Pitch
Stylistic Differentiation in Cultural Markets: The Benefits of Conspicuous Category Spanning
Abraham Oshotse
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A consistent finding in research on cultural markets is that innovation often involves recombining stylistic features across categorical boundaries. Cultural products routinely borrow features from other categories while maintaining their primary classification. However, we observe considerable variance in outcomes: Some borrowing achieves remarkable success, whereas others fail spectacularly. Existing theories of optimal differentiation and category spanning tell us that balancing familiarity and novelty matters and that improperly spanning categories can be costly, yet they provide limited guidance on how to differentiate effectively by borrowing features from alternative categories. Analyzing nearly 6,000 films and the narrative features they employ, I find that borrowing succeeds when products incorporate recognizable, familiar features from other categories. I further show that borrowing from sparsely populated categories provides greater benefits than borrowing from crowded ones, because audiences grow weary of features associated with oversaturated categories. These findings reconcile two influential but previously unconnected perspectives: the theory of optimal differentiation and the theory of category-spanning penalties. The results reveal conditions under which borrowing from other categories can enhance rather than diminish appeal and demonstrate that differentiation strategies succeed when borrowing is visible and interpretable to audiences.
We've Got You Covered: Firms' Political Stances on Abortion and Labor Market Sorting
Pawel Adrjan et al.
NBER Working Paper, March 2026
Abstract:
Amidst rising political polarization, firms engage more frequently with political issues through public statements and policies. This paper examines how firms' stances on polarizing issues impact worker sorting, leveraging announcements from hundreds of employers following the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, overturning federal abortion rights. We introduce a methodology to uncover labor market competitors for each announcing firm based on job seekers' revealed preferences. While announcing firms received more applications from job seekers, particularly in Democratic-leaning states and female-dominated jobs where abortion was outlawed, current employees began searching for jobs elsewhere as employee satisfaction declined, particularly among male-dominated jobs. Smaller companies with less-established reputations experienced the largest effects. When deciding whether to take a sociopolitical stance, firms face a complicated trade-off: attracting culturally-aligned workers at the expense of alienating current ones.
Vocal Similarity, Timbre, and Persuasion in Consumer-Spokesperson Interactions
Na Kyong (Kimberly) Hyun, Michael Lowe & Aradhna Krishna
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers are more easily persuaded by people who are similar to them in looks, behavior, and beliefs. Does similarity's effect on persuasion extend to similarity in how people sound? We explore how similarity in vocal timbre influences consumer choice. Using machine learning, we generate an objective measure of vocal similarity between an individual consumer and a spokesperson using mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) to capture vocal timbre. First, using data from 7,002 entrepreneur-investor combinations in Shark Tank, we demonstrate the effect of vocal similarity on persuasion in investment pitches. Then, in 2,091 Kickstarter campaigns, we show that a spokesperson's voice closer to a large audience's average voice results in higher persuasion, measured by fundraised amount and campaign success -- a result driven by vocal similarity. Moreover, these effects are attenuated when external signals of campaign credibility are present. Finally, in four laboratory studies, we show that vocal similarity with a spokesperson or recommender leads to greater trust in their competence and positively influences persuasion. We also show that objective and subjective voice similarity have similar results, with objective similarity mapping on to subjective similarity. We provide a deeper understanding of consumer-spokesperson interactions, including new tools for vocal analytics.
Do people forget your name? Your face might be the problem: The effect of cue memorability on recall of associations
Andrew Cook & Deanne Westerman
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, forthcoming
Abstract:
Memorability refers to an intrinsic stimulus property that predicts whether a stimulus will be remembered or forgotten across individuals (e.g., Bainbridge et al., 2013). The present study investigated whether information paired with highly memorable images during encoding would show similarly high rates of memory. Twelve experiments were conducted. In Experiments 1-12, participants saw images (faces or scenes) and heard names (first names or city names) as paired associates during an encoding phase. Recognition memory was better for high-memorability images than low-memorability images, replicating past results. In addition, first names and city names paired with high-memorability faces were more likely to be remembered on cued and free-recall tests. In contrast, city names paired with highly memorable scenes during encoding did not show an advantage in cued or free-recall tests. The results suggest that highly memorable faces confer a memory advantage to first and city names, but scenes did not show name memorability conference. These findings suggest that high-memorability faces may be leveraged to enhance retention of associated information, and further research could investigate the implications in applied contexts such as advertising, education, and political messaging.
Less is More (Natural): The Effect of Ingredient Quantity Framing on Consumer Preferences
Michelle Yoosun Kim et al.
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the ubiquity of ingredient quantity information in the marketplace, prior literature has yet to examine whether ingredient quantity shapes consumer choice. We present and test a novel framework that charts when, why, and how this pervasive ingredient quantity information influences consumers' food decisions. Across two preregistered pilot studies, seven preregistered experiments, and ten supplementary experiments in the Web Appendix -- we find that consumers are often more interested in food products framed as containing few (vs. many) ingredients, even when the same ingredient list is displayed across products. This preference stems from the perception that fewer ingredients indicate less processing, especially when the processing history of a product is not available. As a result, a product with fewer ingredients is perceived as more natural and is thus preferred. We also show, though consumers commonly pursue the goal to consume natural products, when other consumption goals (e.g., the goal to seek indulgent or unique products) rise in importance, a product framed as containing more ingredients can become more preferred. This research uncovers how ingredient quantity information biases consumers' perceptions and daily food product decisions, and it provides easily implementable guidance for marketers seeking to increase consumers' likelihood of purchasing their products.