 The Influence of the Phonetic Elements of a Name on Risk AssessmentDimensions of Brand PersonalityKeith A Botner, Arul Mishra, Himanshu Mishra, Margaret C Campbell and L J Shrum Journal of Consumer Research, 2020, vol. 47, issue 1, 128-145 Abstract: The authors propose that the phonetic elements of a name affect risk perception. Specifically, they find that people prefer a name that evokes volatility when faced with a risky prospect, but prefer a name that evokes calmness when faced with a safe prospect. The authors posit that a volatile (vs. calm) prospect name results in more perceived fluctuations, and thus greater movement from, the given risk level. Therefore, a volatile prospect name results in a wider range of probabilities compared to a calm prospect name. The authors test the proposed effect and the role of the phonetic elements of a name using real-world data and controlled studies within diverse consumer domains (e.g., product evaluations, wagering, and branding). Findings contribute to the larger theoretical area of phonetic symbolism and provide guidance for practitioners trying to maximize preference for a given product, service, or policy. Keywords: decision-making; linguistics; phonetic symbolism; risky prospects; probability; phonetic score (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:47:y:2020:i:1:p:128-145. Access Statistics for this article Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc. |
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