Research Profile
Scott Connors is an Assistant Professor of Consumer Behaviour at Western University. His research delves into consumer behavior to examine both the light and dark sides of consumers’ interaction with brands to develop strategies that either enhance or protect the brand accordingly.
On the light side of consumer-brand interaction, Scott dives into a fine-grained examination of the varying associations that can form between a brand and the multitude of identities that comprise the consumer’s self concept. This stream focuses on understanding the role of products and brands in consumers’ associative conceptualization of the self. Drawing upon theories such as balanced identity, self-identity, and psychological distance his work empirically tests the network of associations that unite one’s self-concept, attitudes, and relevant social groups with the products and brands that are associated with these concepts. In recent projects in this area Scott examines how dimensions of psychological distance shape the encoding and retrieval of self relevant products and brands, and how this knowledge can be used to foster and leverage consumer brand relationships.
On the dark side, Scott's research focuses on issues of skepticism, retaliation, and sub-optimal decision making in the face of brand transgressions.
In recent projects in this area Scott examines how psychological distance can mitigate consumers’ inherent skepticism towards brands’ CSR claims, and how consumers will engage in unethical actions to punish brands that they perceive as harmful.
Scott’s research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, is being revised for invited resubmissions at the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Advertising and has been presented at the conferences of the Association of Consumer Research, Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science.
On the light side of consumer-brand interaction, Scott dives into a fine-grained examination of the varying associations that can form between a brand and the multitude of identities that comprise the consumer’s self concept. This stream focuses on understanding the role of products and brands in consumers’ associative conceptualization of the self. Drawing upon theories such as balanced identity, self-identity, and psychological distance his work empirically tests the network of associations that unite one’s self-concept, attitudes, and relevant social groups with the products and brands that are associated with these concepts. In recent projects in this area Scott examines how dimensions of psychological distance shape the encoding and retrieval of self relevant products and brands, and how this knowledge can be used to foster and leverage consumer brand relationships.
On the dark side, Scott's research focuses on issues of skepticism, retaliation, and sub-optimal decision making in the face of brand transgressions.
In recent projects in this area Scott examines how psychological distance can mitigate consumers’ inherent skepticism towards brands’ CSR claims, and how consumers will engage in unethical actions to punish brands that they perceive as harmful.
Scott’s research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, is being revised for invited resubmissions at the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Advertising and has been presented at the conferences of the Association of Consumer Research, Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science.