Anticipation of Injurious Consumption Outcomes and its Impact on Consumer Attributions of Blame

Abstract

The role of expectations in consumer evaluation of outcomes is widely applied in the study of consumers’ postpurchase evaluations. However, the evaluative consequence of relatively unexpected outcomes has received little attention. This study discusses the importance of infrequently occurring negative outcomes in consumer evaluations and then tests the role of their foreseeability in an attributional model. Results suggest that the extent to which a consumer anticipates negative product use outcomes plays an important role in mediating attributions for that outcome to the marketer. Specifically, the model results address determinants of consumer attributions of blame for negative consumption outcomes. Factors such as promoting safety, using warning labels, and providing service as well as consumer risk aversion, product experience, and perceived product danger influence blame both directly and indirectly through the extent to which an unlikely negative outcome is anticipated.