1. Argo & Dahl (2018): Standards of beauty: the impact of mannequins in the retail contex

Question 1

main finding

Answer 1

a female mannequin is demonstrated to have negative implications for both male and female consumers low in appearance self-esteem

Question 2

main finding in particulair

Answer 2

consumers who are lower in appearance self-esteem evaluate a product displayed by a mannequin more negatively as compared with consumers higher in appearance self-esteem

Question 3

why this main finding effect?

Answer 3

as mannequins signal the normative standard of beauty and consumers with low self-esteem in regard to their appearance believe they fail to meet this standard, these consumers become threatened by the beauty standard when exposed to a mannequin and in response denigrate the product the mannequin is displaying

Question 4

appereance relatecy

Answer 4

through the finding that the effect for male and female consumers with low appearance self-esteem arises only when the mannequin is displaying an appearance-related product

Question 5

mediation effect

Answer 5

through mediation analysis demonstrating that the mannequin conveys society’s standard of beauty and that this negatively impacts product evaluations

Question 6

mitigation effect

Answer 6

through mitigation of the effect by removing the presence of threat via a self-affirmation task or decreasing the mannequin’s beauty (e.g., marking its face, removing its hair, or removing its head)

Question 7

Research question

Answer 7

how people low or high in appearance self-esteem respond to mannequins

Question 8

study 1a
study 1b
study 1c

Answer 8

Study 1a: participants lower in self-esteem evaluated the bikini less favorable
Study 1b: participants lower in self-esteem rated a party dress lower when wore by a mannequin than when it just hang on the hanger; no differences in product evaluations arose when the mannequin was not present
Study 1c: people high in self-esteem evaluated appearance-related products the same as not appearance-related product, people with low self-esteem evaluated appearance-related products lower

Question 9

Study 2

Answer 9

low self-esteem people evaluated the product much lower in the non-affirmation condition, the same goes for willingness to pay, no effect with high self-esteem people aka increasing self esteem migitated the effect

Question 10

study 3a
study 3b

Answer 10

Study 3a: if the mannequin did not have hair, people low in self-esteem evaluated the product equally to high self-esteem. The same effect for mannequins with a scar on the face
Study 3b: mannequins with a missing limb, same finding

Question 11

Learnings for managers

Answer 11

the degree to which we react to cultural norms depends also on individual factors, companies need to take this into consideration

Question 12

Important

Answer 12

the finding that our effects arise for both females and males (when a mannequin is female) provides strong evidence that consumers with low appearance self- esteem are threatened by this global standard rather than by information obtained through a direct comparison to the mannequin itself