Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal
Latest Publications

We explored how consumer attitudes toward service delivery types (self-service technology vs. face-to-face) differ in a private consumption context depending on the brand personality (underdog brand vs. top- dog brand). Using banking service (Study 1) and hotel service (Study 2) scenarios, we empirically investigated the interaction effects between service delivery types and brand personalities on consumer attitudes. The results indicate that for humanized underdog brands consumers showed a more positive attitude toward self-service technologies than toward face-to-face services. However, for the top-dog brands there were no significant moderation effects. Thus, when managers in the marketing field are planning to regulate new directions for their service policy, they need to be very cautious by considering both consumption context and brand personality. We have theoretically and practically expanded the existing literature on service delivery by focusing on private consumption services.

Although studies have investigated the influence of the emotionality of primes on the cross-modal affective priming effect, it is unclear whether this effect is due to the contribution of the arousal or the valence of primes. We explored how the valence and arousal of primes influenced the cross-modal affective priming effect. In Experiment 1 we manipulated the valence of primes (positive and negative) that were matched by arousal. In Experiments 2 and 3 we manipulated the arousal of primes under the conditions of positive and negative valence, respectively. Affective words were used as auditory primes and affective faces were used as visual targets in a priming task. The results suggest that the valence of primes modulated the cross-modal affective priming effect but that the arousal of primes did not influence the priming effect. Only when the priming stimuli were positive did the cross-modal affective priming effect occur, but negative primes did not produce a priming effect. In addition, for positive but not negative primes, the arousal of primes facilitated the processing of subsequent targets. Our findings have great significance for understanding the interaction of different modal affective information.

We built and validated a Chinese version of the Tolerance for Mental Pain Scale-10 (TMPS-10). Participants were 840 college students in Jilin, China. The TMPS-10 consists of two dimensions: managing the pain and enduring the pain. In our study Cronbach's alphas were .80 and .83, respectively, and test–retest reliability coefficients were .78 and .72, respectively, for these two dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis results demonstrate that the two dimensions accounted for 61.58% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis results show that the two-factor model fit the sample data well. As the Chinese version of the TMPS-10 meets the requirements for a psychometric tool, it can be used to evaluate Chinese college students' tolerance of psychological pain.

We examined the impact of emotional leadership on employees' mental health by establishing a cross-level theoretical model to test this relationship as a function of employees' sense of job security, selfdirected learning, and organizational identification. The research sample consisted of 304 employees of 10 high-technology companies in China. Results show that emotional leadership was positively associated with employees' mental health, and that job security mediated this relationship. Organizational identification and selfdirected learning positively moderated the relationship between job security and employees' mental health, resulting in a moderated mediation effect on the model. The conclusions of this study have implications for improving employees' mental health via interactions with emotional leaders.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts targeting both internal stakeholders (i.e., employees) and external stakeholders (i.e., environment, community, consumers) can mitigate employees' negative attitudes and behavior. However, the effects of (in)congruence between internal CSR (ICSR) and external CSR (ECSR) perceptions have not yet been examined. We used social comparison theory to investigate the joint effects of ICSR and ECSR perceptions on organizational cynicism, by conducting a polynomial regression analysis of 342 employees with data from a two-wave survey. The results show that employees experienced higher cynicism when ICSR and ECSR perceptions were incongruent, with high ECSR–low ICSR causing greater cynicism. Thus, there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between congruent CSR perceptions and organizational cynicism. Our findings have implications for research and practice.

We examined the interaction effect of supportive supervision and postgraduate students' core self-evaluations on academic creativity, as well as the mediating role of creative self-efficacy in this effect. Participants were 348 Chinese postgraduate students. The results show that supportive supervision was positively associated with students' academic creativity, and that creative self-efficacy mediated this association. Students' core self-evaluations and supportive supervision had a synergistic interactive effect on creative self-efficacy, and creative self-efficacy partially mediated the interactive effect of supportive supervision and core self-evaluations on students' academic creativity. The positive indirect effect of supportive supervision on students' academic creativity through creative self-efficacy was stronger when core self-evaluations were highly positive, compared to when they were less positive. The implications of these findings are discussed.

We conducted a community-based survey to compare the subjective well-being (SWB) and quality of life (QoL) of 470 rural-to-urban migrant and 422 local older adults living in Dongguan, China. Ordinal logistic regression was used to assess the dose-response relationships of SWB, QoL, and individual and environmental factors. Results show that migrant (vs. local) residents had greater SWB and better QoL. Positive self-rated health, lack of chronic diseases, not being depressed, taking regular exercise, living close to recreation facilities, and having good social cohesion were positive determinants for SWB and QoL of both local and migrant respondents. Our results provide useful information for Chinese policy decision making to promote the health of older adults.

Few of the many studies on trust have taken felt trust into consideration. In this study we compared the effects of trust and felt trust on employees' knowledge-sharing intention, and tested positive reciprocity belief as a moderator of these relationships. We analyzed survey data from 710 respondents employed at 26 high-tech companies located in Zhejiang and Guangdong Provinces, China, and tested the hypotheses using regression analysis. The results demonstrate that both trust and felt trust promoted the respondents' knowledge-sharing intention, and that both effects were stronger at higher (vs. lower) levels of positive reciprocity belief. To promote knowledge-sharing intention, we recommend that individuals convey their trust in others in addition to demonstrating their own trustworthiness, especially to those who endorse positive reciprocity. Further, organizations should adopt more practices to assure knowledge donors feel appreciated and relied upon.

We investigated the effects of factors determining people's continuance intentions for using over-the-top (OTT) services. We used the expectation–confirmation model (ECM) and the information systems success model as the basic theoretical framework, and included habit as an extension to the ECM. Data were collected through an online survey of 226 Korean adults aged in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, who were users of Netflix, a representative OTT service. The results show that perceived usefulness was positively related to user satisfaction, and that habit was a major antecedent in increasing continuance intentions. The quality factors from the information systems success model were positively related to user satisfaction, habit, and continuance intention. Our results provide implications for both OTT service providers and users, by exploring factors that influence continuance intention after the adoption of OTT services.

Although the relationship between workplace fun and employee performance is well-documented, research on the link between workplace fun and voice behavior is still in a nascent stage. Integrating workplace fun, leader–member exchange (LMX), and voice behavior theories, in the current research we examined LMX as a mediator of the link between workplace fun and voice behavior. We conducted a crosssectional survey with a sample of 307 subordinates and 82 supervisors employed by eight Chinese companies, and used structural equation modeling to analyze the data. Results show that workplace fun was related both directly and indirectly (via LMX) to employees' voice behavior. Our findings offer insight into the mechanistic processes through which workplace fun affects employees' voice behavior, and suggest that to promote employees' voice behavior, a fun work environment and high-quality LMX relationship should be established in organizations.