Tell Her She's Wrong! Triangulation As a Spousal Influence Strategy

192 Couples were asked to state the frequency of their use of nine influence strategies in four consumption decisions. Using Family Systems Theory (Bowen, 1978, Kerr & Bowen, 1988), this paper introduces the triangulation strategy: enlisting a third person to persuade the spouse. The use of this strategy was measured using the following items: “asking his/her friend”, “asking my friend”, “asking our child/ren”, “asking his/her relative” and “asking my relative”. Findings provide statistical reliability to this strategy. Men reported a significantly greater use of triangulation strategy than did women. The longer the marriage relationship is, the lower the use of this strategy among men. The higher the educational level of the woman, the greater the use of this strategy.

Citation:

Yaarit Bokek-Cohen (2007) ,"Tell Her She's Wrong! Triangulation As a Spousal Influence Strategy", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 263-265.