91Ó°ÊÓ

Sounds Big. Does the lower pitch of a voice in an ad lead consumers to envision a bigger product? To test this, researchers had students listen to a radio advertisement for the new Southwest Turkey Club Sandwich at a fictitious sandwich chain, Cosmo. Half the students were randomly assigned to hear the ad spoken at a high pitch and the other half at a low pitch. In all other respects, the ads were identical, and no clues were given as to the size of the sandwich. After hearing the ad, students were asked to rate the perceived size of the sandwich on a 7-point scale, ranging from \(-3\) (much smaller than average) to \(+3\) (much larger than average). \(.\)

Conserving Energy. Example 9.6 (page 232) describes ar experiment to learn whether providing households with digital displays or charts will reduce their electricity consumption. An executive of the electric company objects to including a control group. He says: "It would be simpler to just compare electricity use last year (before the meter or ap1 was provided) with consumption in the same period this year. If households use less electricity this year, the display or chart must be working." Explain clearly why this design is inferior to that in Example 9.6.

What is the effect of a salesperson's demeanor on a customer? When purchasing clothing, it was hypothesized that for a more luxurious brand, such as Louis Vuitton, consumers would aspire more toward the brand if the salesperson were condescending, while for a mass market brand such as American Eagle, the opposite would be true. Participants in the study read the following hypothetical scenario: 22 Imagine that you're out shopping for some new clothes. You decide to go to (Louis Vuitton) because you've always liked the clothing there. As you are browsing the store, you encounter a saleswoman. She greets you and (condescendingly) asks you if she can help you find what you're looking for. For the mass market brand, Louis Vuitton is replaced by American Eagle, and for the salesperson demeanor, the word condescending is omitted for the neutral condition. Three hundred sixty participants were assigned at random to one of the four conditions: (luxury brand, condescending), (luxury brand, neutral), (mass market brand, condescending), or (mass market brand, neutral). An aspiration measure toward the product was computed based on the responses to questions about liking the product, distinctiveness, fashionability, and desire to be seen wearing the product. This is an a. experiment with four factors corresponding to the four conditions. b. experiment with factors corresponding to the different brands. c. experiment with two factors, luxury/mass market and condescending/neutral.