Everyday Complaining versus Retail Complaining: Prevalence, Perceptions, and Purposes
Keywords:
Complaining, Dissatisfaction, Complaining PropensityAbstract
Complaining is ubiquitous in everyday life. However, most complaining research has examined only retail complaining. To expand research on everyday complaining, and to compare it to retail complaining, and using the online platform Prolific, participants in two studies answered questions about their experiences with complaining. Study 1 (n = 215) examined respondents’ experiences with both everyday and retail complaining, and Study 2 (n = 238) focused on everyday complaining, including individual difference predictors of complaining propensity. In Study 1, participants engaged in everyday complaining more frequently than retail complaining. Across studies, participants perceived they complained less than others and perceived their own complaints more positively than others. Motives for complaining were instrumental and expressive, but motives for not complaining reflected self-presentational concerns. In Study 2, complaining propensity correlated positively with private self-consciousness, chance locus of control, and neuroticism, and negatively with internal locus of control, mindfulness, agreeableness, and optimism. Implications for relationships and customer relations are discussed.
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