Review of Marketing Research

Volume 1

Naresh K. Malhotra, Naresh Malhotra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351551014
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book provides current, comprehensive, state-of-the-art articles in review of marketing research. It contains a diverse set of review articles covering areas such as emotions, beauty, business and marketing strategy, organizational performance, reference scales, and correspondence analysis.

CHAPTER 1
A Reappraisal of the Role of Emotion in Consumer Behavior

Traditional and Contemporary Approaches

ALLISON R. JOHNSON AND DAVID W. STEWART

Abstract

This article provides a review of traditional approaches to the analysis of emotion in the context of consumer behavior. The authors argue that appraisal theory provides an especially relevant approach for understanding the emotional responses of consumers in the marketplace. A review of appraisal theory is provided as well as examples of its application in the contexts of advertising, customer satisfaction, product design, and retail shopping.

A considerable body of research has recognized emotion as one of the more important factors in specific consumer responses to marketing stimuli and consumer behavior in general. For example, consumers’ emotional responses have been a central focus of research on the impact of advertising (e.g., Holbrook and Batra 1987), the formation of satisfaction judgments (e.g., Westbrook and Oliver 1991), and the processes of consumer decisionmaking (e.g., Luce, Payne, and Bettman 1999). As Richins (1997) notes, “the importance of emotions in the sphere of consumer behavior has been firmly established” (p. 127).

Although emotion is widely recognized in the study of consumer behavior, systematic inquiry into the determinants of emotion and its effects on consumer response has been hindered by the lack of a general theory capable of explaining the complex nature of the process and the phenomenology of emotional response (Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer 1999). Though several theories of emotion have been influential in marketing research, no single theory has captured the complexity of emotional response and its role in consumer behavior. It is well established that consumers’ emotional reactions differ as a function of their consumption experiences, but it is less clear how the purchase or consumption experience influences the nature of emotional response. Indeed, the same consumption experience can produce quite different emotional responses across consumers and even within the same consumer over time. Emotional response also seems at times to be at odds with rational or objective thought. This latter phenomenon raises questions about the relationship between cognition and emotion and the way(s) in which cognitive and emotional processes interact in consumers’ decisionmaking.

Within the discipline of psychology, the study of emotion has sought to answer similar types of questions about the fundamental nature of emotion, while also seeking to parsimoniously represent the complex phenomenology of emotion across many different situations. In recent years, research in psychology has tended to converge on a group of related theories of emotion, known as appraisal theories, as a unifying approach to the study of emotion, because appraisal theories have provided the most convincing and comprehensive answers to date for key theoretical and practical questions about the nature of emotion (Ekman and Davidson 1994; Scherer, Schorr, and Johnstone 2001).

Appraisal theories define emotion as a mental state that results from processing, or appraising, personally relevant information (e.g., Frijda 1993; Frijda, Kuipers, and ter Schure 1989; Lazarus and Smith 1988; Ortony, Clore, and Collins 1988; Roseman, Spindel, and Jose 1990; Scherer 1988; Smith and Ellsworth 1985). Appraisals are defined as the results of those information-processing tasks that indicate the implications of the situation for the interests and goals of the individual, and thereby determine the form that emotional reaction takes in a given situation. Thus, appraising is the processing of information that leads to emotional response, while appraisals are the “conclusions” that are reached through processing, which define the tenor of the emotion experienced (Lazarus 2001). For example, the most basic task of appraising is to determine whether a situation is “good” or “bad” for the individual in terms of his or her goals, and the resulting appraisals are part of either a positive or a negative emotion. Appraisal theories specify a number of dimensions of the appraisal process that further differentiate emotional reactions—in addition to simply feeling “good” or “bad”—based on an individual’s unique construction of the situation, and identify the process(es) by which emotional responses occur and are experienced by the individual.

Appraisal theories address many of the reasons for the variations in the ways that emotions are produced and experienced and in the functions that emotions serve. Although appraisal would seem to imply a conscious cognitive mechanism, the process of appraising personally relevant information is not necessarily conscious, and may occur automatically upon perception (Lazarus 1991b). In addition, situations that are appraised and emotionally responded to may be “real” in the sense that they are defined by physical dimensions present in the external world or they may be “imagined” in the sense that they exist only in the form of memory or projective imagery (Boninger, Gleicher, and Strathman 1994; Hetts et al. 2000; MacInnis and Price 1987; Perugini and Bagozzi 2001; Plutchik 1984). Appraisal theory also suggests that emotions are functional in that they often, though not always, serve to motivate actions that serve the goals of the individual, and motivate other types of coping responses (Frijda, Kuipers, and ter Schure 1989; Lazarus 1991b; Plutchik 1982).

Research in basic psychology has provided considerable evidence to support the conceptualization of emotion that is inherent to appraisal theories. There are, however, several formulations of appraisal theory and each approach contributes to an overall picture of emotion that portrays the complexity and nuance of emotional phenomena. In addition, appraisal theories provide fertile ground for the development of hypotheses related to diverse situations in which consumers’ emotional responses are involved.

The purpose of this article is to first provide a brief review of prior work on emotion in the context of consumer behavior, then to advance an integrated conceptual model of emotional response-based appraisal theories. Finally, the article offers several areas of marketing practice to which appraisal theories can be applied and directions for future research.

Review of Emotion Theory in Consumer Behavior

A Matter of Definition: Emotion, Affect, and Mood

A fundamental problem that has long plagued research on emotion, both in psychology and in the context of consumer behavior, is the definition of terms. Various terms have been used in the literature to describe phenomena that may or may not be the same, though they may be related. Such terms as “emotion,” “affect,” and “mood,” have frequently been used interchangeably in the literature, and the same term may be used to refer to different phenomena. It is not the purpose of this article to debate the relative merits of various definitions of the extant terms in the literature. However, it is necessary to clearly define the meaning of terms as they will be used throughout this article. For purposes of the present exposition, “affect” is not considered synonymous with “emotion.” Rather, emotion is defined here as a mental state with a specific referent (i.e., emotion is tied to a target such as a person, object, or event). In other words, emotions are “about something” (Clore and Ortony 2000; Lazarus 1994; Spielman, Pratto, and Bargh 1988) as opposed to being a more generalized feeling or state. In addition, emotions are experienced in relation to situations or targets that have implications for the individual’s goals or well-being (e.g., Lazarus 1991b).

“Affect” is commonly understood as a blanket term that includes emotion as well as mood and attitude. While attitudes and moods are related to emotions, they are conceptually distinct. Attitudes can be antecedent to emotion and form part of the knowledge structure of beliefs that inform and shape emotional reactions. Emotions may also influence attitudes, in that emotional reactions may be used as input in forming an evaluative judgment (e.g., Batra and Ray 1986). However, attitudes are distinct from emotions because attitudes tend to be primarily evaluative in nature and are generally assumed to include cognitive and behavioral intention components as well as a general affective component. Emotion is distinct from mood because mood states are generally dissociated from any particular object or event. It is certainly the case that a mood or general affective state of being may be triggered by an emotional response to a specific target, but, in the present context, the focus is on the process by which the emotion is triggered and the influence of the emotion in a specific circumstance rather than how such an emotional trigger may create an ongoing, generalized affective state or mood.

A common distinction between emotion and mood involves the duration and intensity of the affective episode; that is, moods are longer and less intense than emotions (Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer 1999). However, this is not always true, and conflicting examples are easy to find. For example, one person may feel extremely negative toward everyone and everything after experiencing a very frustrating situation, but he or she may recover quickly if the situation is resolved. Another person may feel somewhat hopeful about a particular situation in which it seems that he or she has a good chance of achieving a goal, and, if it is a long-term goal, this hopeful emotion may last for a considerable time. The first person is in a very intense negative mood for a short period of time, and the second person experiences a mildly positive emotion for a long period of time.

Another possible distinction between mood and emotion may be the intensity of the physiological reactions that accompany the affective episode. Emotions can be related with intense autonomic arousal, while moods are rarely associated with similarly intense physiological arousal (Russell and Barrett 1999). Emotions may be accompanied by strong physiological reactions such as those associated with “fight or flight,” that is, the experience of anger or fear, respectively. Intense physiological arousal is not typically associated with mood, but some moods may be accompanied by physiological changes and arousal, as in the cases of severe depressive moods or extremely euphoric moods.

Although these distinctions may be useful in the context of some inquiries, the key distinction among the various definitions of mood and emotion as they are used here is whether the affect is an integral part of the response to a specific target in a particular, personally relevant situation or is merely incidental or part of a more generalized response. While attitude and mood are interesting areas of inquiry, for the present purposes they are conceptually distinct from emotion because they are likely to have different causes and effects. It is important to make this distinction clear because some research on affect in consumer behavior has not clearly distinguished among attitude, mood, and emotion.

Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Emotion

Dimensional Theories

Several of the more influential approaches to the study of emotion in the context of consumer behavior fall within a general class of theories that are often referred to as dimensional theories. Although there are differences among the various theories within this general class, all dimensional theories attempt to simplify the representation of affective responses by identifying a set of common dimensions of affect that can be used to distinguish specific emotions from one another. Among the exemplars of dimensional theories of emotion that have been applied to the consumer behavior context are Russell and Mehrabian’s (1977) PAD¹ model and Watson and Tellegen’s (1985) circumplex model. Within the context of consumer behavior, dimensional theories have proven especially useful in predicting consumers’ responses to store atmosphere (Donovan et al. 1994), to service experiences (Hui and Bateson 1991), and to advertising (e.g., Holbrook and Batra 1987; Olney, Holbrook, and Batra 1991), among others.

Dimensional approaches to emotion typically distinguish between a dimension of affective valence (i.e., direction) and a dimension of affective arousal (i.e., intensity) (Bagozzi, Baumgartner, and Pieters 1998). Generally, these two dimensions are used in place of longer lists of affective terms to simplify the measurement of affect, or to simplify the predictive role of affective measures, by descriptively classifying emotions along these two dimensions. However, the use of only two dimensions tends to miss the nuances of emotions that are a part of common experience—very different emotions may be characterized in the same way using only valence and intensity. In contrast, circumplex models have been developed to capture the nuances of the experience of emotion. Circumplex models propose a variety of dimensions of affective response based on the relative similarity of emotions and their applicability to a particular target setting or object.

Work on the relationship of affect to satisfaction judgments by Mano and Oliver (1993) is characteristic of consumer research that has employed a dimensional approach. These authors use a circumplex model of affect with valence and arousal as two orthogonal dimensions. These two dimensions yield eight affective terms representing the main points of the circular representation (see Figure 1.1). “Pleasant” and “unpleasant” represent the two poles of the valence dimension, and “arousal” and “quietness” anchor the continuum of the arousal dimension. The combination of the two dimensions yields “elation” and “distress” as the high-arousal valenced affects. “Calmness” and “boredom” are used to represent the low-arousal affective states.

Though useful in establishing a foundation for the study of emotion in consumer behavior, dimensional approaches offer only a simplifying description of emotional response without offering a theoretical account of the causes and consequences of emotion. Dimensional approaches have also been criticized for their failure to capture the full range of emotions that consumers experience (Lazarus 1991c). While there is no doubt that the dimensions of valence and arousal are important, it is clear that these two dimensions do not explain all of the nuances of emotions. Even when various combinations of the two basic dimensions are used to classify emotions, as is the case with circumplex models, the full range of emotions and the subjective feelings associated with them may not be captured. In recognition of the shortcomings of dimensional approaches to emotion, the need to capture greater specificity of emotional response, and the need to account for finer distinctions among emotions, researchers have proposed alternativ...