Cognitive Dissonance: A Review of Causes and Marketing Implications

Abstract

Limitations-This study tried to focus on the past research in the marketing context, hence other aspects of management and psychology may have been not addressed. The categorization of the past studies done clearly brings out the areas which remains under explored and gives way for future research in the organizational contexts as well as industrial purchases. Organizational Culture and its effect on Cognitive Dissonance among its consumers may also be studied for the benefit of marketers. Enough studies pertaining to Indian context and emerging economies could not be found in the existing literature, which opens up various research avenues. Practical Implications-The arousal of cognitive dissonance after the purchase decision taken can be a major concern for marketers as it can result in order cancellations, loss of trust for the brand and loss of loyal customers. The study can be helpful for marketers to adopt similar successful strategies in past to keep cognitive dissonance in control. Social Implications-Marketers are responsible for Sales Volume as well as Profits for their organizations. However, they are also responsible for creating happy and loyal consumers for a winwin situation in a sales oriented transaction. Originality -This study has done exhaustive review of past studies and has categorized the past studies on the basis of causes of dissonance, effects of dissonance and what measures marketers adopted in past to reduce dissonance among consumers. This study has further categorized the causes of dissonance under three dimensions -Individual Factors, Socio-Environmental Factors and Organizational Factors. This study also further categorized effects of dissonance under two dimensions -Effects on Individuals and Effects on Organizations. This study proposed a model defining the relationships between causes, effects of cognitive dissonance and the measures adopted to reduce cognitive dissonance.

‘Crying over spilt milk?’ Effect of post‐consumption dissonance on coping behaviour for online purchases

“…Such involved purchase experiences are expected to evoke more dissonance-induced negative emotions (Olejniczak, 2017). Planned and elaborate decision-making will lead to a higher degree of emotional discrepancy if the consumer expectations are not met, in which case they display greater negative emotions (Bolia et al, 2016). On the other hand, a low involvement purchase is expected to be vulnerable to the consumer's selection bias and low choice confidence leading to lower expected performance and suppressed negative emotions (Gbadamosi, 2009).…”