[wordup] Blissfully Ignorant Shoppers Happier with Choices

[Adam Shand]

Via: http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables#c4506321

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/01/ignorance_bliss.html

Blissfully Ignorant Shoppers Happier with Choices

Researchers find see-no-evil effect once sale is made

January 31, 2008

When it comes to shopping, researchers at the University ofIowa have  
found that sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

In what they term the Blissful Ignorance Effect, researchers at the  
university's Tippie College of Business found that people who have  
only a little information about a product are happier with that  
product than people who have more information.

"We found that once people commit to buying or consuming something,  
there's a kind of wishful thinking that happens and they want to like  
what they've bought," said assistant professor of marketing Dhananjay  
Nayakankuppam.

"The less you know about a product, the easier it is to engage in  
wishful thinking. But the more information you have, the harder it is  
to kid yourself. This can be contrasted with what happens before  
taking any action when people are trying to be accurate and would  
prefer getting more information to less," Nayakankuppam said.

Nayakankuppam conducted the research with Himansha Mishra, a former UI  
graduate student now teaching at the University of Utah, and Baba Shiv  
of Stanford University. Their paper, "The Blissful Ignorance Effect,"  
will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer  
Research.

The researchers used three experiments to arrive at their conclusion.  
Two of them were consumer test-style experiments in which subjects  
were asked for their opinion of chocolate in one and hand lotion in  
the other.

In each experiment, one group of subjects was given lots of  
information about the product, the other group much less. In each  
instance, the subjects who had little information were more optimistic  
about the chocolate or hand lotion than those who had more information.

In the third experiment, subjects were given the opportunity to pick a  
video to watch. They were told one of the movies had received  
uniformly good reviews from critics, while the other received mixed  
reviews.

Although more of the subjects selected the movie they were told had  
received uniformly good reviews, those who selected the movie  
believing it had mixed reviews were more optimistic about their choice.

Nayakankuppam said that the Blissful Ignorance Effect demonstrates  
that people have a need to be happy with their choice, and will often  
engage in whatever distortion is needed to justify the purchase. That  
means playing up the positive aspects while downplaying the negatives.

Nayakankuppam said prior research has shown that before people make a  
buying decision, they generally like to take an objective, clear- 
headed view of the products they're considering.

During this phase, so-called accuracy goals play a larger part of a  
person's thinking because they want to buy the product that best meets  
their needs at a reasonable cost. His research, however, shows that  
once a decision has been made, the Blissful Ignorance Effect takes  
hold and the buyer makes that emotional commitment to a decision.

He said the data suggests a shift in peoples' motivations. While they  
have a need to be accurate before taking some action, post-action it  
is the directional need to justify a conclusion that is more  
important, he said.