New Zealand’s early response to the novel coronavirus pandemic included a strict lockdown which eliminated community transmission of COVID-19. However, this success was not without cost, both economic and social. In our study, we examined the psychological wellbeing of New Zealanders during the COVID-19 lockdown when restrictions reduced social contact, limited recreation opportunities, and resulted in job losses and financial insecurity. We conducted an online panel survey of a demographically representative sample of 2010 adult New Zealanders in April 2020. The survey contained three standardised measures–the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the GAD-7, and the Well-Being Index (WHO-5)–as well as questions designed specifically to measure family violence, suicidal ideation, and alcohol consumption. It also included items assessing positive aspects of the lockdown. Thirty percent of respondents reported moderate to severe psychological distress (K10), 16% moderate to high levels of anxiety, and 39% low wellbeing; well above baseline measures. Poorer outcomes were seen among young people and those who had lost jobs or had less work, those with poor health status, and who had past diagnoses of mental illness. Suicidal ideation was reported by 6%, with 2% reporting making plans for suicide and 2% reporting suicide attempts. Suicidality was highest in those aged 18–34. Just under 10% of participants had directly experienced some form of family harm over the lockdown period. However, not all consequences of the lockdown were negative, with 62% reporting ‘silver linings’, which included enjoying working from home, spending more time with family, and a quieter, less polluted environment. New Zealand’s lockdown successfully eliminated COVID-19 from the community, but our results show this achievement brought a significant psychological toll. Although much of the debate about lockdown measures has focused on their economic effects, our findings emphasise the need to pay equal attention to their effects on psychological wellbeing.

International student exchange programs are widely promoted in higher education as a means of developing desirable intercultural skills and understanding among students. This multimethod study employed data from student surveys, tertiary institution case studies, and interviews with key stakeholders to identify factors that inhibited or promoted the uptake of international exchange programs among New Zealand students. These factors include the development of early understanding of the benefits of studying abroad; ongoing support to students; social, cultural, and linguistic capabilities; and how effectively overseas study was integrated into student degree programs. Implications of these findings for exchange programs in general are discussed in the context of future strategic development of expanded, more diverse opportunities for study overseas.

Although social smokers regret smoking, their retrospective remorse was insufficient to promote behaviour change, and environmental modifications appear more likely to promote smoke-free behaviours among social smokers. Participants strongly supported extending the smoke-free areas outside bars, a measure that would help decouple their alcohol-fuelled behaviours from the identity to which they aspire.

We use brand association and symbolic consumption theory to explore how plain cigarette packaging would influence the identities young adults cocreate with tobacco products. Group discussions and in-depth interviews with 86 young adult smokers and nonsmokers investigated how participants perceive tobacco branding and plain cigarette packaging with larger health warnings. We examined the transcript data using thematic analysis and explored how removing tobacco branding and replacing this with larger warnings would affect the symbolic status of tobacco brands and their social connotations. Smokers used tobacco brand imagery to define their social attributes and standing, and their connection with specific groups. Plain cigarette packaging usurped this process by undermining aspirational connotations and exposing tobacco products as toxic. Replacing tobacco branding with larger health warnings diminishes the cachet brand insignia creates, weakens the social benefits brands confer on users, and represents a potentially powerful policy measure.

Consumer loyalty may be defined as a singular concept, usually as an attitude toward the loyalty object or as repeatpatronage behaviour; alternatively, the definition may combine attitude and behaviour in either an additive or an interactive expression. We argue that definitions of loyalty are useful if they predict phenomena such as recommendation, search and retention (loyalty outcomes). In three consumer fields, we find that combination measures of customer loyalty often perform poorly as predictors of loyalty outcomes compared with singular measures since recommendation is predicted by attitude but not by repeat patronage, whereas retention and search behaviour are predicted better by repeat patronage than by attitude. We also find that the prediction of loyalty outcomes is not improved by the inclusion of an interaction term in the model. On this evidence, we argue that combination concepts of loyalty are of limited value. Further, we find that there is no form of loyalty that consistently predicts all the different loyalty outcomes and, therefore, we should abandon the idea of a general concept of loyalty.

Plain packs that feature large graphic health warnings are significantly more likely to promote cessation among young adult smokers than fully or partially branded packs. The findings support the introduction of plain packaging and suggest use of unbranded package space to feature larger health warnings would further promote cessation.

Dissuasive sticks could enhance the effect of standardised packaging, particularly among older smokers who are often more heavily addicted and resistant to change. Countries introducing standardised packaging legislation should take the opportunity to denormalise the appearance of cigarette sticks, in addition to removing external tobacco branding from packs and increasing the warning size.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the results of two experiments designed to examine the effect on consumers of the way in which price discount messages are expressed, or “framed”.Design/methodology/approachBoth studies involved stated‐preference choice modelling experiments. The aim of the first experiment was to test the hypothesis that a price reduction framed in dollar terms is more effective for high‐priced items, whereas a price reduction framed as a percent discount is more effective for lower‐priced items. The aim of the second experiment was to determine which of four alternative ways of expressing the same 33 per cent price discount – cents off, percent discount, or one of two volume discounts – is most effective.FindingsFor two “low‐priced” items, potato chips and cola drinks, the framing of a price discount had little or no effect. However, for two ”high‐priced” items, stereos and computers, framing a discount in dollar terms was significantly more effective than expressing it as a percent off discount. For three fast moving consumer goods the most effective framing of the same price discount depended on whether the product concerned was amenable to stockpiling. For tinned spaghetti, which is relatively cheap and easy to store, volume discounting was more attractive than a monetary discount, whereas for bottled water and semi‐soft butter, which are more expensive and bulkier, the opposite was true.Originality/valueFor high‐priced products, it is better to express price discounts as dollars or cents off than as a percentage off; the opposite may be true for low‐priced products, but this is much less certain. However, if using a volume promotion, “buy x get one free” is likely to be more effective than “y for the price of x”.