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Embarrassment is a common and widespread emotion (Dahl et al., 2001) and impacts social interactions. Embarrassment is defined as an “aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” defined (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion, we try to avoid this emotion (Krishna et al. 2015, 2019). However, there are certain contexts in which avoidance is not possible. This includes passing on embarrassing information to our fellow human beings. Research identified warmth and competence as key dimensions that are universally relevant when forming perceptions (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007). This study examines the impact of telling a (non-) embarrassing information to either a warm vs. robotic person has on the discloser of the embarrassing information.

The present study is interested in how the reported happiness and meaningfulness of others impact people’s own perceptions of happiness and meaningfulness. Furthermore, we are interested in a gap in peoples’ expectation of how the reported of others impacts their own happiness and their actual reported happiness. To investigate these effects, we use a between-subject design.

Since the 1980s, extensive research has been conducted on "consumer ethics" in the research field of consumer behaviour (e.g. Muncy & Vitell, 1992; Vitell, 2005). Studies have identified several factors that can influence ethical decisions, including the emotional state of the consumer. Previous research has linked positive emotions to ethical decision-making (e.g. Escadas, 2020), while negative emotions have been associated with encouraging unethical choices (e.g. Sigh, 2018). However, there has been limited research on the relationship between positive emotions and unethical judgments. This study aims to fill this research gap and investigate the influence of excitement-happiness and relaxed-happiness on judgments of unethical behaviour. Positive emotions encompass different forms such as admiration, serenity, excitement, or pride. This study focuses specifically on the forms of happiness “excitement” and “relaxation”, which represent opposite ends of the arousal spectrum in Russell's (1980) "circumplex model of affect." By focusing on these emotions, a clear differentiation of positive emotions can be achieved.

Consumers have to make a trade-offs in their consumption choices on a daily basis. Regularly, consumer have to balance the trade-off when making self-interest choices compared to greater good choices (e.g., Haidt, 2001). While it was a long-established tradition in economic research that consumers make self-interest decisions that maximizes their own interest, this school of thought is only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin reflects consumers desire for a fair marketplace. This is more evident today than in previous centuries as products focusing on social and environmental causes is on the raise. However, occasionally, consumers fall short on deciding for the greater good decision. So, consumers might decide for the self-interest choice and against the sustainable alternative. In such cases, consumers might make excuses for themselves and judge themselves with greater lenience. Contrary, when consumer see other consumers facing the same trade-off decision, and also deciding for the self-interest choice they might judge this person more harshly. This is what research called moral hypocrisy. In sum, this study is interested in understanding the role of moral hypocrisy when consumers have to make trade-off decisions between self-interest and greater good decisions (Campbell & Winterich 2018).

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). Research is highly interested in how people deal with embarrassment when buying embarrassing products. For instance, people dehumanize the service provider when buying embarrassing products and therefore prefer mechanistic (vs. social) service providers (Sun et al. 2023). In line, people seem to prefer robots instead of humans in embarrassing service situation (Holthöwer & Doorn, 2022). Extant research neglected what consumer characteristics impact this relationship. This raises the questions as to which personality traits impact this preference. This is why this research is interested in which characteristics impact this relationship.

In this study, we are interested in how consumers use, interact and perceive human-like (vs. robot-like) chatbots when they have to purchase a (non-)embarrassing product.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). Research is highly interested in how people deal with embarrassment when buying embarrassing products. For instance, people dehumanize the service provider when buying embarrassing products and therefore prefer mechanistic (vs. social) service providers (Sun et al. 2023). In line, people seem to prefer robots instead of humans when interacting with an embarrassing service situation (Holthöwer & Doorn, 2022). Extant research neglected what consumer characteristics impact this relationship. This raises the questions as to which personality traits impact this preference and when consumer provide more information. This is why this research is interested in which personality dimensions impact this relationship.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). Research is highly interested in how people deal with embarrassment when buying embarrassing products. For instance, people dehumanize the service provider when buying embarrassing products and therefore prefer mechanistic (vs. social) service providers (Sun et al. 2023). In line, people seem to prefer robots instead of humans when interacting with an embarrassing service situation (Holthöwer & Doorn, 2022). Extant research neglected what consumer characteristics impact this relationship. This raises the questions as to which personality traits impact this consumption experience. This is why this research is interested in which personality dimensions impact this relationship and the service experience.

When people experience goal-conflict they perceive to have less time. This effect can be explained by increase in stress and anxiety (Etkin et al. 2015). The present study builds on this research and investigates how experiencing goal conflicts impacts peoples’ sense of happiness and meaningfulness.

When people experience goal-conflict they perceive to have less time. This effect can be explained by increase in stress and anxiety (Etkin et al. 2015). The present study investigates how experiencing research investigates how experiencing goal conflicts impacts peoples’ sense of happiness and meaningfulness. On top, we aim at investigating how the experience of goal conflict leads to diverging perceptions of activities.

Research demonstrates that different emotions are associated with different temporal foci. Mogilner et al. (2012) found that the emotion calmness is associated with the present, while the emotion excitement is associated with the future. Based on these findings, this study investigates if the emotions (constructs) happiness and meaningfulness are associated with either the present or the future. In line, we ask how people perceive different activities to be present or future oriented and to the extent with which they induce happiness and meaningfulness.

The temporal focus, we have, impacts our definition of happiness and our subsequent choices. We associate the present more with calmness and the future more with excitement. Once we are more in the present, we define happiness as calmness and once we think more about the future, we define happiness more as excitement (Mogilner et al. 2011). The present research transfers this finding and investigates if the temporal focus shifts our focus on happiness and meaningfulness, whether it impacts our perception of happiness and meaningfulness as a future vs. present oriented emotions and if it impacts the activities we choose.

When people experience goal-conflict they perceive to have less time. This effect can be explained by increase in stress and anxiety (Etkin et al. 2015). Additionally, Mogilner (2010) shows that priming people with a money or time concept results in different behaviors. Priming people with money leads to behaviors such as working and commuting and priming people with the concept of time results more in behaviors such as socializing. While the former is more in line with inducing less happiness, socializing is more likely to elicit happiness. The present study builds on this research and investigates how experiencing goal conflicts impacts peoples’ sense of happiness and meaningfulness. On top, we aim at investigating activities people will engage in, depending on the goal conflict (control vs. money vs. time goal conflict).

When people experience goal-conflict they perceive to have less time. This effect can be explained by increase in stress and anxiety (Etkin et al. 2015). The present study uses this finding as a background to investigate how experiencing goal conflicts impacts how experiencing goal conflicts impacts peoples’ sense of happiness and meaningfulness. On top, we aim at explaining this effect by investigating the role of stress and anxiety as well as negative affect.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. This raises the question if humor also has beneficial effects for companies using it to advertise embarrassing products. Based on this, we assume that advertisements depicting embarrassing products (e.g., anti-diarrhea products) might also benefit from using humor in their advertisements. The study context is the social Media platform Instagram. The medium Instagram was chosen as a representation of a Social Media platform which has become a valuable platform and business model for companies to communicate and address consumers while allowing to interact with the audience and co-create with brand content (Di Gangi & Wasko, 2016).

Giving and receiving feedback is quite ubiquitous in our lives. We get feedback in personal relations as well as in professional contexts. Feedback refers to “information provided by an agent regarding aspects of one’s performance or understanding.” (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Research demonstrates that feedback impacts us gravely. While its effect on performance is extensively researched (e.g., Kluger et al., 1996; Ilies et al, 2005; Wisniewski et al., 2020), its impact on individuals’ emotional state is not fully understood – particularly on peoples’ happiness. Generally, feedback can either be positive or negative. Research illustrates that we deal with positive and negative feedback differently. For instance, Ilies et al. (2007) suggest varying affective reactions to positive and negative feedback as individuals tend to process feedback on a personal rather than on a rational level (Kluger and DeNisi, 1996). The present study considers the perspectives of the giver and receiver of feedback and how both perceive themselves and the other party regarding their happiness, meaningfulness and positive and negative affect. The underlying logic for this approach is that there is research indicating one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the exact same situation.

In the last decades, online dating has become one of the most popular methods for singles to find potential romantic partners (Rosenfeld, Thomas, & Hausen, 2019). Previous studies have shown that mediating technologies can create distance and reduce relational closeness. Consequently, anecdotal evidence suggests that in an online-dating context, consumers dehumanize others. Dehumanization relates to a form of moral disengagement in which people deprive others of their humanness (Haslam 2006). In an online-dating context this might materialize in behaviors such as ghosting – a phenomenon in which individuals withdraw from communication with others without announcing it. Moreover, previous research has shown that dehumanization is negatively correlated with perceived romantic attraction and relationship success of potential romantic partners (Frech, Soliman, Loschelder, in prep). Simultaneously, research reveals that humor has many benefits (Warren et al. 2018). Especially, in a dating context, humor is one of the most desired qualities in others (Butzer & Kuiper 2008) and can increase attraction (McGee & Shelvin 2009). Humor might also signal intelligence (Greengross & Miller 2011) and makes individuals more likely to trust others (Gray, Parkinson & Dunbar 2015). Hence, humor might be one way to humanize others, which extant studies have not yet investigated. In the present study, we investigate the role of humor in an online-dating context and whether it can attenuate dehumanization and increase relationship success, empathy, attractiveness, and enjoyment. As research points out that different humor types might work differently, we will look at four distinct humor types (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating; Warren et al. 2018).

Past research revealed that morality judgements of consumers behaving unethically depends on consumer characteristics. One basic consumer characteristic is whether consumers are described as wealthy (vs. not wealthy). Previous literature raises the point that consumers behaving unethically in the marketplace might be judged differently, depending on the level of wealth. Unethical consumer behavior refers to consumers violating accepted norms in a market exchange setting (Campbell & Winterich 2018). Similar research reveals that consumers requiring government assistance are judged as more unethical when buying organic products (vs. wealthy consumers who earn their money; Olson et al. 2016). Contrary, little research has systematically investigated the relationship between the level of wealth in an unethical consumer behavior setting (Campbell & Winterich 2018). In line, the reason for how consumers derive their moral judgements must be better understood. The role of dehumanization (understood as the denial of humanness; Haslam 2006) has not been sufficiently understood within market exchanges and particular in the domain of morality in market exchanges (cf. Henkel et al. 2018), even though previous research pointed out that generally wealthy consumers are dehumanized differently compared to not-wealthy consumers (Sainz et al. 2018/2019). In addressing these gaps in literature, this online experiment analyzes if the level of wealth influences how consumers are morally judged and dehumanized differently, when showing (un)ethical consumer behavior. To put it in a research question – How do morality judgements of unethical consumer behaviors differ depending on the level of wealth? Are consumers dehumanized differently based on their level of wealth when behaving unethically?

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but the way people behave in embarrassing stories impacts the well-being when sharing embarrassing stories to different people. This is why, in this experiment; we take the perspective of someone who shares an embarrassing story with a friend, or an acquaintance or keeps the embarrassing story to oneself – depending on the way the individual dealt with the embarrassment in the story. In sum, we investigate the effects of sharing embarrassing stories with (a) a friend, (b) an acquaintance, or (c) keeping the embarrassing a secret, depending on whether the storyteller used positive humor in the story vs. negative humor in the story, no humor in the story, declined to disclose story or a story in which the storyteller lied about the embarrassing information.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but also when disclosing embarrassing information. Furthermore, we know from other contexts that one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. For this reason, it is important to consider the difference between one's own perception and that of others. In this experiment; we take the perspective of a female who discloses an embarrassing information (female discloser). In sum, to investigate the beneficial effects of using humor in disclosing embarrassing information, we investigate the perception of the female discloser from different perspectives: We investigate (a) how the female discloser of an embarrassing situation is perceived from individuals’ own perspective, (b) how the female discloser of an embarrassing situation is perceived from the perspective of a male observer, and (c) how the female discloser is perceived from the perspective of a male observer.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but also when disclosing embarrassing information. Furthermore, we know from other contexts that one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. For this reason, it is important to consider the difference between one's own perception and that of others. This is why, in this experiment; we take the perspective of someone who witnesses the disclosure of an embarrassing information (witness) who in turn has to take several perspectives. In sum, to investigate the beneficial effects of using humor in disclosing embarrassing information, we investigate the perception of the witness form different perspectives: We investigate (a) how the witness perceives him/herself, (b) how the witness thinks the discloser perceives the witness and (c) how the witness perceives the discloser.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but also when disclosing embarrassing information. Furthermore, we know from other contexts that one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. For this reason, it is important to consider the difference between one's own perception and that of others. Further, research has shown that there are different humor types, positive and negative humor types. We will focus on one positive (self-enhancing) and contrast this with the use of a negative humor type (self-defeating). This is why, in this experiment; we take the perspective of someone who observes the disclosure of an embarrassing information (observer) who in turn has to give perceptions of how s/he perceives the discloser of the embarrassing information and the witness. In sum, to investigate the beneficial effects of using humor in disclosing embarrassing information, we investigate the perception of the observer form different perspectives: We investigate (a) how the observer perceives the discloser and (b) how the observer perceives the witness.

Lay people generally want to live a good/ideal life. Similarly, many researchers investigate what it means to live a good life. In that, the concepts of a happy (hedonic) and meaningful life (eudemonic) have been investigated thoroughly (see for example Baumeister et al. 2013). Recent studies of Oishi et al. shed light on a third dimension called "psychological richness" (Oishi et al. 2019, 2021; Oishi & Westgate 2021) which has not been studied extensively yet. Oishi et al. (2019) propose that a psychologically rich life is different to a happy and a meaningful life. While a happy life is based on positive experiences, pleasure and comfort, a meaningful life is about self-realization and purpose. A psychologically rich life utilizes a different approach to a good life and describes a life which is shaped by variety and curiosity. A significant amount of people seek this new dimension according to new research (Oishi et al. 2020). Even though a lot of people seem to seek this dimension of a good life in their lives, it is less understood compared to a happy and meaningful life. While previous studies focused on investigating various aspects of leading a happy, meaningful, and psychologically rich life, these studies did not investigate what people explicitly associate with these dimensions. This study is interested in the different associations people have with leading a either a happy, meaningful, and psychologically rich life compared to people who overall lead a good life and what lifestyles, meaning concrete behaviors, emotions, and cognitions people associate with each dimension.

Extant research found that consumer characteristics influence morality judgements when consumers behave unethically. Unethical consumer behavior refers to consumers violating accepted norms in an exchange setting (Campbell & Winterich 2018). Overall, one basic distinction that can be derived is the level of income consumer receive. While we know that consumers who receive government benefits are judged as more unethical when they buy organic products (vs. wealthy consumers who earn their money), little research as investigated how the source of the income influences judgements for high-income consumers. Specifically, how the type of income impacts the morality judgement of wealthy consumers, when they behave unethically in the marketplace is unknown (Olson et al. 2016; Campbell & Winterich 2018). Similarly, the role of dehumanization has not been sufficiently understood within market exchanges (cf. Campbell & Winterich 2018; Henkel et al. 2018), even though previous research pointed out that generally wealthy consumers are dehumanized differently compared to not-wealthy consumers. However, the impact of the source of the income has not been sufficiently studies. This is why, this online experiment investigates if the type of income influences how wealthy consumers are morally judged and dehumanized, when showing (un)ethical consumers behavior. Specifically, we will manipulate whether consumers are wealthy, because they worked for it, whether they inherited the same amount of wealth or won it in a lottery. The overall research question would be the following – How does the source of income influence the morality judgement of wealthy consumers behaving unethically? And are wealthy consumers dehumanized differently based on their type of income?

Climate change and global warming are issues governments worldwide are tackling. Because more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by private consumers, the German government, for instance, decided to drastically reduce per capita emissions by 2050 (Thorun et al., 2017). There is strong evidence that nudges (and their various forms) can be very effective in inducing a desired behavior such as consumers behaving more environmentally friendly (Fujii & Taniguchi, 2006; Goldstein et. al, 2008; Kallbekken & Sælen, 2013; Lehner et al., 2016). However, research thus far did not include humorous nudges aiming to induce sustainable consumption behavior despite humor being a widely used tool in for example advertising (Eisend, 2009; Eisend, 2011). Humor is beneficial for physical and psychosocial health and well-being (Lefcourt, 2001; Martin, 2001; Martin et al., 2003), it is effective for catching attention and spreading awareness about a certain topic (Kittmer, 2013 cited in McGraw et al. 2015). Research has shown that there are four different humor styles, namely affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating, which can induce different behaviors (Martin et al., 2003). Therefore, this paper will also look at those different humor styles. Against this background, this research poses the following research questions - How can humorous nudges lead to sustainable consumer behavior? More specifically, how do different humor styles in nudges induce sustainable consumer behavior? In answering these research questions, this study will conduct an online experiment. Particularly, we will look at the mediation effect of affect (PANAS scale) and moderating effect of consumer’s personality traits (FFM) and of consumer’s humor style.

Home Office is not a novel development but has not yet been used to its full potential even though around 56% of all jobs could potentially be done from home (Pestel 2020). With the start of the Corona-Pandemic in early 2020, restrictions for social distancing were quickly imposed in spring, which lead to stay-at-home orders and thereby a substantial rise in the amount of people (and students) working from home within a very short amount of time (Naumann et al. 2020). Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, around 51% of all German companies had employees who worked regularly from home, some or all of the time. Now, this number has risen in general to approximately 76% and for larger companies with more than 500 employees even to 97% (Demmelhuber et al. 2020). The positive and negative effects of home office have already been examined thoroughly in the past, (Fonner, K. L., & Roloff, M. E. 2010; Wheatley, D. 2012; Bailey, D. E., & Kurland, N. B. 2002; Cooper, C. D., & Kurland, N. B. 2002; Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. 2007) but the extreme situation of the Corona-Pandemic, where working from home is not a choice but a necessity has not been considered. The isolation not only from the workplace but also from people’s general social networks can result in a degree of perceived loneliness (due to forced home office) that is new to those who have worked (and studied) from home before – albeit on a voluntary basis. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of perceived loneliness induced by social distancing and forced home office on happiness and meaningfulness at work and in life. Various factors play a role in how people perceive the meaningfulness and satisfaction they derive from work and home, which is why personality traits, living or family situation and sources of happiness will be taken into consideration. In line, positive and negative affect will be considered.

Consumer characteristics are important in determining the morality in a market exchange setting, particularly in the marketplace morality (Olson et al. 2016; Campbell & Winterich 2018). Previous research has revealed that low-income consumers are judged as more unethical if they receive government benefits and buy organic products (vs. high-income consumers; Olson et al. 2016). Contrary and to a limited extent, previous research has only marginally looked at high-income consumers and how they are perceived (Sainz et al. 2018/2019). Particularly, subgroups of wealthy consumers have been thus far neglected (Sainz et al. 2019). Studying subgroups of wealthy consumers, this is why research suggests that it might be interesting to investigate how the type of job of high-income consumers impacts morality judgements (Olson et al. 2016). The distinction of the type of job that might be particularly interesting is whether the described consumers has a prosocial job (doctor at a children’s hospital) vs. egoistic job (banker in a private bank). This might be particularly interesting when consumer behave unethically – referring to consumers violating accepted norms in an exchange setting (Campbell & Winterich 2018). In Understanding moral judgements, the role of dehumanization might be important. Dehumanization refers to the denial of humanness; Haslam 2006). Dehumanization has not been sufficiently understood within market exchanges (cf. Campbell & Winterich 2018; Henkel et al. 2018), even though previous research pointed out that generally that wealthy consumers are dehumanized differently compared to not-wealthy consumers (Sainz et al. 2018/2019). Hence, this study undertakes an online experiment investigating if the type of job influences how wealthy consumers are morally judged and dehumanized, when showing (un)ethical consumers behavior. Specifically, we will manipulate whether consumers have either a prosocial vs. egoistic job. The overall research question would be the following – How does the source of income influence the morality judgement of wealthy consumers behaving unethically depending on the type of job? And are wealthy consumers dehumanized differently based on the type of job they have?

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but also when disclosing embarrassing information. Furthermore, we know from other contexts that one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. For this reason, it is important to consider the difference between one's own perception and that of others. This is why, in this experiment; we take the perspective of someone who discloses an embarrassing information (discloser) who in turn has to take several perspectives. In sum, to investigate the beneficial effects of using humor in disclosing embarrassing information, we investigate the perception of the discloser form different perspectives: We investigate (a) how the discloser perceives him/herself, (b) how the discloser thinks the witness perceives the discloser and (c) how the discloser perceives the witness.

The feeling of embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is seen as a negative emotion, individuals dislike experiencing embarrassing moments and try to avoid it, often resulting in grave costs. Research indicates that approx. 5.000 individuals die each year due to choking and not saying anything to their tablemates – the cause being too embarrassed to say something and instead walking away (Sah, Loewenstein, & Cain 2019; NSC). To avoid negative emotional implications of embarrassment, people are closely controlling their behavior and the disclosure of identity-relevant information especially in situations which are important for them. A strategy can be to withhold information or even lie about them. As DePaulo et al. (1996) has shown, one reason for everyday lies in social interactions is to protect oneself against embarrassment and loss of face. Although lying is generally considered negative, perceptions of lying depends on who tells the lie and why (Pontari & Schlenker, 2006). When asked how individuals would react in similar situations, they claim they would behave differently. For instance, individuals tend to overestimate how likely they would speak up in difficult and somewhat potentially embarrassing situations (e.g., speaking up when someone says something racist) compared to them speaking up in reality (Kawakami et al. 2009). However, there is not only a disconnect between how individuals think they would behave and they actually behave in embarrassing situations, but this gap is also apparent when judging how others engage in and deal with embarrassment. Research revealed the “illusion of courage” effect which refers to the finding that others are perceived to be braver in engaging in embarrassing situations compared to oneself (van Boven, Loewenstein & Dunning 2005; Bohns 2021). Hence, we know that one's own experience and evaluation of an embarrassing situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. Based on this premise, we shed light on the role gender plays in witnessing embarrassing situations. Particularly, we investigate (a) how the discloser (male vs. female) of an embarrassing information is perceived from an individuals’ own perspective, (b) how the discloser (male vs. female) of an embarrassing situation is perceived from the perspective of a female observer, and (c) how the discloser (male vs. female) is perceived from the perspective of a male observer.

The proposed study aims to shed light on the effect of sexist and non-sexist jokes and how the perception of both types of jokes affects work-related outcomes via positive or negative affect. Previous studies have found that the gender of the teller of the joke plays an important role for joke perception, such that jokes that are told by males are perceived as less disruptive and are associated with higher status compared to female joke tellers (Evans et al., 2019). By looking at both the source of jokes and the receiver of jokes, the present study investigates gender as an important boundary condition to the effect of jokes via affective perceptions. Thus, paying attention to both teller-related and receiver-related aspects, the study simultaneously inspects teller-related (collaboration, perceived competence) and receiver-related outcomes (creativity, task performance).

Lay people generally want to live a good/ideal life. Similarly, many researchers investigate what it means to live a good life. In that, the concepts of a happy (hedonic) and meaningful life (eudemonic) have been investigated thoroughly (see for example Baumeister et al., 2013). Recent studies of Oishi et al. shed light on a third dimension called "psychological richness" (Oishi et al., 2019, 2021; Oishi & Westgate, 2021) which has not been studied extensively yet. Generally, this research is interested in how lay people define what it means to live a good/ideal life and how they define a happy, meaningful, and psychologically rich life and how they perceive each one to be desirable and different. Most studies investigating “a good life”, happiness, meaningfulness and psychological richness use quantitative approaches. This study diverges from this and uses a qualitative approach, which will allow deeper insights into lay people's understanding of the expression “a good life". In line, this study is interested in how lay people's definition of the three dimensions are different from how research defines them. In sum, this study addresses personal interpretations of “a good life” and the perceived differences and similarities between leading a happy, meaningful and psychologically rich life, using a German sample.

The feeling embarrassment is quite ubiquitous in our lives. Embarrassment refers to “an aversive emotional state in which one feels chagrin following deliberation on perceived negative appraisal by others or negative appraisal by oneself for transgressions that occur either in public or in private contexts.” (Krishna et al. 2019, p. 495). As embarrassment is a negative emotion people either try to avoid embarrassing situations or minimize it. One strategy to cope with embarrassing situations is by using humor (Grace 2005; 2009). Similarly, people use humor to manage the impression they leave on others. As Bitterly and Schweitzer (2019) have shown, the use of humor as an impression management tool can have beneficial effects on the perception of warmth and competence when disclosing negative information. Based on these findings, we assume that humor not only has a positive impact on perceptions when disclosing negative information, but also when disclosing embarrassing information. Furthermore, we know from other contexts that one's own experience and evaluation of a situation can differ significantly from how we think others perceive the same situation. For this reason, it is important to consider the difference between one's own perception and that of others. In this experiment; we take the perspective of a female who discloses an embarrassing information (female discloser). In sum, to investigate the beneficial effects of using humor in disclosing embarrassing information, we investigate the perception of the female discloser from different perspectives: We investigate (a) how the female discloser of an embarrassing situation is perceived from individuals’ own perspective, (b) how the female discloser of an embarrassing situation is perceived from the perspective of a female observer, and (c) how the female discloser is perceived from the perspective of a male observer.

Consumer cope with embarrassing situations in a variety of ways. They either can employ cognitive and/or behavioral coping strategies (Krishna et al. 2019). In the past, Dong et al. (2013) revealed that consumers cope with embarrassing situations by engaging in symbolic behavior (behavior that evokes a specific concept that helps in coping with a situation). Interestingly, consumers choose sunglasses (face-hiding) and facial moisturizer (face-restoring) in dealing with embarrassing situations. Krishna et al. (2015) show that even though consumer embarrassment is often considered to be a public affair, it can also have a private dimension. What is unknown, however, is how consumers engage in symbolic coping behavior differently based on whether the embarrassing situation is experienced publicly or privately. Additionally, there is a need to understand why consumers engage in symbolic coping behavior. In addressing these gaps in literature, this study seeks to better understand the relationship between publicly and privately experienced embarrassment and how it influences consumers symbolic coping behavior. Additionally, this study seeks to better understand why consumers engage in symbolic coping behaviors. Lastly, there is literature suggesting that negative emotional states can be attenuated by washing hands for instance (e.g., Zhong & Liljenquist 2006). Hence, this study will also investigate how this symbolic behavior relates to privately vs. publicly experienced embarrassing situations differently. To enhance our knowledge on consumer embarrassment and symbolic coping behavior, an experiment is developed and implemented. We will manipulate a publicly vs. privately embarrassing situation.

In service management, research on customer upgrading strategies that intend to expand the relationship and foster co-creation of value have a long tradition. Service membership models that contain upgrade strategies could for example be found in fitness clubs, airline clubs, or membership programs of public services such as zoos. Upgrade strategies in nonprofit organizations, however, are not very common in practice, and also under researched. Against this background two research gaps are identified and addressed. First, who should be asked for an upgrade? Some members are perhaps interested in an upgrade, others are not. Knowledge on specific member characteristics that show that an individual is interested in an upgrade are missing. Second, most of the previous studies focused on marketing actions that are able to influence members intentions to upgrade and did not study real member behavior. Hence, how can nonprofit membership associations identify members with a high probability for upgrading behavior?