Products in Disguise: Communicating Product Benefits with Surface Mimicry
提出表面模仿（产品外观模仿另一产品）能增强健康食品吸引力，通过激活属性映射思维让消费者将修饰产品的属性转移到目标产品上，四组实验验证了该效应及其边界条件。
Abstract In an effort to find a novel way to enhance the attractiveness of healthy food, this article proposes surface mimicry—that is, designing a product to visually resemble another product—as an effective intervention to communicate property information to consumers. Specifically, it advances the notion that exposure to surface mimicry primes property mapping, a thinking style that leads consumers to transfer property information from one product onto another. To this end, three studies show that exposure to a target food product (e.g., kiwifruit) mimicking visual characteristics of another, modifier food product (e.g., popsicle) induces a transfer of attribute values of the modifier onto the target product for salient, alignable attributes on which the products differ (e.g., tastiness). A fourth study points to the activation of a property-mapping mindset as the underlying process. Finally, the effect is shown to persist, but it attenuates when the difference in belief(s) about the target and mimicked product is substantial (e.g., the taste expectations for Brussels sprouts and popsicles).