Corporate Deception and Consumer Negative Emotions

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;text-indent:.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:18px;color:#0E101A">Companies are placing high importance on communicating their commitments about environmental responsibilities to consumers. However, some companies rely on deception and mislead consumer about their commitment. Nevertheless, with advancement of information technology, consumers are able to detect deception and react negatively to such companies claims. This research aims to study how company deceptive practices develops perceptions of corporate hypocrisy among consumers leading to negative behavior, including negative comments, complaints, and boycotting. <span style="color: rgb(14, 16, 26); font-size: 18px;">A single factor (deception: present/absent) between subjects online experiment was designed. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. Results indicated statistically significant impact of deception on hypocrisy perceptions. Findings also suggested statistically significant impact of hypocrisy on consumers negative emotions, including boycott and negative comments, however non-significant effect on consumer complaints was found. This study contributes in conducting an in-depth understanding of the psychological mechanism of consumers’ perceptions of hypocrisy and its impact on consumer reactions to misleading company claims.</span><o:p></o:p></span>