Brands and the self: self-identity, brand associations, implicit cognition, psychological distance.

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1 Scott Connors 1 Ph.D. Candidate - Marketing Washington State University, Carson College of Business Pullman, WA Phone: scott.connors@wsu.edu EDUCATION Ph.D. Candidate Marketing Washington State University (expected completion: May 2018) Master of Science Marketing University of Guelph Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing Management, University of Guelph RESEARCH PROFILE Brands and the self: self-identity, brand associations, implicit cognition, psychological distance. Dark side of consumer-brand interaction: skepticism, brand transgressions, sub-optimal consumption behavior. My program of research falls into two distinct, yet related streams. The first examines how consumers brand associations are influenced by their self-concept and the multitude of identities that comprise it. The second explores the dark side of consumers interaction with brands, focusing on issues of skepticism, retaliation, and sub-optimal decision making in the face of brand transgressions and harmfulness. REFEREED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS Connors, S., Anderson-MacDonald, S., Thomson, M. (IN PRESS). Overcoming the Window Dressing Effect: Mitigating the Negative Effects of Inherent Skepticism towards Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. As more and more instances of corporate hypocrisy become public, consumers have developed an inherent general skepticism towards firms corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims. As CSR skepticism bears heavily on consumers attitudes and behavior, this paper draws from Construal Level Theory to identify how it can be pre-emptively abated. We posit that this general skepticism towards CSR leads people to adopt a low-level construal mindset when processing CSR information. Across four studies we show that matching this low-level mindset with concrete CSR messaging works to effectively mitigate the negative effects of inherent CSR skepticism. The resulting construal-mindset congruency strengthens the favorability of consumer responses through increased positive elaboration and perceptions of CSR message credibility. Furthermore, this congruency effect is shown to persist over time and further enhance evaluations as consumers become more skeptical. Connors, S., Khamitov, M., Moroz, S., & Campbell, L. (2016). Time, Money, and Happiness: Does Putting a Price on Time Affect Our Ability to Smell the Roses? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. DeVoe and House (2012; Experiment 3) demonstrated that the process of thinking about one s income in relation to time (i.e., as an hourly wage) affected the enjoyment that participants derived from pleasurable experiences. Participants compelled to think of time is money experienced more impatience and less enjoyment in reaction to listening to a pleasurable piece of music compared to participants not asked to think of time as money. These effects were attenuated when participants were financially compensated for this leisure time. This suggests that putting a price on time can influence enjoyment of leisure activities, depending on the degree to which individuals are compensated for engaging in these activities. To determine the reliability and magnitude of the reported effects, two preregistered high-powered close replications were conducted. These independent replication attempts, as well as the analyses on the combined sample, failed to replicate

2 Scott Connors 2 the original pattern of findings. The results of the current studies suggest that using these operationalizations of study variables the interactive effects of compensation and calculation cannot be considered robust and may not reliably predict happiness or impatience. RESEARCH UNDER REVIEW Connors, S., Khamitov, M., Thomson, M., & Perkins, A. Fostering and Leveraging Consumer Brand Relationships: A Construal Level Perspective. Third Round Review, Journal of Consumer Research. Across five studies, we demonstrate how consumer-brand relationship types can be differentially leveraged by marketers to attain favorable brand outcomes. More specifically, we show that brand relationship types are characterized by varying levels of psychological distance which can result in beneficial mindset congruency effects when matched with an appropriate construal-mindset, or concreteness of advertising messages. Study 1 provides evidence that psychologically close (distant) brand relationships result in the adoption of a low (high)-level construal mindset. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that brand relationships that are close to (distant from) the self yield improved evaluations and purchase intentions when brand information is processed at a low (high) construal level, or when an advertising message uses concrete (abstract) language. Study 4 identifies processing fluency as a cognitive mechanism underlying the effect. Finally, Study 5 shows that these subtle congruency effects are strong enough to influence consumers actual spending behaviors. We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for branding theorists and marketing practitioners. Rotman, J., Khamitov, M., & Connors, S. Lie Cheat and Steal: How Harmful Brands Cause Consumers to Act Unethically. Under Second Round Review, Journal of Consumer Psychology (Order of authorship determined by random draw). The current research explores the mechanism of moral justification, in which unethical and immoral consumer intentions and behavior are re-categorized by consumers to be viewed as a form of morally deserving punishment directed towards harmful brands. Unlike extant research which stresses the absence of moral considerations this paper proposes that consumers are acting on a moral imperative in which specific brands are perceived to be deserving of negative treatment. Through 6 studies we show that harmful brands are seen as deserving lower moral worth leading consumers to seek retribution toward these brands. We find that this retribution takes the form of unethical behavior, such as lying, theft, or cheating. Furthermore, while consumers experience reduced positive affect after acting unethically towards a non-harmful brand, no such reduction occurs when acting unethically towards a harmful brand. Consumers feel no worse off punishing a harmful brand. Lastly, we demonstrate that the mere presence of a harmful product category can taint a brand s reputation, coloring it as more worthy of punishment. PUBLISHED CHAPTERS Connors, S. & Dewhirst, T. (2013). Art Series Hotels: Steal Banksy. In: M. Miskelly (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies (pp ). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage. Connors, S. & Dewhirst, T. (2013). Durex: Vinyl. In: M. Miskelly (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies (pp ). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage. Connors, S. & Dewhirst, T. (2013). Volkswagen: The Bark Side. In: M. Miskelly (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies (pp ). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage.

3 Scott Connors 3 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Connors, Scott, Katie Spangenberg, Andrew Perkins, and Mark Forehand (2016). How Healthbased Body Image Stereotypes in Advertising Perpetuate Unhealthy Consumption Decisions Among at Risk Populations, Society for Consumer Psychology conference, San Francisco, CA. Connors, Scott, Mansur Khamitov, Matthew Thomson, and Andrew Perkins (2016). Consumer- Brand Relationships and Closeness to the Self: A Psychological Distance Perspective, Association for Consumer Research conference, Berlin, Germany. Rotman, Jeff, D., Mansur Khamitov, and Scott Connors (2016). Seeking Justice: How Harmful Brands Cause Consumers to Punish, Cheat, and Steal, Association for Consumer Research conference, Berlin, Germany. Connors, Scott, Katie Spangenberg, Andrew Perkins, and Mark Forehand (2016). How Healthbased Body Image Stereotypes in Advertising Perpetuate Unhealthy Consumption Decisions Among at Risk Populations, Association for Consumer Research conference, Berlin, Germany. Connors, Scott. (2014). Consumed by Identity: The Role of Psychosocial Development in Consumption Constellations, Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA. Connors, Scott. (2013). The Role of Ego Identity Status in the Accessibility of Consumption Constellations: An Examination of the Psychosocial Development of Emerging Adults, Society for Consumer Psychology. San Antonio, TX. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Connors, S., Spangenberg, K., Forehand, M., & Perkins, A. How Health-based Body Image Stereotypes in Advertising Perpetuate Unhealthy Consumption Decisions Among at Risk Populations. Target: Journal of Consumer Research (3 experiments completed) Connors, S., Spangenberg, K., & Perkins, A. The Role of Psychological Distance in the Encoding and Retrieval of Identity-Relevant Brand Associations Target: Journal of Consumer Psychology (4 experiments completed) The Unified Theory of Implicit Social Consumption Target: Journal of Consumer Research Connors, S., & Dommer, S. Self-Brand Multiplicity. Target: Journal of Consumer Research Connors, S., Spangenberg, K., & Greenwald, A.G., Downstream Effects of Implicit Identity Target: Journal of Consumer Research (1 experiment completed) Understanding the Mere Groups Effect and its Influence on Consumer Preference Formation Target: Journal of Consumer Research (1 experiment completed). The Hipster Effect: Implicit/Explicit Identity Dissociation Target: Journal of Consumer Research (1 experiment completed) Connors, S. & Perkins, A. Single-Target BID Validation Target: Psychological Methods (2 experiments collected)

4 Scott Connors 4 INVITED TALKS Consumer-Brand Relationships and Closeness to the Self: A Psychological Distance Perspective. Oregon Marketing Research Symposium (April 2017). University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. Implicit Social Cognition. Doctoral Seminar on Consumer Behavior (April 2016). Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, PA. Discussant. Robert Mittelstaedt Doctoral Symposium (March 2016). University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS Connors, S. (2013). Consumed by Identity: The Role of Psychosocial Development in the Consumption Constellations of Emerging Adults. Unpublished Master s Thesis. f?sequence=5 TEACHING of Business, Washington State University, Spring (4.64/5) of Business, Washington State University, Spring (4.71/5) of Business, Washington State University, Spring (3.13/4) TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP MOS*3321/MOS*3322 Consumer Behavior / Integrated Marketing Communications, University of Western Ontario, Fall MGMT*4050 Applied Community Projects I, Cooperators Center for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE), College of Management and Economics, University of Guelph, Fall MGMT*4060 Applied Community Projects II, Cooperators Center for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE), College of Management and Economics, University of Guelph, Winter MGMT*4020 Food Product Development I, Cooperators Center for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE), College of Management and Economics, University of Guelph, Fall MGMT*4030 Food Product Development II, Cooperators Center for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE), College of Management and Economics, University of Guelph, Winter, MEDIA Implicit Social Consumption. Marketing Matters, Wharton Business Radio (April 27, 2016) SERVICE Lab Manager ( ) Center for Behavioral Business Research (CBBR), Carson College of Business, Washington State University Competitive Paper Reviewer Association for Consumer Research Competitive Paper Reviewer Society for Consumer Psychology PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS American Marketing Association Association for Consumer Research Society for Consumer Psychology Association for Psychological Science

5 Scott Connors 5 AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS Outstanding Graduate Researcher, Carson College of Business Washington State University (2016) Brock Scholarship, Ivey School of Business, Governor General s Gold Medal (nominated), University of Guelph, 2013 Distinguished Scholar Medal, CBE, University of Guelph, 2013 Outstanding M.Sc. Student, MCS, University of Guelph, 2013 Ontario Graduate Fellowship. University of Guelph, 2012 MCS Graduate Scholarship. University of Guelph, 2011, 2012, 2013 Jean Doherty Memorial Scholarship. University of Guelph, 2011 Dean s List (Undergraduate). University of Guelph,