(Press-News.org) When professional athletes are found to be using performance-enhancing drugs, many people consider this an unfair advantage and say they are cheating. But when another person uses the same drug to overcome a disease or behavioral issue, society is more forgiving. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that people are more forgiving when the benefit is personal.
"Our research shows that when people see others using ability-boosting products, they are more likely to see this behavior as morally unacceptable than if they were using the products themselves," write authors Elanor F. Williams (University of California, San Diego) and Mary Steffel (University of Cincinnati).
Studying what they call an ethical double standard, the authors conducted five experiments to understand how people perceive the use and regulation of products and services designed to enhance one's ability, performance, appearance, potential, or well-being.
In one study, participants were asked to imagine either taking or not taking a medication to improve their focus and concentration while taking an exam. Also taking the exam were people either diagnosed or not diagnosed with ADHD.
When outperformed on the test by those taking the medication, participants were more likely to view taking the medication without having ADHD as embellishing one's performance abilities. Interestingly, when told to imagine that they had taken the medication, participants saw the use of the medicine by those diagnosed with ADHD as no more embellishing, yet more enabling, than their own personal use.
For companies selling performance-enhancing products and services, study results can offer insight into the importance and implications of making their brand seem more acceptable to others.
"To make ability-boosting products more palatable, we suggest brands describe the products' effects as enabling true abilities rather than embellishing beyond them. On a personal note, we encourage consumers to consider themselves, not others, when purchasing these items," the authors conclude.
INFORMATION:
Elanor F. Williams and Mary Steffel. "Double Standards in the Use of Enhancing Products by Self and Others." Journal of Consumer Research: August 2014. For more information, contact Elanor Williams (ewilliams@ucsd.edu) or visit http://ejcr.org/.
Double standard? The use of performance-enhancing products
2014-06-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Marriage and healthy hearts
2014-06-25
PITTSBURGH—The affairs of the heart may actually affect the affairs of the heart in ways previously not understood.
"Growing evidence suggests that the quality and patterns of one's social relationships may be linked with a variety of health outcomes, including heart disease," says Thomas Kamarck, professor of psychology and Biological and Health Program Chair in the University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. He is an author of a new study that correlates unhappy marital interaction with thicker carotid arteries and a higher risk of cardiovascular ...
When does rude service at luxury stores make consumers go back for more?
2014-06-25
For many people, the idea of purchasing a luxury product in a high-end boutique comes with the stigma of snobbery and rude salesclerks. But when they are rejected in real life, a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that a person's desire for brand affiliation and willingness to purchase and display the item actually increases.
"Our research highlights the fact that we are profoundly attuned to social threats and are driven to buy, wear, and use products from the very people who are disrespectful to us," write authors Morgan K. Ward (Southern Methodist ...
Home sweet messy home: How do consumers cope with disorder at home?
2014-06-25
From hanging up our coats to organizing our bookshelves and kitchen cupboards, some people keep their homes tidy and others seem to live in complete chaos. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, understanding how we organize our homes can help us cope with contradictions and disruptions occurring in our daily lives.
"Tidying a home is an activity that goes beyond moving objects from one place to another or putting them in specific places. Rather, it is a process of building a meaningful domestic environment. Through their tidying activities, people ...
USC scientists create new battery that's cheap, clean, rechargeable… and organic
2014-06-25
Scientists at USC have developed a water-based organic battery that is long lasting, built from cheap, eco-friendly components.
The new battery – which uses no metals or toxic materials – is intended for use in power plants, where it can make the energy grid more resilient and efficient by creating a large-scale means to store energy for use as needed.
"The batteries last for about 5,000 recharge cycles, giving them an estimated 15-year lifespan," said Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and corresponding author ...
Using multiple pictures in an ad? Different perspectives can confuse consumers
2014-06-25
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see the ocean from a private balcony at a luxury resort? Self-imagery is a powerful marketing tactic and many ads use pictures that help you see yourself using a product or service. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, showing photos from multiple perspectives can have a negative effect on how a person processes the information in an ad.
"The use of photos showing the advertised product or service from multiple perspectives is very common in ads. However, we show that these multiple perspective ads ...
MM-398 added to standard treatment shows survival benefit in mets pancreatic cancer
2014-06-25
Adding the novel MM-398 to standard treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who have already received gemcitabine improves survival, researchers said at the ESMO 16th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona.
"Patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer or pancreatic cancer in general have very limited options," said study author Andrea Wang-Gillam, assistant professor in the Division of Oncology at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. "These patients just simply don't do well. This was a positive trial and will provide a new treatment option ...
Curiosity travels through ancient glaciers on Mars
2014-06-25
3,500 million years ago the Martian crater Gale, through which the NASA rover Curiosity is currently traversing, was covered with glaciers, mainly over its central mound. Very cold liquid water also flowed through its rivers and lakes on the lower-lying areas, forming landscapes similar to those which can be found in Iceland or Alaska. This is reflected in an analysis of the images taken by the spacecraft orbiting the red planet.
NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover has completed a Martian year –687 Earth days– this week. The vehicle travels through an arid and reddish landscape ...
Taking the 'random' out: New approach to medical studies could boost participation
2014-06-25
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It's a classic Catch-22: Medical researchers need to figure out if a promising new treatment is truly better than a current one, by randomly assigning half of a group of patients to get each treatment.
But when they approach patients about taking part in the study, those 50-50 random odds don't sound good enough – and the study struggles to get enough volunteers. That slows down the effort to improve treatment for that condition.
Now, new research shows the promise of an approach that takes some of the "random" out of the process, while preserving ...
Women having babies later in life more likely to live longer
2014-06-25
CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 25, 2014)—Women who had their children later in life will be happy to learn that a new study suggests an association between older maternal age at birth of the last child and greater odds for surviving to an unusually old age. That's according to a nested case-control study published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
In this study which used Long Life Family Study data, 311 women who survived past the oldest fifth percentile of survival (according to birth cohort-matched life tables) were identified ...
Carnegie Mellon method automatically cuts boring parts from long videos
2014-06-25
PITTSBURGH—Smartphones, GoPro cameras and Google Glass are making it easy for anyone to shoot video anywhere. But, they do not make it any easier to watch the tedious videos that can result. Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists, however, have invented a video highlighting technique that can automatically pick out the good parts.
Called LiveLight, this method constantly evaluates action in the video, looking for visual novelty and ignoring repetitive or eventless sequences, to create a summary that enables a viewer to get the gist of what happened. What it produces ...