TY - JOUR
T1 - How prevalent is the negativity effect in consumer environments?
AU - Ahluwalia, Rohini
PY - 2002/9
Y1 - 2002/9
N2 - The negativity effect, or the greater weighing of negative as compared with equally extreme positive Information In the formation of overall evaluations, is widely believed by media planners and appears to be a well-proven phenomenon In consumer psychology. Although this effect has been extensively documented under conditions of moderate to high processing involvement in the literature, its robustness in consumer environments may be overstated. Specifically, there are Important differences between the experimental settings in which this effect has typically been obtained and marketplace conditions. For instance, subjects in past studies have typically evaluated unknown or hypothetical targets with the goal of forming an accurate impression. In the marketplace, consumers may be familiar with brands and likely to process brand-related information with a variety of other processing goals, such as Impression and defense motivation. Using two experiments, this re-inquiry delineates conditions under which the negativity effect is likely to emerge and those under which it may be less likely to occur.
AB - The negativity effect, or the greater weighing of negative as compared with equally extreme positive Information In the formation of overall evaluations, is widely believed by media planners and appears to be a well-proven phenomenon In consumer psychology. Although this effect has been extensively documented under conditions of moderate to high processing involvement in the literature, its robustness in consumer environments may be overstated. Specifically, there are Important differences between the experimental settings in which this effect has typically been obtained and marketplace conditions. For instance, subjects in past studies have typically evaluated unknown or hypothetical targets with the goal of forming an accurate impression. In the marketplace, consumers may be familiar with brands and likely to process brand-related information with a variety of other processing goals, such as Impression and defense motivation. Using two experiments, this re-inquiry delineates conditions under which the negativity effect is likely to emerge and those under which it may be less likely to occur.
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U2 - 10.1086/341576
DO - 10.1086/341576
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036376129
SN - 0093-5301
VL - 29
SP - 270
EP - 279
JO - Journal of Consumer Research
JF - Journal of Consumer Research
IS - 2
ER -