Get Your Science Out of Here: When Does Invoking Science in the Marketing of Consumer Products Backfire?

Abstract

In this research, we propose that although consumers view the scientific process as competent, they also perceive it as cold. Across ten experimental studies, we demonstrate that these lay beliefs impact consumers’ reactions to marketers touting the science behind their brands. Specifically, since hedonic attributes are associated with warmth, the coldness associated with science is conceptually disfluent with the anticipated warmth of hedonic products and attributes, reducing product valuation. In contrast, when products are positioned as utilitarian, invoking science in marketing appeals has a positive effect, as the perceived competence of the scientific process is more compatible with the competence associated with utilitarian products. We further demonstrate that when the necessity of science to create a hedonic product is made salient and thus more fluent, this backfire effect is attenuated. Finally, we identify three theoretically and practically relevant individual differences (endorsement of the lay belief, trust in scientists, and whether the consumer works in a STEM field) that moderate the backfire effect of pairing science with hedonically positioned products.

Words Meet Photos: When and Why Photos Increase Review Helpfulness

“…Prior research suggests that incidental factors such as font usage (Novemsky et al 2007), figure–ground contrast (Reber and Schwarz 1999), and semantic priming (Kelley and Lindsay 1993) can all alter ease of processing. Further, factors integral to the focal problem, such as linguistic ease (Alter and Oppenheimer 2009) or prototypicality of the target (Winkielman et al 2006), or congruity with one's lay beliefs (Philipp-Muller, Costello, and Reczek 2022), can alter perceived processing ease. In the context of reviews, we expect two integral factors to be particularly relevant to reducing processing ease and hence to attenuate or even eliminate the effect of content similarity on helpfulness: review text difficulty and photo quality.…”

When consumers have difficulty understanding ads: How technical language lowers purchase intention

“…This result is similar to those of Philipp-Muller et al's study (2022) but differs in its mechanism. Philipp-Muller et al (2022) found that citing science in advertisements can lower people's attitudes toward hedonic products; they attributed it to the negative impact of the mismatch between the indifference accompanying science and the warmth accompanying hedonic products on processing fluency. Even if science is without using unfamiliar language to consumers, it can have a negative impact due to a decrease in matching fluency.…”

“…Incomprehensible descriptions in ad copy lead to increased negative attitudes toward the product and decreased purchase intention (Baskin & Liu, 2021). Technical language, which is often associated with science, is connected to coldness and can reduce consumers' willingness to purchase hedonic products (Philipp‐Muller et al, 2022). This series of studies shows that the use of technical language in advertising can reduce consumers' purchase intentions.…”

Personal Misconduct Elicits Harsher Professional Consequences for Artists (vs. Scientists): A Moral-Decoupling Process

“…Surprisingly little research has examined how categorizing someone or something as "artistic" versus "scientific" affects judgments, even though these labels are prominently used and frequently contrasted in everyday experience. For example, people describe skills and activities as "more art than science" (and vice versa; Mihm, 2022) and people as "artsy" or "science-y" (Feist, 1998;Pearson, 2016). Individuals hold bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degrees; governments allocate separate funding for arts and sciences; marketers frame products as more artistic or scientific (Philipp-Muller et al, 2023).…”

“…For example, people describe skills and activities as "more art than science" (and vice versa; Mihm, 2022) and people as "artsy" or "science-y" (Feist, 1998;Pearson, 2016). Individuals hold bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degrees; governments allocate separate funding for arts and sciences; marketers frame products as more artistic or scientific (Philipp-Muller et al, 2023). Yet the implications of these categorizations for social judgment remain understudied.According to prior literature, when people, activities, works, and so on are categorized as artistic, it suggests that they involve emotion, imagination, intuition, or all three (Bullot & Reber, 2013).…”