The impact of individual differences in the holistic-analytic thinking style and product incongruences on word of mouth

• Autores: David Santos, Eda Sayin, Blanca Requero
• Localización: International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social, ISSN-e 1579-3680, ISSN 0213-4748, Vol. 39, Nº 2, 2024, págs. 294-323
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1177/02134748241249891
• Títulos paralelos:
  • El efecto de las diferencias individuales en el estilo de pensamiento holístico-analítico y las incongruencias del producto en el boca a boca
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Las personas están habitualmente expuestas a incongruencias en determinados productos o marcas (e.g., el perfume ‘Moschino Barato y Chic’ o el limpiador facial ‘Neutrogena Limpieza Profunda y Suave’). Esta investigación analiza las diferencias en las reacciones de las personas ante dichas contradicciones en función de sus respectivos estilos de pensamiento. En dos estudios demostramos que las personas con un estilo de pensamiento holístico (frente a un estilo analítico) muestran mayor predisposición a transmitir opiniones positivas de productos con características incongruentes (frente a otros más congruentes). Investigaciones anteriores se centraban en explorar el efecto del estilo de pensamiento en las evaluaciones de información incongruente con características tanto positivas como negativas. Nuestra investigación demuestra que incluso características igualmente positivas pero conceptualmente incongruentes pueden provocar reacciones distintas en función del estilo de pensamiento de la persona.

  • English

    Individuals are regularly exposed to incongruences in their product or brand encounters (e.g., Moschino Cheap and Chic or Neutrogena Deep Clean Gentle). This research examines how individuals’ reactions towards such incongruences may differ based on their inherent thinking styles. Across two studies, we demonstrated that holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers exhibited greater willingness to engage in positive word of mouth for products with incongruent (vs. congruent) elements. Prior research mainly explored the effect of thinking styles on individuals’ evaluations of incongruent information comprised of both positive and negative characteristics. This research shows that even similarly positive but conceptually incongruent characteristics may cause different reactions based on individuals’ thinking styles.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Aggarwal P., Kim C. S., Cha T. (2013). Preference-inconsistent information and cognitive discomfort: A cross-cultural investigation. Journal...
  • Alden D. L., Mukherjee A., Hoyer W. D. (2000). The effects of incongruity, surprise and positive moderators on perceived humor in television...
  • Allman H. F., Hewett K., Kaur M. (2019). Understanding cultural differences in consumers’ reactions to foreign-market brand extensions: The...
  • Arndt J. (1967). Role of product-related conversations in the diffusion of a new product. Journal of Marketing Research, 4(3), 291–295. Crossref
  • Azhari M. Z., Afiff A. Z. (2015). The coherence and congruence of convergence in consumer electronics. Journal of Product & Brand Management,...
  • Behrend T. S., Sharek D. J., Meade A. W., Wiebe E. N. (2011). The viability of crowdsourcing for survey research. Behavior Research Methods,...
  • Brown J. J., Reingen P. H. (1987). Social ties and word-of-mouth referral behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 14(3), 350–362. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489496...
  • Buttle F. A. (1998). Word of mouth: Understanding and managing referral marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 6(3), 241–254. Crossref
  • Caballero A., Fernández I., Aguilar P., Carrera P. (2022). The links among relative financial scarcity, thinking style, fatalism, and well-being....
  • Cadario R. (2015). The impact of online word-of-mouth on television show viewership: An inverted U-shaped temporal dynamic. Marketing Letters,...
  • Choi I., Dalal R., Kim-Prieto C., Park H. (2003). Culture and judgement of causal relevance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,...
  • Choi I., Koo M., Choi J. A. (2007). Individual differences in analytic versus holistic thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,...
  • Choi I., Nisbett R. E. (2000). Cultural psychology of surprise: Holistic theories and recognition of contradiction. Journal of Personality...
  • Cohen J., Cohen P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Erlbaum.
  • Dahlén M., Lange F., Sjödin H., Törn F. (2005). Effects of ad-brand incongruence. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising,...
  • Daugherty T., Hoffman E. (2014). eWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media. Journal of Marketing Communications,...
  • De Mooij M. (2018). Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage.
  • Dellarocas C. (2003). The digitization of word of mouth: Promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Management Science, 49, 1407–1424....
  • DeMotta Y., Chao M. C., Kramer T. (2016). The effect of dialectical thinking on the integration of contradictory information. Journal of Consumer...
  • East R., Romaniuk J., Chawdhary R., Uncles M. (2017). The impact of word of mouth on intention to purchase currently used and other brands....
  • Faul F., Erdfelder E., Buchner A., Lang A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression...
  • Festinger L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press. Crossref.
  • Friedman M., Chen H. C., Vaid J. (2006). Proverb preferences across cultures: Dialecticality or poeticality? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,...
  • Gascó M., Briñol P., Santos D., Petty R. E., Horcajo J. (2018). Where did this thought come from? A self-validation analysis of the perceived...
  • Germelmann C. C., Herrmann J. L., Kacha M., Darke P., Macht S. (2016). Congruence and incongruence in advertising-medium combinations: More...
  • Guinote A. (2007). Power affects basic cognition: Increased attentional inhibition and flexibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,...
  • Gvili Y., Levy S., Zwilling M. (2018). The sweet smell of advertising: The essence of matching scents with other ad cues. International Journal...
  • Harmon-Jones E., Amodio D. M., Harmon-Jones C. (2009). Action-based model of dissonance: A review, integration, and expansion of conceptions...
  • Harmon-Jones E., Mills J. (1999). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. American Psychological Association....
  • Hayes A. F. (2013). Methodology of selective exposure research: Introduction to the special issue. Communication Methods and Measures, 7,...
  • Herr P. M., Kardes F. R., Kim J. (1991). Effects of word-of-mouth and product-attribute information on persuasion: An accessibility-diagnosticity...
  • Horcajo J., Santos D., Guyer J., Moreno L. (2019). Changing attitudes and intentions related to doping: An analysis of individual differences...
  • Horcajo J., Santos D., Higuero G. (2022). The effects of self–efficacy on physical and cognitive performance: An analysis of meta-certainty....
  • Hossain M. T. (2018). How cognitive style influences the mental accounting system: Role of analytic versus holistic thinking. Journal of Consumer...
  • Huete-Alcocer N. (2017). A literature review of word of mouth and electronic word of mouth: Implications for consumer behavior. Frontiers...
  • Ji L. J., Peng K., Nisbett R. E. (2000). Culture, control, and perception of relationships in the environment. Journal of Personality and...
  • Koo M., Shavitt S., Lalwani A. K., Chinchanachokchai S. (2020). Engaging in a culturally mismatched thinking style increases the preference...
  • Kozinets R. V., De Valck K., Wojnicki A. C., Wilner S. J. (2010). Networked narratives: Understanding word-of-mouth marketing in online communities....
  • Litvin S. W., Goldsmith R. E., Pan B. (2008). Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management, 29, 458–468....
  • Lovett M. J., Peres R., Shachar R. (2013). On brands and word of mouth. Journal of Marketing Research, 50(4), 427–444. Crossref
  • Ma-Kellams C., Spencer-Rodgers J., Peng K. (2017). The Yin and Yang of attitudes and related constructs: Dialectical and holistic influences....
  • Mason W., Suri S. (2012). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 1–23. Crossref
  • McDaniel B. L., Grice J. W. (2008). Predicting psychological well-being from self-discrepancies: A comparison of idiographic and nomothetic...
  • Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. (2019). The Merriam-Webster dictionary. Author.
  • Miyamoto Y. (2013). Culture and analytic versus holistic cognition: Toward multilevel analyses of cultural influences. Advances in Experimental...
  • Monga A., John D. (2008). When does negative brand publicity hurt? The moderating influence of analytic versus holistic thinking. Journal...
  • Monga A., John D. (2010). What makes brands elastic? The influence of brand concept and styles of thinking on brand extension evaluation....
  • Monga A., Williams J. D. (2016). Cross-cultural styles of thinking and their influence on consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology,...
  • Nisbett R. E. (2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently . . . and why. Free Press.
  • Nisbett R. E., Peng K., Choi I., Norenzayan A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review,...
  • Noseworthy T. J., Cotte J., Lee S. H. (2011). The effects of ad context and gender on the identification of visually incongruent products....
  • Noseworthy T. J., Trudel R. (2011). Looks interesting, but what does it do? Evaluation of incongruent product form depends on positioning....
  • Oyserman D., Sorensen N., Reber R., Chen S. X. (2009). Connecting and separating mind-sets: Culture as situated cognition. Journal of Personality...
  • Paredes B., Santos D., Briñol P., Gómez A., Petty R. E. (2020). The impact of meta-cognitive certainty on the relationship between identity...
  • Peng K., Nisbett R. E. (1999). Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction. American Psychologist, 54, 741–754. Crossref
  • Pyle M. A., Smith A. N., Chevtchouk Y. (2021). In eWOM we trust: Using naïve theories to understand consumer trust in a complex eWOM marketspace....
  • Reingen P. H., Kernan J. B. (1986). Analysis of referral networks in marketing: Methods and illustration. Journal of Marketing Research, 23,...
  • Richins M. L. (1983). Negative word-of-mouth by dissatisfied consumers: A pilot study. Journal of Marketing, 47, 68–78. Crossref Crossref.
  • Santos D., Briñol P., Petty R. E., Gandarillas B., Mateos R. (2019). Trait aggressiveness predicting aggressive behavior: The moderating role...
  • Santos D., Requero B., Martín-Fernández M. (2021). Individual differences in thinking style and dealing with contradiction: The mediating...
  • Santos D., Requero B., Martín-Fernández M. (2023). Holism and causal responsibility: The role of number and valence of event consequences....
  • Shavitt S., Barnes A. J. (2020). Culture and the consumer journey. Journal of Retailing, 96(1), 40–54. Crossref
  • Shoots-Reinhard B., Petty R. E., DeMarree K. G., Rucker D. D. (2015). Personality certainty and politics: Increasing the predictive utility...
  • Smith P. K., Trope Y. (2006). You focus on the forest when you’re in charge of the trees: Power priming and abstract information processing....
  • Song L., Swaminathan S., Anderson R. E. (2015). Differences in customers’ online service satisfaction across cultures: The role of thinking...
  • Spencer-Rodgers J., Williams M. J., Peng K. (2010). Cultural differences in expectations of change and tolerance for contradiction: A decade...
  • Tajvidi R., Karami A. (2021). The effect of social media on firm performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 115, 105174. Crossref
  • Teeny J. D., Siev J. J., Briñol P., Petty R. E. (2021). A review and conceptual framework for understanding personalized matching effects...
  • Tran T. T. H., Paparoidamis N. G. (2020). Eco-innovations in global markets: The effect of ecological (in)congruence on consumers’ adoption...
  • Triandis H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Westview Press.
  • Uskul A. K., Kitayama S., Nisbett R. E. (2008). Ecocultural basis of cognition: Farmers and fishermen are more holistic than herders. Proceedings...
  • Van Voorhis C. W., Morgan B. L. (2007). Understanding power and rules of thumb for determining sample sizes. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods...
  • Verma S., Yadav N. (2021). Past, present, and future of electronic word of mouth (EWOM). Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53, 111–128. Crossref
  • Wang H., Batra R., Chen Z. (2016). The moderating role of dialecticism in consumer responses to product information. Journal of Consumer Psychology,...
  • Wong V. C., Wyer R. S. Jr., Wyer N. A., Adaval R. (2021). Dimensions of holistic thinking: Implications for nonsocial information processing...
  • Yoon H. J. (2013). Understanding schema incongruity as a process in advertising: Review and future recommendations. Journal of Marketing Communications,...
  • Zhou X., Requero B., Gonçalves D., Santos D. (2021). Every penny counts: The effect of holistic-analytic thinking style on donation decisions...