The Slang Paradox: Connecting or Disconnecting with Consumers?⁠ (Pyrah et al., 2025) | JMR FT50

Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we break down cutting-edge research from the world’s most prestigious academic journals.Imagine scrolling through social media. A brand you admire drops a post packed with the latest slang—lit, fire, maybe even a "no cap." Do you feel connected? Or does something feel... off?Today, we explore The Slang Paradox: Connecting or Disconnecting with Consumers?—a fascinating study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, an elite FT50 journal. Authors Bryce Pyrah, Jing Wang, Yiyi Li, and Ying Xie dive deep into this paradox: when does slang help a brand feel relatable, and when does it backfire? Analyzing Twitter data and controlled experiments, they uncover a surprising truth—slang, meant to build connection, can sometimes do just the opposite.But why? Is it the brand’s personality? The messenger delivering the slang? Or something deeper in consumer psychology?Stick around as we break it all down. Special thanks to the authors and the Journal of Marketing Research, published by the American Marketing Association with SAGE Publications.If you love unpacking academic insights with real-world impact, subscribe to Revise and Resubmit on Spotify and follow our YouTube channel, Weekend Researcher. We're also available on Amazon Prime and Apple Podcasts.Now, let’s ask: Can a brand ever truly speak the language of its audience—or will it always be a guest in the conversation?ReferencePyrah, B., Wang, J., Li, Y., & Xie, Y. (2025). EXPRESS: The Slang Paradox: Connecting or Disconnecting with Consumers? Journal of Marketing Research, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437251322453Youtube Channel⁠https://www.youtube.com/@weekendresearcher⁠Support us on Patreonhttps://patreon.com/weekendresearcher