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  • January 2022
  • Article
  • 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)
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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.
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About The Author

Ashley V. Whillans

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors

    • July 2022
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    The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality

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    Policy Stringency and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Analysis of Data from 15 Countries

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More from the Authors
  • The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality By: Antonya Marie Gonzalez, Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans
  • Policy Stringency and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Analysis of Data from 15 Countries By: Lara B. Aknin, Bernardo Andretti, Rafael Goldszmidt, John F. Helliwell, Anna Petherick, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daisy Fancourt, Elkhonon Goldberg, Sarah P. Jones, Ozge Karadag, Elie Karam, Richard Layard, Shekhar Saxena, Emily Thornton, Ashley Whillans and Jamil Zaki
  • Innovation at Moog Inc. By: Brian J. Hall, Ashley V. Whillans, Davis Heniford, Dominika Randle and Caroline Witten
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