DURHAM , N.C. -– Consumer warning: Seemingly innocuous questions can influence your purchasing habits.

That’s the word from a recent study conducted by researchers at Duke University ’s Fuqua School of Business, who found that innocent-seeming questions from retailers and advertisers can influence consumer behavior in both positive and negative ways.

A related Duke study found that customers who consider only one brand from a category of products tend to rate that brand much higher than they would if they compared it with others, a phenomenon known as the “brand positivity” effect.

Gavan Fitzsimons, associate professor of marketing at Fuqua and a co-author of both studies, said these findings can help holiday shoppers avoid potential purchasing pitfalls. Both studies appear in the December 2004 “Journal of Consumer Research.”

In their study of the brand positivity effect, Fitzsimons and colleagues asked consumers to rank hotel chains alone or in comparison with three other comparable hotels. Consumers consistently gave high rankings to the hotel they were asked about when no alternative hotel names were presented. However, when a selection of hotel names was provided, the focal hotel was not ranked as highly.

The brand positivity effect carries through to actual behaviors as well, the researchers found. In a separate experiment, they asked participants to rank laundry detergents, and then offered each participant a small box of the laundry detergent of their choice to take home. Consumers who were provided only one brand of detergent to evaluate chose that brand to take home much more often than customers who evaluated one brand but were also asked to explicitly consider alternatives.

“These experiments demonstrate that if consumers focus on only one brand, they are more likely to think it is the best choice for them than if they also consider alternative brands,” Fitzsimons said. “You may think one brand is the best, but without comparing features and pricing, you can’t know for sure.

“It seems somewhat obvious, but in order to get the best price and ensure that you are satisfied in the end with the product you get, it’s smart to consider several products in a category. It’s remarkable how often consumers evaluate brands in isolation.”

In the second study, Fitzsimons and colleagues ran several experiments involving seemingly “benign” intention questions, or questions with no overt persuasive message, such as, “How likely are you to floss your teeth today?” Fitzsimons’ previous research has shown that people are more likely to actually engage in a behavior they perceive as positive, and to decrease behaviors they view as negative, simply as a function of responding to an intention question.

The 205 students who participated in the study were divided into several groups and asked a question about either a positive behavior, such as flossing, or about a negative behavior, such as, “How likely are you to eat fatty foods in the next week.” For participants who answered the flossing question, some were told it was sponsored by the American Dental Association (an objective source), some were told it was sponsored by the Association of Dental Products Manufacturers (a self-interested source) and others were not informed of any sponsor for the question.

Likewise, for the negative behavior question about fatty foods, one-third were told the question was sponsored by the American Medical Association (objective source), one-third were told it was sponsored by the American Fruit Growers Association (self-interested source) and others were not informed of any sponsorship.

The experiment revealed that participants who did not sense any persuasive intent in the question indeed flossed more and ate less fatty food during the following week, compared to control groups that were not asked a question. “This is pretty much what we expected to find,” Fitzsimons said. “We’ve known for some time that if you place a suggestion of a behavior in a consumer’s mind, but don’t associate it with an overt attempt to sell, then that consumer will be more likely to carry out that behavior.”

However, the most interesting finding, according to the researchers, has to do with the group who were told of sponsorship by a self-interested sponsor and indeed sensed persuasive intent in the message. “Among the people who thought the question was sponsored by the American Dental Products Manufacturers, flossing decreased significantly over the next seven days,” Fitzsimons said. “In fact, they flossed significantly less than if they had not been asked a question. This demonstrated that consumers were willing to actually do harm to themselves to avoid being influenced by the sponsor of the question.”

Similar effects were also observed for the negative behavior in the study. Those asked an intention question about fatty food consumption by a self-interested sponsor were not influenced bythe question.

“What we’re observing in these effects is that our basic defense mechanisms are activated in response to messages we believe are trying to influence us, although if the message -– in this case an intention question -– is viewed as benign it may well slip below the radar of our defenses and change our behavior. This effect is quite worrisome as it is largely occurring outside of the consumer’s conscious awareness,” Fitzsimons noted.

Consumers can benefit from this research while shopping for the holidays, or even when giving or receiving hints about holiday gifts. “Be aware that when you walk in a retail store and the salesperson asks, ‘So, are you in the market for a new TV today,’ if you do not perceive their question as a persuasive message, you could be more likely to walk away with a TV than if the person had asked, ‘Can I sell you a TV today?’” Fitzsimons said.

The influence of innocuous questions could have good or bad effects for people dropping holiday hints to friends and family, according to this research. “For example, if you ask someone, ‘Are you planning to buy any jewelry for the holidays?’ and they perceive that you are requesting jewelry, their defenses may kick in and actually lead them to not buy you jewelry,” Fitzsimons said. He notes the converse could also be true, that an innocuous question about gift-buying intentions could give someone the idea to buy a certain gift, as long as they don’t sense a persuasive intent in the question.

“The good news is this research demonstrates that consumers are sensitive to sponsored messages, and raise their defenses in response,” Fitzsimons said. “But it also demonstrates that we are more likely to be influenced to buy a product when we let our guard down and don’t realize we’re being persuaded.”

Co-authors of the studies were Steven S. Posavac, professor of marketing, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester; David M. Sanbonmatsu, professor of Psychology, University of Utah; Frank R. Kardes, professor of marketing, University of Cincinnati; Patti Williams, assistant professor of marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Lauren G. Block, professor of marketing, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College.

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December 13, 2004

Contact
Jim Gray
jigray@mail.duke.edu
(919) 660-2935