1 University of Zurich, Switzerland.
2 Stanford University, CA, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2017 Jun;43(6):785-792. doi: 10.1177/0146167217697694. Epub 2017 Apr 16.
Past research finds that people behave as though the particular qualities of specific, strongly valenced individuals "rub off" on objects. People thus value a sweater worn by George Clooney but are disgusted by one worn by Hitler. We hypothesized that social traces of generic humans can also adhere to objects, increasing their value. Experiments 1 and 2 found that simply marking that consumer products (mugs, giftwrap) were made by generic strangers (e.g., "by people using machines" vs. "by machines run by people") increased their perceived value. Experiment 3 demonstrated that this effect was mediated by thoughts about attention the object received from other people, which, in turn, led people to see the object as possessing more positive social qualities (e.g., friendly), increasing valuation. The results suggest that generic humans are perceived positively, possessing warm social qualities, and these can "rub off" and adhere to everyday objects increasing their value.
过去的研究发现，人们的行为举止就好像特定的、强烈有价值的个体的特殊品质“传染”到了物体上。因此，人们会看重穿着乔治·克鲁尼（George Clooney）毛衣的人，但会对穿着希特勒（Hitler）毛衣的人感到厌恶。我们假设，普通人类的社会痕迹也可以附着在物体上，从而增加它们的价值。实验 1 和 2 发现，仅仅在印有消费者产品（杯子、礼品包装）的标签上注明这些产品是由普通陌生人（例如，“由使用机器的人制造”与“由人操作的机器制造”）制造的，就会增加人们对这些产品的感知价值。实验 3 表明，这种效果是通过人们对物体从他人那里获得的关注的想法来介导的，而这种关注又使人们认为物体具有更多积极的社会品质（例如，友好），从而增加了对物体的估值。研究结果表明，普通人类被认为是积极的，具有温暖的社会品质，这些品质可以“传染”并附着在日常用品上，从而增加它们的价值。
