Shall I Tell You Now or Later? Assimilation and Contrast in the Evaluation of Experiential Products

Abstract

This research demonstrates that the effect of product information on the evaluation of an experiential product depends on the order with which such information is presented. In a series of experiments, we find that when information is presented before consuming an experiential product, the information results in an assimilation effect such that consumers evaluate the same experience more positively when the product information is favorable compared to when it is unfavorable. More interestingly, we demonstrate that when such information is presented after consuming an experiential product, it results in a contrast effect such that consumers evaluate the same experience more negatively when the product information is favorable compared to when it is unfavorable. These findings have important implications for marketers in a host of experiential categories.

On Being Open and Perceiving Novelty

“…Here, research has provided both theoretical (Hoch and Loewenstein 1991;Loewenstein 1996;Shiv and Fedorikhin 1999) and empirical evidence as to how consumer choice is influenced by affect (Friedman and Förster 2010;Luce, Payne, and Bettman 1999;Peracchio and Tybout 1996;Wilcox, Roggeveen, and Grewal 2011). In summary, affect has been shown to be instrumental in developing an understanding of how consumers evaluate their options (Shu and Peck 2011).…”

“…My measure of affective evaluation of an object is based on the PANAS scale (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen 1988), as was developed by Wilcox et al (2011). Whilst it is important to understand the role of affect, with regards to how it influences both motivation and choice, it is also of importance to investigate to what extent affect translates to behavioral intentions.…”

“…Some insightful research has been conducted on products, analyzing how providing product information before or after sampling them, effects consumer judgment (Braun-LaTour and LaTour 2005;Hoch and Ha 1986;Lee, Frederick, and Ariely 2006;Wilcox et al 2011). …”

“…Finally, Wilcox et al (2011) gave participants a piece of generic chocolate, and told them before or after consumption that it was from Switzerland or China.…”

“…A number of studies have shown that the effect of contextual information on judgments depends on the perception of the individual, as to how distinct the information is from the target under scrutiny (Helson 1948;Stapel and Winkielman 1998;Wilcox et al 2011). When it comes to judging a target, distinct information is used to serve as a comparison standard, because it can be clearly delineated from the target (Stapel and Winkielman 1998;Zhu and Meyers-Levy 2009).…”