Fading Optimism in Products: Temporal Changes in Expectations about Performance

Abstract

for their feedback on this project. This article has also benefited from the suggestions of Om Narasimhan, Rajesh Chandy, and the anonymous JMR reviewers. ASHWANI MONGA and MICHAEL J. HOUSTON*The authors demonstrate that choosing one product from a set of competing alternatives can change expectations about the chosen product such that consumers can become optimistic about the product's performance, and this optimism can then fade away. In five experiments, the authors show that this phenomenon of fading optimism in products is robust across different experimental settings and product categories and is moderated by prior attitude toward the product category and ambiguity of the product's performance.

Sobering up: A quantitative review of temporal declines in expectations.

“…In fact, recognizing the benefits of dechnes in expectations has critical imphcations for how people prepare themselves for potential bad news and how they respond if bad news comes. Emotional responses to feedback depend in large part on a comparison between expectations and outcomes (Meilers, Schwartz, Ho, & Ritov, 1997;Zeelenberg, van Dijk, Manstead, & van der Pligt, 2000), and people can (and do) capitalize on this psychological phenomenon by lowering their expectations in the face of feedback (Armor et al, 2008).…”

Attaining Satisfaction

“…For example, research suggests that, faced with uncertainty, certain types of consumers (e.g., satisficers, Schwartz et al 2002;perfectionists, Kopalle and Lehman 2001) may be motivated to prepare for the worst by lowering one's target level of achievement. Recent research on temporally shifting expectations has also shown that people lower their expectations downward as uncertainty and the possibility of a negative outcome loom larger (Monga and Houston 2006;van Dijk, Zeelenberg, and van der Pligt 2003). The tendency to set low goals is likely to be exacerbated when consumers are concerned about minimizing the negative affect that accompanies failure (van Dijk et al 2003).…”

Affect versus Cognition in the Chain from Perceived Quality to Customer Loyalty: The Roles of Product Beliefs and Experience

“…As time since purchase increases, consumers partially forget their pre-purchase expectations (Monga and Houston 2006) and the role of rational processes may thus diminish. Emotional processes may not suffer from this effect because they do not require standards of comparison (Pham 2004;Verplanken, Hofstee, and Janssen 1998).…”