Speaker: An Aversion to Intervention: How the Protestant Work Ethic Influences Preferences for Natural Healthcare

Time: 10:30 a.m., June 9, 2023, GMT+8

Venue: Chengze Campus, Room 333

Abstract:

The term “natural” is ubiquitous in advertising and branding, but limited research has investigated how consumers respond and relate to naturalness. Some researchers have documented preferences for natural products, specifically food, but there has been scant investigation of the psychological antecedents of such preferences, especially in the critical, multi-trillion dollar domain of healthcare. Using both publicly available country-level data from 41 countries and individual-level experimental and survey data from the lab and online panels, we find converging evidence that consumers do indeed differ in their preferences for relatively natural versus artificial healthcare options. These differences are influenced by the extent to which they subscribe to the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE)—a belief system that influences judgments and behaviors across diverse domains—such that people who subscribe strongly (vs. weakly) to the PWE are more likely to prefer natural healthcare options, because they are more averse to external intervention in general. Theoretical and substantive implications are discussed.

Biography:

Yimin Cheng is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Marketing at Monash University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Marketing from HKUST. Yimin's primary research interests include consumer belief, emotion, and inference-making. He studies consumer behavior in a variety of contexts including healthcare decisions, food consumption, facial expressions, entertainment products, digital marketing, etc. He has published in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Business Ethics, and currently serves on the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Business Research. He is a frequent reviewer of Hong Kong UGC/RGC grants and has obtained two National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants as a co-investigator. Yimin's research has been covered by South China Morning Post, ABC, SBS, Wharton Business Daily, Guokr, Joy FM, etc. At Monash University, he has been awarded Dean's Commendation for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher in 2019 and Monash University 'Purple Letter' for Outstanding Teaching Performance four times (2019-2022). He previously held visiting positions at HKUST, Nanyang Technological University, and the Wharton School.

Source: National School of Development