Getting a no-reply is also a reply: An investigation of unreplied consumer attributions

The effect of implicit (vs explicit) rejection on the behavioral intentions of online daters

“…Ignoring, a form of implicit rejection, and explicit rejection take place very often in dating environments, especially online. Recent works have shown that implicit and explicit rejections lead consumers to different interpretation processes (Molden et al, 2009) and behaviors (Sinha and Lu, 2019) although the concrete utility for both rejections are equal (Alba and Slongo, 2020). The findings demonstrate that when implicit rejections occur, people feel that behavioral changes from rejected person are more necessary.…”

“…Dechant et al (2019) assume that ignoring messages causes customer reactions similar to declining, and that unreciprocated interactions and explicit rejections reflect the proposed argument of exerting power, whereas both add to customers' dissatisfaction. However, recent works have demonstrated that people differ in how they construe and respond to rejection (Sinha and Lu, 2019;Alba and Slongo, 2020). Being ignored is unilateral and provides no control mechanism unless attention is gained (Lee and Shrum, 2012) and has been linked to being invisible and nonexistent (Williams, 2009).…”

“…mating selection and creation of opening lines). Moreover, when companies apologize for their users' failure to reply, Alba and Slongo (2020) found that consumers attributed lower levels of self-responsibility, which may prove useful to dissolve negative attitude toward online dating companies. While Smith (2005) argues that the entire online dating industry benefits from improving relationships with consumers, this paper suggests that improving the relationship between consumers within the online dating environment could also be beneficial for businesses.…”

“…Considering that people do not always immediately reply to e-mails or text messages, though they may do so later, one may assume that while online daters have not yet received any replies from potential partners, rejection is also not yet assured. Surprisingly, recent works have shown that consumers attribute a higher value to a negative than a no reply (Alba and Slongo, 2020) and activate distinct mindsets, resulting in different preferences (Sinha and Lu, 2019).…”

Understanding retail exclusion and promoting an inclusive customer experience at transforming service encounters

“…Rejected or ignored by service agents Alba and Slongo (2020) Craigslist car sales Experiment (lab, online) Compared to negative replies, consumers show stronger behavioral intentions when their requests are not replied without any explicit acceptance or rejection and this effect is mediated by casual attributions.…”