Washington, July 15 (ANI): A new study has found that consumers react more favourable to a product when they received positive information coupled with a minor negative effect, than upon learning only the positive aspect of it.
If you read a number of positive reviews for a product or restaurant, one negative one might actually boost your regard for it, according to the study.
This is true as long as the negative information only creates a minor blemish and if you can't think deeply about it.
"Imagine that you are considering a new restaurant and reading reviews of it online," stated researcher Danit Ein-Gar (Tel-Aviv University) Baba Shiv, and Zakary L. Tormala (both Stanford Graduate School of Business).
"Most of the reviews are very favorable: Great food, pleasant music, relaxed atmosphere.
"Then you come across a review that mentions that there is no parking nearby, a piece of information that is negative but not quite central to your value proposition for restaurants.
"How does this small dose of negative information influence the positive impression you have begun to form?" they asked.
The authors found that when consumers receive negative information after receiving positive information, especially if that negative information is relatively minor and just "blemishes" the product, it accentuates the positive information-if it's encountered after the positives and if the consumers are somewhat distracted.
"Under low thought conditions-when participants were distracted or had fewer resources available for thinking about their decisions-we observed more favourable reactions to the products when participants received positive plus minor negative information rather than exclusively positive information," the researchers concluded.
The study appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research. (ANI)
There are no comments yet