Brands & Behaviors Brands & Behaviors

How Platform Architecture and Oscar Nominations Influence Our Choices

From Oscar buzz to Google Maps clicks, signals and platform rules reshape expectations and behavior. 

32 minutes
Transcript
Michelangelo Rossi
Prof. Michelangelo Rossi
Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris, Research affiliate at the CESifo Research Network
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Key findings
  • Prestige signals can backfire on satisfaction.
  • When ratings move, it’s not always “quality” that changed. It can be the audience.
  • With platforms, tiny design changes can create real friction, without changing outcomes.

Focus on: How Oscar Nominations Influence Our Choices

The 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 16, will have the 125 Oscar nominees holding their breath. Last year, almost 20 million people followed the ceremony for the 24 Oscars. What do these Oscar nominations really do to audiences? According to Marketing professor Michelangelo Rossi, they don’t just guide what we watch, they can also raise expectations enough to change how much we enjoy a film. The HEC academic and Hi! PARIS academic Felix Schleff studied 25 million ratings over a 24-year period and found certain unintended consequences of quality disclosures that goes well beyond the final clap. To find out more, go to the latest, shorter edition of our HEC Breakthroughs podcast.

Michelangelo Rossi
Meet the Author
Prof. Michelangelo Rossi
Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris, Research affiliate at the CESifo Research Network

Michelangelo Rossi is an Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris and a research affiliate at the CESifo Research Network. His research examines how digital platforms, online reviews, and algorithms shape competition, consumer trust, and market outcomes in the digital economy.

His work sits at...

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