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While parents might not want to, researchers really should ask questions about risky behaviors
Author(s) -
Moore Sarah G.,
Fitzsimons Gavan J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2008.01.005
Subject(s) - ask price , psychology , focus (optics) , social psychology , regulatory focus theory , empirical research , process (computing) , epistemology , economics , computer science , philosophy , physics , economy , creativity , optics , operating system
In this reply, we focus on two major issues raised by our commentators. First, we deal with some empirical issues about whether asking questions really increases risky behavior. We argue that the results reviewed in our target article are valid, and are not due to lab‐specific effects, or to question‐wording or question‐answering issues. Second, we tackle some issues related to the process by which questions might increase risky behavior. We focus on two mechanisms that seem promising for explaining the influence of questions on risky behavior: attitude activation and social norms. We also consider the impact of various moderators on the risky question‐behavior effect, building on suggestions made in the commentaries. Finally, we make some suggestions about techniques that we—as parents, practitioners, and researchers—might use to reduce the impact of asking questions about risky behavior.