Three Rs of Interpersonal Consumer Guilt: Relationship, Reciprocity, Reparation

Abstract

This article explores the role of consumer guilt in a retail context. The results of a field study indicate that a consumer's lack of purchase can lead to a guilt response when social connectedness with a salesperson exists and the consumer perceives he or she has control over the purchase decision. A subsequent laboratory study established that when consumers experience guilt, they intend to pursue reparative actions during future purchase interactions with the salesperson to reciprocate the initial connection they established. This reparation is directed specifically toward the salesperson and not the firm.

Show Me the Money: On Predicting Actual Purchases in Cross-National Sponsorship

“…This finding is contrary to prior speculation, in which scholars have stated that gratitude may lead to actual behavior (e.g., Kim et al, 2010;Palmatier et al, 2009). Expecting that feelings of gratitude generate an ingrained sense of psychological pressure to return the benefit received (Dahl, Honea, & Manchanda, 2005), it appears that fans' gratitude did not reciprocate through actual purchases of the team sponsor's products. Additionally, considering that the individualism/collectivism cultural dimension in this study had a significant negative effect on gratitude, it can be acknowledged for the first time that as there is movement to the individualistic end of the cultural dimension, gratitude levels will decrease.…”

Understanding consumer-to-consumer interactions in virtual communities: The salience of reciprocity

“…For example, consumers who receive socio-emotional support from other consumers reciprocate by displaying helpful and discretionary behaviors that enhance the organization's service performance and quality (Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2007). The underlying premise of this phenomenon states that recipients of positive actions or resources experience a sense of indebtedness they can reduce only through reciprocation (Dahl et al, 2005).…”

Consumer Guilt: A Model of Its Antecedents and Consequences

“…Feelings of guilt can occur in social isolation as well as in social contexts; these feelings are likely to result from social appraisal, as they tend to arise in interpersonal relationships, especially when individuals take the agency for their actions that caused harm to valued partners, and feels empathetic concern (Baumeister et al 1995;Dahl et al 2005;Etxebarria 2000). Tangney (2003) argues that guilt feelings can stimulate action control-mechanism; since it involves evaluation of a self-caused undesirable event, and informs individuals that they have violated intra-and interpersonal or social standards, it may motivate adaptive coping responses by, for instance, altering subsequent behavior (Dahl et al 2003(Dahl et al , 2005Baumeister et al 1995;Keinan and Kivetz 2008;Yi and Baumgartner 2004). Yet, there is also evidence that, in some cases, guilt can be maladaptive and lessen self-esteem (Etxebarria 2000;Burnett and Lunsford 1994).…”

“…Consumer guilt has been researched along with its antecedents, such as impulsive and compulsive consumption (Hassay and Smith 1996;Miao 2011;O'Guinn and Faber 1989;Puri 1996;Rook 1987;Sengupta and Zhou 2007), hedonism, desire and indulgences (Belk et al 2003;Kivetz and Simonson 2002;Ramanathan and Williams 2007;Sela, Berger and Liu 2008;Okada 2005;Xu and Schwarz 2009). Some other studies focused on types and consequences of consumer guilt (Bagozzi et al 2000;Cooke, Meyvis and Schwartz 2001;Meyvis and Cooke 2007;Tsiros and Mittal 2000) and consumers' coping responses (Dahl et al 2005;Duhachek 2005;Kahn, Dhar and Fischbach 2009;Yi and Baumgartner 2004).…”