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Cristel Russell Publishes Research on Young Consumers' Ambivalence and its Effects on Risky Behavior Choices


Adolescent behaviors can be triggered by current trends they may see online, through television, or even from their friends. Recently Pepperdine Graziadio Business School faculty member Cristel Russell and Boise State faculty member Anne Hamby published an article studying adolescents and young adults’ ambivalence, and its impact on the consumption of risky products. To study ambivalence, their research focused on products that have immediate positive consequences but can be ultimately detrimental to adolescent health, such as consumption of energy drinks, electronic cigarettes, and cognitive enhancers. Russell found that ambivalence enhances consumers' tendencies to approach those products but also that the effect of ambivalence on risky behavior can itself change depending on youth’s perceptions of what others do. Given the prevalence of norms information on social media, perceptions can easily be wrong so a useful intervention to reduce risky behaviors is to correct the perceptions of norms amongst adolescents and young adults.

The full article is available in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS).