Parenting motivation and consumer decision-making

Yexin Jessica Li; Kelly L. Haws; Vladas Griskevicius

doi:10.1093/jcr/ucy038

Parenting motivation and consumer decision-making

Yexin Jessica Li, Kelly L. Haws, Vladas Griskevicius

Marketing (CSOM)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Parenting has been a central activity throughout human history, yet little research has examined the parental care motivation system on preferences and decision-making. Because successful parenting involves caring for both a child’s immediate and long-term needs, we consider whether parenting motivation leads people to focus more on the present or on the future. A series of five experiments reveals that parenting motivation activates gender-specific stereotypes of parental roles, leading men to be more future-focused and women to be more present-focused. These shifts in temporal focus produce gender differences in temporal preferences, as manifested in intertemporal decisions (preferences for smaller, immediate rewards vs. larger, future ones) and attitudes toward a marketplace entity with inherent temporal tradeoffs (i.e., rent-to-own businesses). Reversing gender role stereotypes also reverses these gender differences, suggesting downstream effects of parenting motivation may be due, at least in part, to stereotypes about familial division of labor.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1117-1137
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journal of Consumer Research
Volume	45
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucy038
State	Published - Feb 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Yexin Jessica Li (Jessica.Li@ku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the KU School of Business, University of Kansas, 1654 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045. Kelly L. Haws (kelly.haws@owen. vanderbilt.edu) is a professor of marketing and Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN 37203. Vladas Griskevicius is a professor of marketing and Carlson Foundation Chair at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321 Nineteenth Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55435. Please address correspondence to Yexin Jessica Li. This research was supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund. The authors are grateful to the editor, the associate editor, and the review team for their valuable feedback. Supplementary materials are included in the web appendix accompanying the online version of this article.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Gender stereotypes
Intertemporal choice
Parenting motivation

Publisher link

10.1093/jcr/ucy038

Find It

Find It at U of M Libraries

Cite this

@article{3dae88b8e0534a4283af96c261bdd538,

title = "Parenting motivation and consumer decision-making",

abstract = "Parenting has been a central activity throughout human history, yet little research has examined the parental care motivation system on preferences and decision-making. Because successful parenting involves caring for both a child{\textquoteright}s immediate and long-term needs, we consider whether parenting motivation leads people to focus more on the present or on the future. A series of five experiments reveals that parenting motivation activates gender-specific stereotypes of parental roles, leading men to be more future-focused and women to be more present-focused. These shifts in temporal focus produce gender differences in temporal preferences, as manifested in intertemporal decisions (preferences for smaller, immediate rewards vs. larger, future ones) and attitudes toward a marketplace entity with inherent temporal tradeoffs (i.e., rent-to-own businesses). Reversing gender role stereotypes also reverses these gender differences, suggesting downstream effects of parenting motivation may be due, at least in part, to stereotypes about familial division of labor.",

keywords = "Gender stereotypes, Intertemporal choice, Parenting motivation",

author = "Li, {Yexin Jessica} and Haws, {Kelly L.} and Vladas Griskevicius",

note = "Funding Information: Yexin Jessica Li (Jessica.Li@ku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the KU School of Business, University of Kansas, 1654 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045. Kelly L. Haws (kelly.haws@owen. vanderbilt.edu) is a professor of marketing and Chancellor{\textquoteright}s Faculty Fellow at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN 37203. Vladas Griskevicius is a professor of marketing and Carlson Foundation Chair at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321 Nineteenth Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55435. Please address correspondence to Yexin Jessica Li. This research was supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund. The authors are grateful to the editor, the associate editor, and the review team for their valuable feedback. Supplementary materials are included in the web appendix accompanying the online version of this article. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.",

year = "2019",

month = feb,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1093/jcr/ucy038",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "45",

pages = "1117--1137",

journal = "Journal of Consumer Research",

issn = "0093-5301",

publisher = "University of Chicago",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Parenting motivation and consumer decision-making

AU - Li, Yexin Jessica

AU - Haws, Kelly L.

AU - Griskevicius, Vladas

N1 - Funding Information: Yexin Jessica Li (Jessica.Li@ku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the KU School of Business, University of Kansas, 1654 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045. Kelly L. Haws (kelly.haws@owen. vanderbilt.edu) is a professor of marketing and Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South Nashville, TN 37203. Vladas Griskevicius is a professor of marketing and Carlson Foundation Chair at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321 Nineteenth Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55435. Please address correspondence to Yexin Jessica Li. This research was supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund. The authors are grateful to the editor, the associate editor, and the review team for their valuable feedback. Supplementary materials are included in the web appendix accompanying the online version of this article. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/2/1

Y1 - 2019/2/1

N2 - Parenting has been a central activity throughout human history, yet little research has examined the parental care motivation system on preferences and decision-making. Because successful parenting involves caring for both a child’s immediate and long-term needs, we consider whether parenting motivation leads people to focus more on the present or on the future. A series of five experiments reveals that parenting motivation activates gender-specific stereotypes of parental roles, leading men to be more future-focused and women to be more present-focused. These shifts in temporal focus produce gender differences in temporal preferences, as manifested in intertemporal decisions (preferences for smaller, immediate rewards vs. larger, future ones) and attitudes toward a marketplace entity with inherent temporal tradeoffs (i.e., rent-to-own businesses). Reversing gender role stereotypes also reverses these gender differences, suggesting downstream effects of parenting motivation may be due, at least in part, to stereotypes about familial division of labor.

AB - Parenting has been a central activity throughout human history, yet little research has examined the parental care motivation system on preferences and decision-making. Because successful parenting involves caring for both a child’s immediate and long-term needs, we consider whether parenting motivation leads people to focus more on the present or on the future. A series of five experiments reveals that parenting motivation activates gender-specific stereotypes of parental roles, leading men to be more future-focused and women to be more present-focused. These shifts in temporal focus produce gender differences in temporal preferences, as manifested in intertemporal decisions (preferences for smaller, immediate rewards vs. larger, future ones) and attitudes toward a marketplace entity with inherent temporal tradeoffs (i.e., rent-to-own businesses). Reversing gender role stereotypes also reverses these gender differences, suggesting downstream effects of parenting motivation may be due, at least in part, to stereotypes about familial division of labor.

KW - Gender stereotypes

KW - Intertemporal choice

KW - Parenting motivation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063390323&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85063390323&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/jcr/ucy038

DO - 10.1093/jcr/ucy038

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85063390323

SN - 0093-5301

VL - 45

SP - 1117

EP - 1137

JO - Journal of Consumer Research

JF - Journal of Consumer Research

IS - 5

ER -

Parenting motivation and consumer decision-making

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Publisher link

Find It

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this