Revisiting surprise appeals: How surprise labeling curtails consumption
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2026-05-05
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Final Accepted Manuscript
Affiliation
Department of Marketing, Eller College of Management, University of ArizonaIssue Date
2024-05-05
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WileyCitation
Schumacher, A., Goukens, C., Geyskens, K., & Nielsen, J. H. (2024). Revisiting surprise appeals: How surprise labeling curtails consumption. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 00, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1419Journal
Journal of Consumer PsychologyRights
© 2024 Society for Consumer Psychology.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Elements of surprise are effective tools for attracting consumers' attention and influencing their choices. Consequently, a common marketing practice is to promote a product or consumption experience as surprising. An example is Netflix, which relabeled its “Play Something” feature as “Surprise Me.” While surprise labeling positively influences choice, across 10 studies and a variety of consumption experiences, this research shows that adding a surprise label can negatively influence actual consumption. Particularly when a consumption experience in itself is not meaningfully different from usual, surprise labeling might result in a perceived label–experience mismatch, ultimately leading to a curtailing of consumption. This research adopts a dual-process perspective, providing evidence for both the cognitive appraisal of this label–experience mismatch and the heightened state of tense arousal accompanying this expectancy violation. Relatedly, we show that the negative consumption effect can be attenuated by increasing the degree of unexpectedness of the experience or by reducing tense arousal. Moreover, we show that consumers' dispositional need for cognitive closure moderates the observed consumption effect.Note
24 month embargo; first published 5 May 2024ISSN
1057-7408EISSN
1532-7663Version
Final accepted manuscriptSponsors
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoekae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/jcpy.1419