Mindless resistance to persuasion: Low self‐control fosters the use of resistance‐promoting heuristics

Abstract

In our consumer society, people are confronted on a daily basis with unsolicited persuasion attempts. The present research challenges the prevailing view that resisting persuasion is more likely to fail when consumers have low self‐control. Four experiments tested the hypothesis that impaired self‐regulation may actually facilitate resistance to persuasion when the influence context contains resistance‐promoting heuristics. Indeed, participants with low self‐control were less likely to comply with a persuasive request (Experiments 1 and 3), reported a less favourable attitude towards an advertised product (Experiment 2), and generated more negative responses towards a persuasive message (Experiment 4) than participants with high self‐control, when they could rely on resistance‐promoting heuristics: a violation of the norm of reciprocity (Experiments 1 and 3), an advertisement disclaimer (Experiment 2), or negative social proof (Experiment 4). Together, these studies demonstrate that contextual cues can bolster resistance when one does not carefully scrutinize an influence attempt.

Brand placement disclosure effects on persuasion: The moderating role of consumer self‐control

“…The four experimental conditions started with a self‐control manipulation adopted from Janssen and Fennis (). Participants were presented with 15 well‐known Dutch expressions and proverbs, and in every sentence, one word was missing.…”

“…We induced a state of self‐control depletion with a self‐control task comparable with the one used in Experiment 1 (cf. Janssen and Fennis, ). Participants had to complete 12 well‐known English expressions and proverbs that each had a missing word containing at least one “e” (e.g., “the apple does not fall far from the _____”).…”

Ego depletion in consumer behavior: A review, synthesis, and research agenda

“…The types of consumption resulting from the literature on ED in CB, which contributed to the formation of the aforementioned topics, include food consumption (Imhoff et al, 2014), decision‐making (Van Osselaer & Janiszewski, 2012), impulsive consumption (Moayery et al, 2019; Sultan et al, 2012), alcohol consumption (Sheehan & Lau‐Barraco, 2016), tobacco consumption (Boer et al, 2011), resisting persuasion (Janssen & Fennis, 2017), pro‐environmental consumption (Chuang et al, 2016), retail consumption (Yim, 2017), children's consumption (Trzcińska et al, 2021), luxury consumption (Ikeda & Ojima, 2021), and brand recognition (Gillespie et al, 2012). These types of consumption are considered the most important under the umbrella of ED in CB.…”

Consumers’ Persuasion Knowledge: The Construct and Its Managerial Implications

“…Например, открытое развивающее воз-действие можно использовать в рамках взаимодействия с потребителями, обладающими достаточно высоким уровнем маркетинговой грамотности. Однако скептически настроенные потребители могут ошибочно проинтерпретировать подобные действия как типичную попытку фирмы заставить купить продукт и не воспользоваться полезной информацией при принятии решения [Chaney, Lunardo, Bressolles, 2016;Janssen, Fennis, 2017]. В таком случае можно применять механизмы скрытого развивающего воздействия, которые предоставляют потребителям всю информацию, необходимую для принятия решения, но при этом используют так называемые подталкивающие механизмы (nudging) 3 [Bruns et al, 2016].…”