The authors show that deceptive advertising engenders distrust, which negatively affects people's 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.

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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

This research explores perceptions of interpersonal influence in the form of flattery that occurs in a consumer retail setting. Across 4 experiments, results demonstrate empirical evidence of a sinister attribution error (Kramer, 1994), as consumer reactions to flattery were more negative than warranted by the situation. Results across 3 experiments demonstrated that there are 2 types of information processing occurring when consumers make trust judgments in response to flattery. Depending on when flattery occurs, consumers engage in either automatic or deliberative processing of information provided by the sales context. The final experiment further suggests that the automatic processing occurred through categorization based on social cues.

This research examined the relation between self-relevance and word-of-mouth (WOM). The results of two studies suggest consumers are more likely to provide WOM for products that are relevant to self-concept than for more utilitarian products. There was also some indication that WOM was biased, in the sense that consumers exaggerated the benefits of self-relevant products compared to utilitarian products. Finally, self-relevance had a greater impact on WOM in individualist cultures than collectivist cultures, consistent with differences in the way self-concept is typically construed by these groups. Implications for marketing strategies concerning WOM are discussed. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006Word of-mouth, Motivation, Self-concept, Culture,