THE FEELING OF EMBARRASSMENT AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE SECOND-HAND MARKET

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THE FEELING OF EMBARRASSMENT AND ITS

EFFECTS IN THE SECOND-HAND MARKET

By Robert Herrema

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The feeling of embarrassment and its effects in the second-hand market

Master Thesis, MSc Marketing

University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

June 2020

Robert Herrema

S3539709

Hoeksterpad 16a205

8911JW, Leeuwarden

r.s.herrema@student.rug.nl

+31 611751647

First supervisor:

Second supervisor:

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Abstract

Previous research has shown that the second-hand market has potential to have a positive impact on environmental quality, but is held back by stigmas causing consumers to feel embarrassed about second-hand purchases. The present study proposes that the feeling of embarrassment is dependent on the visibility of the second-hand nature of a product, is moderated by other people present at the moment of purchase and that the purchase intention of second-hand products is ultimately affected by this feeling of embarrassment. Through a digital survey, the performed experiment has shown that products that are visibly of second-hand nature do lead to more embarrassment and that more embarrassment leads to a lower purchase intention of second-hand products. However, the presence of other people was not found to have a significant effect on the amount of embarrassment felt. The results of the present paper have led to the proposition that this feeling of embarrassment comes from a fear of feeling like having a lower socio-economic status than they wish to have, which explains the current stigma around second-hand products. The present study resulted in new insights on the second-hand market, the feeling of embarrassment and its repercussions on the consumer. This new knowledge is useful for businesses active in the second-hand market, as reducing the feeling of embarrassment for second-hand products could lead to multiple benefits, both sustainable and financial.

Keywords: second-hand market, recognizability, embarrassment, social presence, purchase

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Introduction

Environmental problems are mainly caused by human behaviour (Nordlund and Garvil, 2002; Abrahamse et al., 2007), and can thus be solved by changing the relevant conduct – such as our habits and behaviours – so as to promote environmental quality. Some people are particularly sensitive to the environment, usually choosing behaviours that contribute to a clean planet. Consumers with these environmentally friendly values make a difference in modern society by adopting sustainable behaviours in their everyday life (Steg et al. 2014). Sustainable products are products that contribute – through their attributes and consequences – to an increase in environmental quality (Reheul et al., 2001).

One way of acting pro-environmentally is through reusing products. Reuse is defined in accordance with Morley et al. (2006) as the use of the original product function. Reuse extends the product life by second-hand use and, if necessary, prior repair. Therefore, fewer products, which serve for the same purpose, have to be produced. Hence, promotion of reuse is often considered a suitable measure to achieve two goal-oriented strategies of waste management: the reduction of waste generation and resource conservation (Truttmann and Rechberger, 2006). With respect to the reuse of products, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2002) stated that “Reusing items or making them with less material decreases waste dramatically. Ultimately, less materials will need to be recycled or sent to landfills or waste combustion facilities.”.

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6 Though the reuse of products has clear positive outcomes for the environment, there are still clear reasons that certain consumers avoid the market. Fisher et al. (2008) showed consumers in the UK to be unenthusiastic about buying second-hand products. The barriers to purchase included the stigma attached to used products, the unknown origins of the products, and the time needed to shop in second-hand stores. Winakor (1969) stated that “The purchase of used clothing in substantial amounts is probably limited largely to the poor.”. More recent research also show an aversion to second-hand products because of real or perceived markings, stains or odours, even going as far as mentioning feelings of disgust (Rozin et al., 2000; Roux and Korchia, 2006).

One of the reasons to avoid the second-hand market can be explained by the want to avoid the feeling of embarrassment. Embarrassment involves a threat to an individual’s presented self, resulting from unwanted evaluations from real or imagined audiences (Edelmann, 1987; Miller and Leary, 1992). This feeling can be felt across a variety of situations, including a wide range of contexts involving consumer behaviour (Goffman, 1956; 1963). Relevant examples of this are the purchase of products that are usually bought by consumers with a lower socio-economic status and that other consumes also perceive second-hand product to be for people in these lower classes (Winakor, 1969). A study by Fisher et al. (2008) has shown that negative opinions about second-hand clothing only appear when the garments are known to be of a second-hand nature (also described as ‘not new’). While embarrassment is not mentioned directly, it is seen as one of the more important human emotions and therefore quite relevant for further research.

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7 products, the present paper suggests that the intention of purchasing second-hand clothing is also affected by social influences, such as the feeling of embarrassment. While the effects of embarrassment have not specifically been studied in the domain of second-hand products, it is relevant to research if embarrassment is actively holding back the purchase of second-hand products, as the purchase of these products could lead to a decrease in waste generation and resource conservation, ultimately promoting environmental quality. This has led to the research question of the present study: Does a hand product that is recognizable as being

hand lead to more embarrassment than a product that is not recognizable as being second-hand and how does this affect the purchase intention of second-second-hand products? In the following

section a theoretical framework is proposed, followed by a series of hypotheses. These hypotheses will be answered by a field study in the form of an experiment and conclude with a discussion of the results and the implications of these results.

Literature Review

Embarrassment is a common phenomenon, which Goffman argued to be the most central emotion in social life (Goffman, 1956; Schudson 1984). Not only because it is an unpleasant sensation, but also because it is associated with the violation of social expectations, it operates as an important mechanism of social control in face-to-face interactions (Modigliani, 1968). Embarrassment involves a threat to an individual’s presented self, resulting from unwanted evaluations from real or imagined audiences (Edelmann, 1987; Miller and Leary, 1992) and it is considered to play a powerful role in regulating social behaviour (Modigliani, 1971).

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8 group, leading to a conflict in identity. One of these conflicts of identities is shown when purchasing products of the second-hand market. A study by Fortuna and Diyamandoglu (2017) has shown that an association was observed between income level and having acquired second-hand clothing and furniture in the past, where the higher the income level, the less likely a person is to have acquired a product of the second-hand market. The same pattern was shown for educational level, where a higher educational level led to a lower acquisition of second-hand products. Looking at the findings of the studies done by Goffman (1959) and Fortuna and Diyamandoglu (2017), it is expected that embarrassment will take place when consumers purchase second-hand products.

One of the variables to take into account with embarrassment is the visibility of the embarrassing nature of the product. This embarrassing nature must be visible to be able to be evaluated by others, and while some papers have shown that this variable is of importance when studying the feeling of embarrassment when purchasing a product (Modigliani, 1971; Dahl et al., 2001), it has not been extensively focused on, especially in the domain of second-hand products. A combination of studies by Goffman (1959), Fortuna and Diyamandoglu (2017) and the fact that the visibility of the embarrassing nature of the product is expected to be of importance when purchasing has led to the following hypothesis:

H1: Visibility of the second-hand nature of a product will lead to a higher amount of

embarrassment felt for this product.

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9 grounded in social impact theory (SIT) which proposes that “impact of a social presence’s social forces increases as a power function such that the greatest influence will arise when the social presence is large (vs small), is in close (vs far) proximity, or is high (vs low) in source strength” (Argo et al., 2005). According to Iacobucci et al. (2003), particular types of products act as the source of embarrassment and this embarrassment occurs under a real or imagined social presence (Dahl et al., 2001). Though not every domain seems to show this effect, as shown by a study by Costa et al. (2001), where embarrassment was measured to be higher when other people were present when nude pictures were shown, but not when erotic pictures were shown, while both pictures induced the same amount of embarrassment when the participants were alone. This shows that social presence does not have the same effect in every domain and that there is still a lot to understand about the effects that social presence has on embarrassment.

While the aforementioned studies on social presence show a significant impact of this variable on the amount of embarrassment a consumer is feeling, it has only been quite general and only studied in a handful of domains. To add to this body of knowledge on the effects of social presence, the following hypothesis has been created to test its effects on a not yet studied domain: products in the second-hand market.

H2: Embarrassment felt for a product with visible second-hand nature will only occur

with social presence.

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10 to actual negative consequences on the amount of sales, as the intention to purchase items from these brands dropped. However, quantitative research comprehending the impact of consumption embarrassment on consumers’ purchase intentions is still wanting (Sarkar and Sarkar, 2016).

Customer’s intention to purchase a product is a frequently used effectiveness measure which aims at anticipating customer’s actual future buying behaviour (Li et al., 2002). Purchase intention is defined by Spears and Singh (2004) as an individual’s conscious plan to make an effort to purchase a brand or product. Prior research shows that consumers who score high on purchase intention tend to demonstrate higher actual purchase behaviour (Whitlark et al., 1993), which shows its effectiveness as a measuring variable of actual consequences. Brown et al. (2003) established the importance of product type in influencing consumers’ purchase intention. Another influence of purchase intention is the embarrassing nature of a product, as studied by Iacobucci et al. (2003), which has shown that purchase intention is lower for products with an embarrassing nature.

The following hypothesis seeks to fill in a part of the void that is embarrassment in a consumption setting. While some domains have been highlighted in previous research, the domain of second-hand clothing is yet to be included. The results are not expected to be different from other domains, but research on the effects of embarrassment on the purchase intention of consumers in this scarcely studied domain will help bring more understanding when it is possible to be compared to other domains. Therefore, the third and final hypothesis:

H3: A higher (lower) amount of embarrassment for second-hand products will lead to

a lower (higher) purchase intention for this product.

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Method

For the present study, the respondents were asked to put themselves in a fictional retail situation in a clothing store that includes a section where second-hand clothes were sold. Half of the respondents were told that the products had no visible indication that the product was of second-hand nature, while the other half were told that the products did have a visible indication of being second-hand. As the respondents were about to purchase a second-hand t-shirt in either of these conditions, they were either placed in the situation of social presence, where others would know that the respondent had just purchased a second-hand product, or in the situation where others did not know about the purchase of the second-hand product.

The present study used a 2 (visible second-hand nature vs. invisible second-hand nature) x 2 (social presence vs. no social presence) between subjects study design. Respondents amount of embarrassment and purchase intention of a second-hand product were measured. The study was done via an online survey, executed with the program Qualtrics, between April 22 and May

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12 10, 2020. Respondents were able to view the survey in both English and Dutch to make the survey accessible for a larger amount of people. The full survey used during the study can be found in Appendix A. In total, 252 respondents participated in the study. All respondents were randomly assigned to a condition to make sure to eliminate possible sources of bias and to generalize the results of this study to a larger population (Wilson et al., 2010).

Procedure

Respondents were able to fill in the survey independently, in their own time and at any location as long as they had access to an internet connection. There was no exclusion in any of the demographic variables. Unanswered demographic questions would not lead to exclusion of those respondents as the rest of the analysis could still continue, but if any questions directly relevant for the experiment were left without a response, the entire response would be excluded from analysis. All respondents that failed the manipulation check of either the independent variable manipulation or the moderating variable manipulation were excluded, because they would falsely influence the results (Perdue & Summers, 1986). After collecting the data, outliers were excluded based on too high of a Mahalanobis distance score.

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13 product. Both texts of the manipulation of the independent variable are shown in Figure 2 and 3 below.

The moderating variable ‘Social presence’ was manipulated by asking the ‘social presence’-group of respondents to imagine that they have been asked by the teller to have their picture taken with their purchase, should they decide to buy it. The respondent, the shirt and the tag on the shirt will be fully visible. The picture will be uploaded to the social media pages of the store as a means to promote the store, with the caption: “Another customer with one of our great products. Enjoy the shirt!”. To emphasize that other people will be aware of the purchase, the teller at the clothing store told the respondent that this type of social media posts have been getting a lot of views lately. The ‘no social presence’-group was only told they had stopped to think about their purchase, where no social presence was mentioned anywhere in the text. As studied by Edelmann (1987) and Miller (1996), social presence can be either real or imagined,

Figure 2: ‘Visible second-hand nature’-condition

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14 Figure 4: ‘Social presence’-condition

Figure 5: ‘No social presence’-condition

which this manipulation is able to fulfil. Both texts of the manipulation of the moderating variable are shown in Figure 4 and 5 below.

The manipulations of both variables led to the distribution of respondents in the following groups:

Table 1: Experiment division

Both manipulations were checked by asking the respondent to answer a question where they had to recall a specific detail about each manipulation they were given. For the first manipulation check, the respondent was asked what the section of second-hand clothing was called in the story, with ‘Second-hand section’, ‘Used section’ and ‘Previously Worn section’

IV-Manipulation Moderator-Manipulation

Group 1 Visible second-hand nature Social presence

Group 2 Visible second-hand nature No social presence

Group 3 Invisible second-hand nature Social presence

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15 as possible answers, with ‘Previously Worn section’ being the correct answer. The second manipulation check asked the respondent what they were doing at the end of the second story, with a choice between ‘Leaving the store after purchasing the t-shirt’, ‘Holding the t-shirt, contemplating if you want to buy it’ and ‘Putting the t-shirt back and leaving the store’, with ‘Holding the t-shirt, contemplating if you want to buy it’ as the correct answer. If the respondents answered at least one of these manipulation checks falsely, their entire response would be excluded from the analysis, as this is a sign that the respondent has not read the text carefully enough to make sure that the manipulations would actually affect their answers and the results could be analysed.

Measurements

The mediating variable ‘Amount of embarrassment’ was measured by using the embarrassment scale. This scale asked the subjects to indicate the level of embarrassment they experienced on a three-item, seven-point embarrassment scale drawn from previous research (Modigliani, 1968; Parrott and Smith, 1991). The scale was introduced as: 'Please answer in the scale below, with the middle choice being neutral: The position I was in, in this story, made me

feel...: not embarrassed at all/very embarrassed, not uncomfortable at all/very uncomfortable, and not awkward at all/very awkward. A correlation analysis showed that all variable

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16 Appendices B and C, respectively. The measurements for this variable are done after both manipulation texts have been read.

The dependent variable ‘Purchase intentions of second-hand products’ was measured by using the Juster Scale, originally crafted by Juster (1966) and later to be tested by Day et al. (1991) as one of the most reliable ways to measure purchase intentions. This scale measures the intent to purchase of second hand products by having the respondents fill in their intent to purchase on a 11-point scale ranging from ‘Certain, practically certain – 99%’ to ‘No chance – 1%’. The results from this scale have been reverse coded to ensure that low scores in de dataset coincide with the low scores of the scale.

Results

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17 Table 2: Descriptive statistics

Main Analysis

To ensure that a linear regression analysis was appropriate, assumptions of homoscedasticity, normality and linearity were respectively considered and examined. To test the assumption of homoscedasticity, the scatterplot graphs of the standardized values against the standardized residuals obtained were inspected. The plots used to test the assumptions of homoscedasticity, normality and linearity can be found in Appendix D. Within reason, there was no violation of assumptions of linear regressions. Therefore, it was appropriate to investigate model fit and test the hypotheses in further analyses. The only respondents excluded from the analysis were respondents that either did not finish the survey, did not read the manipulation variables carefully enough and a single outlier, meaning that a robustness check would not grant any more insights.

The hypotheses of the present study were all tested using the Model 7 PROCESS macro (bias-corrected, 5000 bootstrap samples) by Hayes (2018). Where necessary, tests outside of the PROCESS macro were executed to visualize the results, which will be mentioned when applicable.

In order to test the first hypothesis, the effect of the visibility of the second-hand nature of clothing on the amount of embarrassment felt by the participants was measured. The test was used to measure if there is a difference in the sum variable of the embarrassment level between the group that purchased a shirt with visible second-hand nature and the group that purchased a shirt without visible second-hand nature and if so, which group has experienced more

Gender N (%) Age N (%) Language N (%)

Male 89 (41.4%) < 25 years 66 (30.7%) Dutch 211 (98.1%)

Female 125 (58.1%) 26-35 years 56 (26%) English 4 (1.9%)

Other 1 (.5%) 36-45 years 34 (15.8%)

46-55 years 30 (14%)

> 56 years 24 (11.2%)

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18 embarrassment. This main effect was shown to be significant t(213) = 4.14, p < .001, meaning that there was a significant difference between the participants in the ‘visible second-hand nature’-condition and the participants in the ‘no visible second-hand nature’-condition. Post hoc comparisons (using an independent samples t-test) indicated that the mean score for the ‘visible second-hand nature’-condition (M = 3.97, SD = 1.90) was significantly higher than the ‘no visible second-hand nature’-condition (M = 2.95, SD = 1.68), meaning that respondents felt more embarrassed purchasing the t-shirt that was of a visible second-hand nature than purchasing the t-shirt that was not of a visible second-hand nature, supporting the first hypothesis. The difference between both groups is represented in Figure 6.

The second hypothesis tested whether social presence is necessary for a customer to feel embarrassed about their purchase of a second-hand t-shirt. There was a significant main effect of the moderator of social presence on the mediator of the amount of embarrassment b = 2.00,

t(211) = 9.81, p < .001, meaning participants felt more embarrassed when they knew their photo

would appear on the store’s social media page. However, the interaction effect of social presence on the visibility of second-hand nature was shown to be insignificant b = -0.66, t(211) = -1.61, p = .109, meaning that social presence does not have significant consequences on the effect that the visibility of second-hand nature has on the amount of embarrassment a person felt. As this effect is approaching significance, post hoc comparisons using a Two-way ANOVA

1 2 3 4 5 Visible second-hand nature Invisible second-hand nature Am o u n t o f emb ar ra ss men

t Visible second-hand nature Invisible second-hand nature

Figure 6: Independent Samples t-test post hoc group comparisons 1 2 3 4 5 6 Visible second-hand nature Invisible second-hand nature A m o u n t o f e m b ar rassm e n t Social Presence No Social Presence

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19 were done to visualize the effects of the interaction, see Figure 7. These comparisons showed a rise in amount of embarrassment when there was a social presence, both in the visible and invisible second-hand nature conditions. However, social presence was not necessary for the respondents to feel embarrassed, as they still felt more embarrassed in the ‘visible second-hand nature’-condition (M = 3.16, SD = 1.57) than in the ‘invisible second-hand nature’-condition (M = 1.86, SD = 1.12), even when both conditions were without social presence. This result combined with the insignificance of the interaction means that the second hypothesis is to be rejected.

The third and final hypothesis was tested with a regression analysis in the same aforementioned Model 7 PROCESS macro. This hypothesis tested if a higher amount of embarrassment actually leads to a lower amount of purchase intention of second-hand products. As purchase intention was measured on a 11-point Juster scale, ranging from ‘Certain, practically certain – 99%’ to ‘No chance – 1%’, the data had to be reverse coded to make the lowest score (1) align with the lowest purchase intention and the highest score (11) align with the highest amount of purchase intention. The regression analysis has shown a significant effect R² = .48, F(1,212) = 97.09, p < .001. When looking at the negative coefficient b = -1.04, t(212) = -12.77, p < .001, it is shown that the more embarrassed participants felt, the less likely they were to buy second hand. This significant negative relationship made it possible to accept the third and final hypothesis of this paper.

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20 intention of second-hand clothing was found to be significant for those in the ‘social presence’-condition b = −0.66, SE = 0.35, 95% CI [−1.38, −0.02] and in the ‘no social presence’-presence’-condition

b = −1.35, SE = 0.29, 95% CI [−1.91, −0.80]. Hence, amount of embarrassment takes a

mediating role regardless of there being a social presence, which also proves that social presence is not necessary for the visibility of the second-hand nature of a product to lead to a lower purchase intention of second-hand products via amount of embarrassment, showing the mediating effect of embarrassment. However, when testing for moderated mediation, the results showed b = −0.68, SE = 0.42, 95% CI [−0.13, 1.50], meaning that there is no significant effect caused by the moderated mediation, which was expected as social presence also did not have a significant effect when testing the second hypothesis.

Overall, the findings found evidence to support the first and third hypotheses. However, the results did not support the second hypothesis, which had to be rejected. This has led to the following conceptual model:

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Discussion

The goal of the present paper was to research whether embarrassment can prevent consumers from buying second-hand products. To test this proposition, the visibility of the second-hand nature of a product was varied, together with whether others could notice one’s decision to buy second-hand.

This proposition is explained by research done by Goffman (1959) and Fortuna and Diyamandoglu (2017), which both have shown that second-hand products are seen as products for a lower socio-economic class, leading to avoidance of this type of product by consumers with higher income and/or higher education level. The results of these papers combined with research done by Modigliani (1971) and Dahl et al. (2001), which have shown that the visibility of the embarrassing nature of a product is important for a person to feel embarrassed, has led to the first hypothesis of the present paper. In line with expectations, the results of the present research has found significant support for this first hypothesis. These findings suggest that the respondents have more feelings of embarrassment, awkwardness and discomfort when others can notice the product being second-hand, which highlights the fact that second-hand products are still seen as embarrassing.

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22 Costa et al. (2001) – the effect of social presence on the amount of embarrassment is not to be expected for every domain.

A significant negative relation was found between the amount of embarrassment the respondents felt and their purchase intention of purchasing a second-hand product, which supports the final hypothesis. This result was predicted by using previous research by Iacobucci et al. (2003), which states that purchase intention is hindered by the embarrassing nature of a product and is supported by the present study. The results of this research show that the purchase intention of second-hand products is lowered as the amount of embarrassment felt rises, reinforcing previous research and adding another domain where this effect is to be expected.

Present research has provided significant evidence for answering the research question:

Does a second-hand product that is recognizable as being second-hand lead to more embarrassment than a product that is not recognizable as being second-hand and how does this affect the purchase intention of second-hand products? Both parts of this question have been

answered and supported, leading to more knowledge in the domain of second-hand products, which to this day has been a scarcely research domain.

Limitations and Future Research

As the present paper is the first to research the effects of embarrassment within the second-hand market, there are a lot of choices that could have been made differently. As opposed to focusing on everything that could have been done differently, this paper will handle a few possible points of improvement and focus on more on its results and which implications come out of these results.

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23 will see the picture of them with the second-hand garment. However, uneasy feelings could have arisen regardless of the inclusion of second-hand products, as the respondents could have felt awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassment about having their picture posted to an online audience. These feelings of unease were not taken into account when creating and executing the study, meaning that it is more difficult to credit these feelings to social presence alone. For future research, it is recommended to not use social media, but instead put more emphasis on direct, physical social presence. Using this method, the general awkward feeling of being exposed to an (online) audience can be accounted for.

The second limitation of the social presence manipulation is within the ‘no social presence’-condition. This condition has an open ending with the respondent thinking about their purchase, ultimately leaving the choice of purchasing with the respondent. This conclusion was supposed to be neutral, as it mentions no social presence. In hindsight, the condition might not have been as neutral as previously thought, as it implies the product gives reason to contemplate the purchase, instead of the respondent knowing they want to purchase it. This might have led to different embarrassment levels and purchase intentions score compared to a truly neutral condition. For future research, this can be solved by not implying that the respondent should rethink their purchase, but have the respondent be free to do so if they choose. Both limitations could have a part in the second hypothesis being insignificant. Improving the method on both conditions should lead to more true and accurate results.

Implications

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24 improvements in knowledge about the domain can be made. One of them being the domain of second-hand clothing.

As the main proposition of this study is found to be significant and correct, there are some implications to take away from this result. Second-hand products are still seen as embarrassing, as products that are visibly of second-hand nature have led to more embarrassment than products that are not. This means that a perfectly reusable and therefor sustainable product is met with aversion and the demand for newly made products remains high. This aversion can be explained by the stigmas that still seem to exist around second-hand products. The connection of these products with a lower socio-economic class leads the consumer to pick a less sustainable and often more expensive alternative to prevent suffering from status loss. This stigma can be explained by the consumers having a fear of being contrary to the norm combined with the fear of suffering from the consequences of going against the norm (Stafford and Scott, 1986), showing how much social factors are connected with the purchase of second-hand products. As the present study has shown, consumers prefer choosing a less sustainably and less financially beneficial option to avoid losing face with the people around them. This stigma around previously owned products, combined with the individual factors to avoid these products, such as the feeling second-hand products are unclean (Rozin et al., 2000; Roux and Korchia, 2006), unknown origin and long shopping durations (Fisher et al., 2008) show quite a large hurdle for environmentalists, second-hand shop owners and marketeers. There is still a lot to overcome until the general public is comfortable purchasing second-hand products when it is not out of necessity.

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25 feelings of fear connected to purchasing second-hand products or by increasing the knowledge of the positive consequences of purchasing second-hand products. Providing consumers with positive reinforcement is predicted to be valuable towards the goal of reducing the fear of the consequences of purchasing second-hand products. Positive reinforcement of sustainable purchases has been shown to stimulate consumers in choosing the more sustainable product, ultimately resulting in a higher amount of pride for the sustainable product (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014). This seems very relevant in the case of second-hand products as the amplification of pride felt for the sustainable purchase of second-hand products might tip the scales more in the direction of positive feelings overpowering the stigma that is connected to purchasing second-hand products.

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26

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Appendix B: Full Correlation Matrix

Correlation Matrix

Please answer in the scale below, with the middle choice being neutral: The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not embarrassed at all:Very

embarrassed

Please answer in the scale below, with the middle choice being neutral:

The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not uncomfortable at all:Very uncomfortable

Please answer in the scale below, with the middle choice being neutral: The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not awkward at all:Very awkward Please answer in the scale below,

with the middle choice being neutral:

The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not embarrassed at all:Very embarrassed

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

Pearson Correlation ,863**

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000

N 215

The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not awkward at all:Very awkward

Pearson Correlation ,895** _,933**

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000

N 215 215

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Appendix C: Full Reliability Analysis

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based on

Standardized Items N of Items

,952 ,952 3

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected Item-Total Correlation Squared Multiple Correlation Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted Please answer in the scale below,

with the middle choice being neutral:

The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not embarrassed at all:Very embarrassed

7,11 14,068 ,884 ,812 ,941

6,83 14,255 ,875 ,791 ,947

The position I was in, in this story, made me feel... - Not awkward at all:Very awkward

6,94 13,613 ,938 ,880 ,900

Scale Statistics

Mean Variance Std. Deviation N of Items

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Appendix D: Plots for testing linear regression assumptions

Homoscedasticity:

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