Bigger cars lead to more risk-taking

Driving a big car makes you feel safer on the road but also increases your willingness to engage in risky behaviors.

LUK WARLOP Professor Department of Marketing If you would replace your small car with a bigger one, would you become a more reckless driver?

Prior research seems to suggest that you would, but the evidence is not conclusive. We know that people tend to choose bigger cars because they feel more secure, but also that these cars are more likely to be involved in accidents. This implies that big car owners take more risk.

It still does not necessarily mean that bigger cars cause reckless driving. A simple alternative explanation is that reckless people would be prone to buying bigger cars.

THE CAR CUSHION HYPOTHESIS

To establish causality, one needs to run an experiment, which is what we did in a recently published study. We developed what we termed the “car cushion hypothesis”, which suggests that bigger cars not only make people feel more secure, but also affect their behavior by increasing their risktaking.

In our first experiment, we invited people to a professional driving simulator developed for Toyota. We told them that they would be either driving a smaller car (Toyota Yaris), or a large car (Toyota Avensis).

Both groups were instructed to drive naturally along a predetermined route with average traffic density, with other cars, cyclists, and pedestrians. The system registered the driving behavior.

We did find, indeed, that the larger car affects reckless driving: the large car drivers drove faster, accelerated more, decelerate later, used their brakes more, etc... Compared to the small car drivers, their behavior

was more dangerous to themselves and to others. This experiment shows the causal effect of car size on driving style. Participants were randomly assigned to the Yaris or the Avensis: their personality (like ‘being a risk seeker’) can not explain the difference.

PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT

In our second experiment, we wanted to test participants’ penchant for risk-taking beyond driving. Using the established BART test (Balloon Analog Risk Task), participants were asked to inflate a balloon by pushing a button. They received a small monetary reward for each successful push but lost all their winnings if the balloon popped.

First we gave people pictures, text and video about either a large Mercedes (C-class) or a small Mercedes (A-class), and they were instructed to vividly imagine driving that car. People who were assigned the C-class, inflated their balloons more than those imagining driving an A-class.

This suggests that perceived car safety on the road can be linked with generalized risktaking. DOUBLE BENEFIT

We concluded that big cars do serve as a ‘cushion’, making drivers feel more secure and inducing them to take more risk.

The public policy implication is that incentivizing against bigger cars can have a double benefit: it can reduce accidents by reducing reckless driving, and it would reduce the severity of accidents, because smaller cars cause less damage to others. Policymakers should take this into account when working to reduce the societal and public health impact of road accidents.

While we wait for the policymakers to do their part, we can also hope that the emergence of self-driving car technologies eventually will help us solve this important issue altogether.

REFERENCE:

Claus, B., Warlop, L. The Car Cushion Hypothesis: Bigger Cars Lead to More Risk Taking—Evidence from Behavioural Data. Journal of Consumer Policy 45, 331–342 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10603-022-09511-w

Er du klar for roboter med følelser?

Ny teknologi kan se om du er sint, glad eller lei deg, og tilpasse seg deretter.

ANDERS GUSTAFSSON Forskningsprofessor Institutt for markedsføring

LINE LERVIK-OLSEN Instituttleder Institutt for markedsføring DELPHINE CARUELLE Førsteamanuensis Høyskolen Kristiania

Vi styres like mye av følelser som vi gjør av rasjonalitet. Det påvirker alle beslutninger vi tar fra vi står opp om morgenen til vi legger oss om kvelden.

Det inkluderer selvsagt også de valgene vi tar som forbrukere. For eksempel når vi foretrekker ett merke over et annet uten å helt kunne si hvorfor.

Selgere er derfor avhengige av emosjonell intelligens og empati for å gjøre en god jobb.

Det kan være slitsomt å forholde seg til kunders følelser, og ansatte i førstelinjen er mer utsatt for stress og utbrenthet enn mange andre grupper.

Ny teknologi kan registrere hvilke følelser kunder opplever, for eksempel ved å analysere ordbruk i en chat, eller ansiktsuttrykk i en butikk.

HJELPEMIDDEL ELLER TRUSSEL

Et viktig spørsmål er om selgere vil se datamaskiner med emosjonell intelligens som et verktøy for å gjøre arbeidet enklere, eller som en trussel mot sin egen jobb.

Det er flere måter å bruke teknologien på, den minst påtrengende er at den gir beskjed til selgeren når det fanger opp en bestemt følelse. For eksempel om kunden er nysgjerrig og engasjert, eller sint og frustrert.

Det kan hjelpe kundeveilederen til å forstå om kunden er klar til å gjøre et kjøp eller hvordan de kan forbedre kundeopplevelsen.

Gjennom mer avanserte systemer kan emosjonelt intelligente maskiner bedre håndtere kunder på egenhånd. Foreløpig gjelder dette først og fremst rutinehenvendelser noe som kan frigjøre tid for selgere og kundebehandlere.

For noen kan det nok likevel skape en viss frykt for at menneskelige ansatte blir erstattet av dataprogrammer.

ER DET GREIT FOR KUNDEN?

Et like sentralt spørsmål er om vi kunder er klare til å akseptere emosjonelt intelligent roboter.

Dataprogrammer som kan forstå og uttrykke følelser vil oppføre seg på en langt mer menneskelig måte enn vi er vant til.

Emosjonell intelligens er et viktig steg på veien mot maskiner som er så menneskelignende at vi ikke lenger vil være i stand til å skille dem fra ekte mennesker.

Spørsmålet er hvordan vi tar teknologien i bruk.

REFERANSE:

Caruelle, D., Shams, P., Gustafsson, A. et al. Affective Computing in Marketing: Practical Implications and Research Opportunities Afforded by Emotionally Intelligent Machines. Mark Lett 33, 163–169 (2022).

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Matter For Marketing Performance?

CSR initiatives are good for business if they resonate with your customers, according to a new study.

STEFAN WORM Associate Professor Department of Marketing ULIANA MOHYLETSKA Graduate student BI Norwegian Business School

KARINA PAK Graduate student BI Norwegian Business School In recent years, there has been increasing interest among society, consumers, investors, and managers in firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities.

The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (popularly known as the “Oil Fund”) has been a pioneer in screening firms for ESG risks before investing.

Many investors have followed their example and implemented the same thinking in their practices.

But are CSR/ESG investments worth it? And should marketing managers care about them?

WHAT RESEARCH SAYS

Research has indeed shown that CSR improves financial performance. However, from a marketing perspective, CSR’s impact is much less obvious.

Many marketing managers

struggle to understand if and how CSR activities affect their key performance indicators, such as brand, customer satisfaction, and innovation.

A team of researchers, led by BI’s Stefan Worm, recently tried to answer the question if firms’ CSR drives (or maybe even reduces) their marketing performance.

“We wanted to know if CSR only affects the stock market directly, just because investors are looking for ESG investments, or whether CSR also boosts actual product-market performance,” explains Worm.

Their study uses empirical data from a large number of existing research studies in a so-called meta-analysis.

“The first results show that CSR affects three important Marketing key performance indicators (KPIs). It enhances consumers’ brand perceptions, it boosts corporate reputation, and it triggers innovation,” says Worm.

“MARKETING PLAYS A KEY ROLE”

The ongoing study also finds that there is a chain of effects.

By enhancing these marketing KPIs, CSR activities indirectly drive financial performance. That is, CSR actually drives business performance through marketing.

“This means that marketing plays a key role in leveraging CSR activities for the benefit of the firm,” highlights Worm.

Going forward, marketing managers need to understand CSR as an additional element of their toolbox.

“CSR activities and marketing go hand in hand, so marketing managers need to adjust accordingly and coordinate CSRrelated initiatives with their marketing efforts,” says Worm.