Display video reviews late in shopping
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Oct-2026 10:16 ET (23-Oct-2026 14:16 GMT/UTC)
They may be popular, but do video reviews really lead people to buy? New research by Muhammad Jawad, clinical assistant professor of information, risk, and operations management at McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, finds that they do, but with a catch: Timing matters.
The same video review can either clinch a sale or fall flat, he finds — depending entirely on when it appears in the decision-making process.
Consumers often assume that hand-prepared foods are fresher, higher quality and safer than factory-packaged alternatives, but a new study co-authored by a University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher suggests those assumptions may overlook important food-safety considerations—and that targeted messaging can significantly change purchase intentions. The research reveals that consumers in randomized experiments strongly favored hand-sliced deli meat over prepackaged options until they learned about the higher food-safety risks associated with human handling. This “handmade food halo,” the study asserts, causes consumers to associate human involvement with positive product attributes that don’t necessarily exist.
People become much less concerned about being better off than other people when health enters the picture, according to new research.