Trend Conformity Behavior of Luxury Fashion Products for Chinese Consumers in the Social Media Age: Drivers and Underlying Mechanisms.

When a bandwagon consumption trend of luxury fashion products appears, potential consumers tend to conform to the trend. The conformity behavior is enhanced by social media because it makes bandwagon trends more visible. However, no research has explored the drivers of fashion trend conformity in the social media age and the underlying mechanisms. Our empirical research demonstrates that fashion trend conformity is a socially directed type of behavior driven by trend perception and reference group pressure, which represent the informational and normative social influence stimuli, respectively. In addition to the direct impact, we also examine the mediating roles of demand amplification and the urge to buy impulsively (UBI). Demand amplification and UBI, respectively, reflect the rational cognitive reaction and irrational emotional reaction to stimuli of fashion bandwagon consumption. However, our results show that only the cognitive reaction path works, but the emotional reaction path does not. Put simply, trend conformity behavior is largely the result of consumers' rational reactions rather than irrational reactions to the social influence stimuli of bandwagon consumption. Our study contributes to the research on luxury fashion consumption by introducing three new concepts, i.e., fashion trend conformity, trend perception, and demand amplification, to describe and theorize the characteristics of consumer behavioral patterns for luxury fashion products and new drivers and novel underlying mechanisms of consumer behaviors in the social media age. Our findings offer practical insights for retailers and manufacturers to promote fashion trend conformity behavior.

Heterogeneous risk tolerance, in-groups, and epidemic waves.

There is a growing interest in the joint modeling of the dynamics of disease and health-related beliefs and attitudes, but coupling mechanisms are yet to be understood. We introduce a model where risk information, which can be delayed, comes in two flavors, including historical risk derived from perceived incidence data and predicted risk information. Our model also includes an interpretation domain where the behavioral response to risk information is subject to in-group pressure. We then simulate how the strength of behavioral reaction impacts epidemic severity as measured by epidemic peak size, number of waves, and final size. Simulated behavioral response is not effective when the level of protection that prophylactic behavior provides is as small as 50% or lower. At a higher level of 75% or more, we see the emergence of multiple epidemic waves. In addition, simulations show that different behavioral response profiles can lead to various epidemic outcomes that are non-monotonic with the strength of reaction to risk information. We also modeled heterogeneity in the response profile of a population and find they can lead to less severe epidemic outcome in terms of peak size.

Social Influence and Different Types of Red-Light Behaviors among Cyclists.

Accident analysis and studies on traffic revealed that cyclists' violation of red-light regulation is one typical infringement committed by cyclists. Furthermore, an association between cyclists' crash involvement and red-light violations has been found across different countries. The literature on cyclists' psychosocial determinants of red-light violation is still scarce. The present study, based on the classification of cyclists' red-light behavior in risk-taking (ignoring the red-light and traveling through the junction without stopping), opportunistic (waiting at red-lights but being too impatient to wait for green signal and subsequently crossing the junction), and law-obeying (stopping to obey the red-light), adopted an eye-observational methodology to investigate differences in cyclists' crossing behavior at intersections, in relation to traffic light violations and the presence of other cyclists. Based on the social influence explanatory framework, which states that people tend to behave differently in a given situation taking into consideration similar people's behaviors, and that the effect of social influence is related to the group size, we hypothesized that the number of cyclists at the intersection will have an influence on the cyclists' behavior. Furthermore, cyclists will be more likely to violate in an opportunistic way when other cyclists are already committing a violation. Two researchers at a time registered unobtrusively at four different intersections during morning and late afternoon peak hour traffic, 1381 cyclists approaching the traffic light during the red phase. The 62.9% violated the traffic control. Results showed that a higher number of cyclists waiting at the intersection is associated with fewer risk-taking violations. Nevertheless, the percentage of opportunistic violation remained high. For the condition of no cyclist present, risk-taking behaviors were significantly higher, whereas, they were significantly lower for conditions of two to four and five or more cyclists present. The percentage of cyclists committing a red-light violation without following any other was higher for those committing a risk-taking violation, whereas those following tended to commit opportunistic violations more often.

A lottery incentive system to facilitate dialogue and social support for workplace HIV counselling and testing: a qualitative inquiry.

Despite South African mid-sized companies' efforts to offer HIV counselling and testing (HCT) in the workplace, companies report relatively poor uptake rates. An urgent need for a range of different interventions aimed at increasing participation in workplace HCT has been identified. The aim of this study was to explore qualitatively the influence of a lottery incentive system (LIS) as an intervention to influence shop-floor workers' workplace HIV testing behaviour. A qualitative study was conducted among 17 shop-floor workers via convenience sampling in two mid-sized South African automotive manufacturing companies in which an LIS for HCT was implemented. The in-depth interviews employed a semi-structured interview schedule and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The interviews revealed that the LIS created excitement in the companies and renewed employees' personal interest in HCT. The excitement facilitated social interactions that resulted in a strong group cohesion pertaining to HCT that mitigated the burden of HIV stigma in the workplace. Open discussions allowed for the development of supportive social group pressure to seek HCT as a collective in anticipation of a reward. Lotteries were perceived as a supportive and innovative company approach to workplace HCT. The study identified important aspects for consideration by companies when using an LIS to enhance workplace HIV testing. The significance of inter- and intra-player dialogue in activating supportive social norms for HIV testing in collectivist African contexts was highlighted.

Asertividad, resistencia a la presión de grupo y consumo de alcohol en universitarios / Assertiveness, resistance to group pressure and alcohol consumption in university students / Assertividade, resistência à pressão do grupo e consumo de álcool nos universitários

El objetivo del presente estudio es describir la asociación entre asertividad, resistencia de la presión del grupo y el nivel de consumo de alcohol en un grupo de universitarios entre los 16 y 33 años de ambos sexos, de dos instituciones educativas. Se usaron la Escala de Asertividad de Rathus, el Cuestionario de Resistencia a la Presión de Grupo y el Test Audit para el Consumo de Alcohol. Adicionalmente, se incluyeron datos específicos de consumo. En los resultados se observó una asociación significativa entre variables como nivel de consumo, asertividad y resistencia a la presión del grupo, entre otras. Se discutieron los hallazgos sobre el consumo tomando como base las condiciones sociales y de desarrollo de los jóvenes universitarios.

The aim of this paper was to describe the association between assertiveness, resistance to group pressure and level of alcohol consumption in university students of both genders, ages between 16 and 33, who attended two educational institutions. The Rathus Assertiveness Scale, the Resistance to Group Pressure Questionnaire and the Audit Test for alcohol consumption were administered. In addition, some more specific data about consumption were also included. Results show a significant association between variables such as level of alcohol consumption, assertiveness and resistance to group pressure. The findings about alcohol consumption, based on social conditions and development of the youth are discussed.

O objetivo deste estudo é descrever a associação entre assertividade, resistência à pressão do grupo e nível de consumo de álcool em um grupo de universitários de ambos sexos entre 16 e 33 anos, de duas instituições educativas, foram usadas a Escala de Assertividade de Rathus, o Questionário de Resistência à Pressão do Grupo e o Teste Audit para o Consumo de Álcool. Também foram incluídos dados específicos de consumo. Nos resultados observou-se uma associação significativa entre variáveis como nível de consumo, assertividade e resistência à pressão do grupo. Foram discutidos os achados sobre o consumo baseando-se nas condições sociais e de desenvolvimento dos jovens universitários.