Research

The consumption of news through spoken text has seen a notable increase, and major news outlets increasingly use text-to-speech technologies to offer spoken-text versions of articles. In five preregistered experiments (N = 3230) involving real-world news, we find that audiences consistently rate spoken news as more trustworthy, truthful, and accurate than news they read themselves. This hearing-is-believing effect is driven by listening fluency—the ease of listening (compared to reading)—which enhances trust in the news. This effect weakens or reverses when listening fluency is disrupted, because of background noise or format.

Food waste is a pressing global issue with substantial economic and environmental consequences. Although prior research has examined the drivers and mitigators of food waste, little is known about how the type of food wasted (vice vs. virtue) shapes consumers’ moral judgments. Through eight experiments (N = 3144), we find that consumers judge wasting vice foods as less immoral than wasting virtue foods. This divergence arises because vice food waste is easier to justify: although both vice and virtue foods harm the environment when wasted, vice foods also provide a self-serving rationale (e.g., avoiding overindulgence) that shifts attention away from the harm. We further show that ease of justification is malleable. The effect diminishes among consumers with strong green values, when environmental costs are highlighted, or when the benefits of vice food consumption are emphasized, and reverses in self-rewarding contexts where indulgent consumption aligns with consumers’ needs. Together, these findings extend food waste research by identifying food type as a critical determinant of moral judgment, advance theory on ease of justification by demonstrating its contextual malleability, and offer actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners designing waste-reduction interventions.

Voice-recognition technology is transforming consumer behavior. While prior research has examined the effects of modality on behaviors such as word-of-mouth, online search, and self-control, the impact of modality on choice architecture remains unexplored. Four preregistered experiments (N = 1543) across various product categories show that consumers are more likely to choose the default option when speaking rather than clicking. This effect stems from perceived time pressure and disappears when decisions are delayed or split into two stages. These findings advance our understanding of voice technology’s psychological impact and offer actionable insights for marketers and policymakers.