Costly Curves: How Human-Like Shapes Can Increase Spending
研究发现，接触类似瘦人体型的形状会激活与积极财务结果相关的概念，并通过社会比较影响高体重指数消费者的自我效能感和放纵消费决策。
Abstract Can exposure to body shapes affect spending preferences? Because Western society associates thinness with economic value, we argue that a shape resembling thin human body types activates concepts related to positive financial outcomes, such as responsibility and hard work. The results of five experiments show that exposure to thin, human-like shapes influences consumer self-efficacy judgments and spending outcomes, depending on the perceiver’s weight. In line with social comparison, we demonstrate that seeing a thin (vs. wide) human-like shape leads consumers with a high body mass index to make more indulgent decisions. Financial self-efficacy is highlighted as the underlying mechanism, and high resemblance to the human form is identified as a critical moderator. The findings of this research acknowledge visual similarity’s role in stereotype knowledge activation and weight stereotypes’ broad scope of influence.