured in four main parts. It starts with eight chapters in microeconomics and housing. This is followed by two shorter sections on macroeconomics and finance. The final main part of the book is concerned with eight chapters on policy dimensions. While many of the chapters are rooted in mainstream economics and finance applied to housing, there are also chapters stressing institutional, behavioural and political economy orientations, as well as those that explicitly challenge more mainstream accounts. The contributing authors are based in Europe, North America and Australia and all draw in international literature to provide state of the art reviews of their topics. This carefully curated handbook will be essential reading for advanced students, researchers and policy makers in housing economics, urban economics, urban planning, public economics and real estate economics and finance. Chapter 22 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.




Measurement of intra-household resource control: Exploring the validity of experimental measures


Book Description

We study the validity of experimental methods designed to measure preferences for intra-household resource control among spouses in Ghana and Uganda. We implement two incentivized tasks; (1) a game that measures willingness to pay to control resources, and (2) private and joint dictator games that measure preferences for resource allocation and the extent to which those preferences are reflected in joint decisions. Behavior in the two tasks is correlated, suggesting that they describe similar underlying latent variables. In Uganda the experimental measures are robustly correlated with a range of household survey measures of resource control and women’s empowerment and suggest that simple private dictator games may be as informative as more sophisticated tasks. In Ghana, the experimental measures are not predictive of survey indicators, suggesting that context may be an important element of whether experimental measures are informative.