Peter R. Darke

The Defensive Consumer: Advertising Deception, Defensive Processing, and Distrust

The authors show that deceptive advertising engenders distrust, which negatively affects peoples responses to subsequent advertising from both the same source and second-party sources. This negative bias operates through a process of defensive stereotyping, in which the initial deception induces negative beliefs about advertising and marketing in general, thus undermining the credibility of further advertising.

Fairness and Discounts: The Subjective Value of a Bargain

In this work, we examined the surprising value consumers attach to getting a bargain. Past research has largely understood this phenomenon in terms of the impact discounts have on perceptions of fairness. However, the evidence for this explanation is inconclusive due to a number of viable alternatives as well as issues relating to construct and external validity. The experiments we report here provide clearer evidence for the basic assertion that discounts increase purchase satisfaction due to the nonfinancial rewards that are associated with perceptions of fairness. Furthermore, current notions of fairness in the promotion literature are extended by showing that social cues such as the relative size of the discount received by another customer and the loyalty status of that customer can also have an important impact on fairness and purchase satisfaction. We suggest an integration of transaction utility theory (Thaler, 1985) and equity theory (Bagozzi, 1975) to account for these findin

The Importance and Functional Significance of Affective Cues in Consumer Choice

Existing evidence for affects influence on information processing and choice under high elaboration is mixed. In addition, affective choice is often viewed as erroneous in that it is assumed to lead to regret. We show that affect has a reliable impact on choice under high elaboration, which occurs through a combination of heuristic and systematic processing. Furthermore, consumers were able to correct for the impact irrelevant affect had on systematic processing but not for its impact on less conscious heuristic processing. Finally, affective purchases led to greater long-term satisfaction for important purchases, suggesting that affective choice can be functional. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The Optimistic Trust Effect: Use of Belief in a Just World to Cope with Decision-Generated Threat

In a process the authors term just world coping, some consumers use positive beliefs concerning the general benevolence of the world as a resource to cope with marketplace threat. This belief buffers or even, ironically, enhances trust judgments in the face of threat. Three experiments and one replication show that, whereas consumers who do not hold this belief respond to decision-generated threat with distrust, trust is significantly higher for those who believe in a just world (optimistic trust effect). Process evidence shows such coping is automatically activated in response to threat but can be corrected for more normative considerations when an obvious ulterior motive is present. Finally, evidence this coping serves an ego-protective function is provided by manipulating whether consumers are directly threatened. Overall, findings are consistent with the view that belief in a just world operates as a positive illusion that allows consumers to cope with decision threat.

Promouvoir les comportements pro-environnementaux grâce à l’hypocrisie induite

Dans le domaine de la consommation pro-environnementale, les recherches se sont évertuées ces dernières années à expliquer l’écart existant entre les attitudes et les comportements effectifs. Trois études expérimentales montrent que lorsque la contradiction entre ce que les individus disent et ce qu’ils font est rendue saillante, c’est-à-dire dans une situation d’hypocrisie induite, ils réduisent de manière indirecte la dissonance cognitive qui en résulte en étant plus altruistes à l’égard d’associations qui agissent pour l’environnement mais pas pour des associations humanitaires. Cet effet de l’hypocrisie induite n’est plus significatif lorsque les individus ont pu, au préalable, affirmer leur Soi.