Negativity and Positivity Biases in Product Evaluations: The Impact of Consumer Goals and Prior Attitudes
Evidence consistent with selective hypothesis testing, but inconsistent with extant theories of the negativity and positivity effects is provided, and four experiments are conducted to systematically test this explanation against the extant theories of negativity and positivity effects. Results indicate that selective hypothesis testing is a viable explanation of negativity and positivity effects, and that its effects occur independently of the other theories in the literature. Results also shed light on how consumer goals and their prior attitudes influence product evaluations. Contributions, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign