Willful Ignorance in the Request of Product Attribute Information
Published 8/1/2005
Author: Kristine R. Ehrich and Julie R. Irwin
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Executive Summary
Many products’ attributes, such as whether child labor was used to produce it or whether it is made from recycled materials, are not readily available to consumers. However, consumers can obtain this information. They can ask salespeople or managers, they can research on the Internet, and they can read any of the myriad of books meant to help with the process. Intuitively, it might be expected that consumers who would use an attribute in their decision making should seek the attribute information, especially if it is easily obtainable.
In this study, the authors compare consumer request with use of attribute information, emphasizing ethical attributes. The authors show that sometimes consumers choose to remain willfully ignorant of ethical attribute information. Although participants used the information (in a conjoint measurement task), they did not request it at a rate commensurate with their use. This inconsistency is especially strong for consumers who care the most about the issue. The respondents who weighted the information high in a full-information conjoint (i.e., the respondents whose decisions were most driven by the ethical attribute) were especially likely never to ask for the information. The authors show that negative emotions drive this willful ignorance. Indeed, consumers who show the discrepancy experience less stress than do other consumers.
The results of the studies have implications for practitioners who market products with any attributes that might induce feelings of sadness, anger, or guilt in consumers. The studies suggest that consumers are not particularly willing to seek attribute information when the knowledge of this information has potentially negative emotional consequences. This may prove frustrating for many marketing managers who take pains to incorporate ethical attributes into their products, only to face consumers who willfully remain ignorant of the information. In addition, the consumers most likely to remain willfully ignorant are the target market, namely, those who care the most about the issue.
The results suggest that managers whose products contain ethical attribute information of a favorable nature (e.g., wood from sustainable forests, labor that follows strict labor regulations, cars with emissions at an acceptable level) should emphasize these attributes in a way that makes it difficult for consumers not to be aware of the information.
Biography
Kristine R. Ehrich is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing Department at Washington State University. She received her doctoral degree in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests are in the areas of consumer judgment and decision making, specifically analyzing internal conflicts or tensions and the inconsistencies in consumer decision processes that result.
Julie R. Irwin is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Department of the University of Texas at Austin. She received her doctoral degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Colorado. Her experimental work has concentrated on consumer preference, with a special interest in identifying the causes of discrepancies between consumers’ ethical (and other) values and their marketplace behavior.
J Marketing Research, Volume 42, Number 3, August 2005
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