Choosing by Selecting or Rejecting: How Decision Strategy Influences Consumer Satisfaction
Abstract
Three experimental studies demonstrate that differences in how consumers reach a decision can influence satisfaction with the subsequent consumption experience. Relative to consumers who select liked options, consumers who decide by rejecting disliked options attend more to undesirable features of the options they discard. Rejecters can use this negative information to imagine worse possible alternative outcomes, mitigating potential dissatisfaction in the event of service or product failure. The moderating roles of experience valence (favorable or unfavorable) and salience of the foregone alternatives (present or absent) are examined, and two mediating processes are identified. The findings deepen our understanding of the antecedents to satisfaction and offer novel opportunities for marketing practitioners to influence and manage consumer satisfaction.
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