How consumers process positive and negative product cues

It can be a tough call. Should you get the red car or the black one? The beige interior or grey? Leather or fabric seats? The list goes on and on of the many intrinsic attributes of this new and shiny purchase. In addition, the decision is further complicated by the many extrinsic attributes of a car like warranty and where the car was made. An article in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research suggests

How consumers react to prices ending in 99

Have you ever wondered why prices do not often end in simple round numbers? Decades of research have focused on the issue of pricing and a new study published in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research analyzes how consumers perceive the difference between prices ending in .00 or .99. This study which focuses on the left digit, rather than cents, finds that the difference can be important to consumers.

“We show

New Ebola, Marburg Vaccines effective in animal models

Scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada – with assistance from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases – have developed vaccines against the Ebola and Marburg viruses that have been shown to be effective in non-human primates.

In a study published in this month’s Nature Medicine, Canadian researchers Dr. Heinz Feldmann and Dr. Steven Jones of PHAC’s National Microbiology Laboratory

Current high school start times deprive adolescents of sleep and force students to perform academically in the early morning, a time of day when they are at their worst, according to a study in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Results from high school senior sleep/wake diaries kept for the study also showed that adolescents lost as much as two hours of sleep per night during the school week, but weekend sleep times during the school year were similar to those in summer.

More kids at risk for injury than previously thought

Children 14 and younger should not sit in the front passenger seat of cars equipped with air bags, according to a new study by an emergency medicine researcher at Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.Current federally mandated warning labels in cars only indicate a risk of air bag injuries for children 12 and younger.

The study, “Effects of Child Age and Body Size on Serious

High-risk breast cancer patients do not appear to have a higher risk of relapse than the general breast cancer population during the first two years after diagnosis, unless their cancer has spread to more than 10 axillary lymph nodes, Italian researchers reported today at the 2nd ESMO Scientific & Educational Conference (ESEC) in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr. Marina Cazzaniga from Treviglio Hospital, Italy, and colleagues in the NORA study, have been studying 3,500 patients being treated for breast

Poor education may be linked to bad health, but simply putting more of us through university will not ensure adults are fit and well, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC.

Though highly educated men and women are generally healthier, what happens in childhood and beyond is key to our well-being later in life, says the study led by Dr. Tarani Chandola, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL).

And his report found no evid

Consumers use prior knowledge to judge purchasing decisions

Imagine a shiny new BMW sitting in your driveway. Now, imagine a shiny new Hyundai. Now, come up with one reason why you should drive that BMW. How about ten reasons? What about the Hyundai? A little bit harder isn’t it? An article in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research explores how and why consumers use prior information to decide to buy a BMW or a Hyundai.

According to the research of

A recent study determined that patients who underwent recent cardiac surgical procedures and had prolonged stay in the intensive care unit had lower survival rates and lower quality of life.

Dr. Vinayak Bapat at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London and his team looked at a study group of 89 patients who had undergone various cardiac procedures and survived the following 30 days, and a control group with similar parameters but who were discharged from the ICU within 48 hours postopera

Researchers have uncovered the link between two biochemical pathways that plants use to defend themselves against pathogens – pathways that scientists have long believed worked independently of each other.

Knowing how these pathways of immunity work may one day help researchers breed plants that can better resist a variety of pathogens, said David Mackey, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University .

How low-literate individuals adapt to the marketplace

With more than one fifth of American consumers considered functionally illiterate, the assumption that consumer research and the related marketing techniques should be focused solely on literate consumers may be inaccurate. According to a study in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, low-literate consumers who find a way to adapt to a marketplace where literacy is expected can not only challenge the status q

Why did our parents’ crayon box only yield six colors while kids today are enjoying a dizzying 120?! The answer is in the naming: today’s kids are scribbling away with “razzmatazz” and “tropical rain forest.” This move towards ambiguous naming is extremely effective according to an article in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

“The results from these studies suggest that color names can influence propensity of purchase, and that this effect is relate

A new, detailed study published by the University of Surrey (UK) confirms that a combination of fire safety regulations for furniture and smoke alarm promotion could save 850 lives throughout Europe (EU 25 States), and avoid some €3.6 billion costs of residential fires every year.

The UK is the only country in Europe to require domestic and office furniture to be fire safe and the study looks at the impacts of the 1988 legislation to introduce such mandatory minimum fire safety

Cancer patients may have an increased risk of cognitive dysfunction compared with individuals who have never had cancer, according to a new study in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Research has documented that cancer patients can exhibit cognitive deficits that persist even at 5 years after treatment. However, how long these cognitive deficits last or whether they worsen and become more apparent in older age–when the risk for cognitive dysfuncti

Behavior change and self-acceptance trump dieting hands-down when it comes to achieving long-term health improvements in obese women, according to a two-year study by nutrition researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The findings suggest that significant improvements in overall health can be made, regardless of weight loss, when women learn to recognize and follow internal hunger cues and begin feeling better about their size and shape. Results of the study will appe

More research needed to clarify cause and extent of impairment, say USC psychologists

Cancer survivors are twice as likely to develop cognitive problems as individuals who have never been treated for cancer, according to an article in the June 1 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Previous research has raised concerns about a possible link among cancer, cancer therapies and cognitive dysfunction. This study found that long-term cancer survivors were at increased risk of cogni