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Experimental Study of Consumer Behavior
Experimental Study of Consumer Behavior
Experimental Study of Consumer Behavior
Although group influence is one of the important fac- decisions, were entirely dependent on the group for the
tors in the attention directing stage of the purchase proc- norm and range.
ess, "very little empirical work has been carried out" on Generally, laboratory studies of social influence dem-
this stage of the decision process [4, p. 51]. Attempts onstrated that individuals are highly susceptible to group
have been made to relate the flndings on group influence pressure. A majority of the individuals conform to a
from small group studies to consumer behavior [2]. group norm.^ When objective standards were absent,
While the investigations of group influence in consumer more individuals tended to conform to a group norm
behavior are relatively recent, social psychology has long than when the objective standards were present. The
focused on the small group and its influence on the per- small group studies were not concerned with group in-
ceptions, opinions, and attitudes of its members. fluence in buying situations. Assessing their relevance to
Now there is a sizable body of social psychology liter- buyer behavior after an exhaustive search of the social
ature on the experimental study of social influence. A psychological literature, Howard [5, p. 136] concluded:
number of experiments have demonstrated that with
sufficient group pressure it is possible to influence what Other people seem to be important influence on the in-
dividual's perception. There are two hypotheses in this con-
the individual believes he perceives. Other experiments nection. First, a number of experiments suggest that, in the
suggested that in the absence of objective standards, an presence of a sufficient amount of group pressure, it is pos-
individual turns to other people for judgment and evalu- sible to influence what the individual believes he perceives.
ation. The second hypothesis is that, in the absence of objective
The Conformity Studies of Asch [1] and the Social standards or accepted authority, an individual will turn to
Judgment experiments of Sherif [8] are best known and other people for judgments and evaluations. To whom he
most representative. In the Asch experiment the task turns depends upon the circumstances.
was to state which of the three lines on a card was equal
in length to a comparison line. The critical subjects were From these hypotheses he speculated about marketing
exposed to the contrary-to-fact opinion of a unanimous situations.
majority (three or more confederates). The confederates Although knowledge about conformity to group
had been instructed to give the same incorrect answer. norms in the marketplace is slight, common sense would
Asch found that 76 percent of the critical subjects also lead us to conclude that consumer decision making takes
gave the same incorrect response despite the fact that the place in an environment where conformity is a major
majority response was obviously incorrect. In the auto- force. However, the operation of group norms in many
kinetic experiment of Sherif the subjects individually and buying situations needs to be empirically established,
in groups estimated the range of movement of a light and the social influence of groups on consumer be-
which, in fact, was stationary. He demonstrated that in havior needs to be investigated systemadcally.
an unstructured situation the subjects, in making their Although group influence in the consumer decision-
making process is recognized, generally the attempts to
* M. Venkatesan is assistant professor of business administra-
tion, Whittemore Schoot of Business and Economics, Uni- ^ A norm has been deflned in two ways: (1) as role expecta-
versity of New Hampshire, This article is based on his doctoral tions, and (2) as modal patterns of behavior. Thus, in the ex-
dissertation at the University of Minnesota, He is grateful to perimental studies, group norm has been deflned as the modal
Robert S, Hancock, and Robert J. Holloway, both of the Uni- patterns of behavior or modal response of the group. For pur-
versity of Minnesota, and to Elliot Aronson, presently at the poses of this study the unanimous majority judgment of an
University of Texas, for their help. ad hoc group will be taken to be the norm of this group.
384
influence are thought of as "pressures toward conform- tory experiment found that in a dyadic situation, the
ity." This view probably results from lack of attention to attempted influence by the confederate tended to make
the phenomenon of independence in the social psycho- the subject do the opposite of what was suggested. Gen-
logical literature. Little attention has been given to con- erally, other exploratory studies in this area supported
ditions under which independence occurs. Jahoda the view that if an inducing force threatens the individ-
pointed out that "there is ample evidence for the exist- ual's freedom, the individual tends to oppose the induce-
ence of independence not only in common-sense obser- ment.
vations but also in every single experiment which rejects
the null-hypotheses of independence on statistically im- THE STUDY
pressive levels of confidence [6, p. 99]."
Many buying actions come from a desire to identify The two main objectives of this study were: (1) to
with a membership or reference group. The influence gain insight into this phenomenon—conformity to group
exerted by given groups, such as neighborhood groups, pressure in the consumer decision-making process; and
bridge clubs, on its members is informal and subtle. (2) to study the effects of choice restriction by group
Moreover, group norms establish a range of tolerable be- pressure in the consumer decision-making process.
havior or a frame of reference. Ferber [4, p. 49] divided Based on the theoretical discussion so far, the following
the consumer decision-making process into three distinct two hypotheses were derived:
stages: (1) Attention directing stage; (2) Deliberation
among alternative forms of action; and (3) the actual 1. In a consumer decision-making situation where no
choice. Awareness, therefore, of a group norm and any objective standards are present, individuals who are
tendency to conform to that norm relate to the attention- exposed to a group norm will tend to conform to that
group norm.
directing stage of consumer decision making.
2. In a consumer decision-making situation where no
Few individuals would care to be complete conform- objective standards are present, individuals who are
ists in their consumption patterns. In many buying situ- exposed to a group norm, and are induced to comply,
ations, an acceptable range of alternatives is available will show less tendency to conform to the group judg-
within a given norm. We all know cases where individ- ment.
uals conformed to the group norm by buying a product,
but each individual purchased a difl:erent color, brand, RESEARCH PLAN
etc., thus maintaining a feeling of independence. Any at-
tempt to force compliance^ in a buying situation would Since this study is exploratory, what we learn in
tend to restrict the consumer's choices and consequently the laboratory can help in understanding the eflect of
his independence. Therefore, to study the phenomenon group pressure on the consumer decision-making proc-
of independence in consumer decision making, one ess. Therefore, a controlled laboratory experiment was
would have to study the etfect of restriction or usurpa- used to evaluate the above hypotheses.
tion of choices by group pressure on the consumer de- In most instances the laboratory studies of group in-
cision-making process. fluence created artificial situations unlike those found in
In a recent theoretical paper by Brehm [3], the moti- everyday buying. For this study a laboratory situation
vational state which impels an individual to establish his was devised in which the consumer decision-making
freedom has been called "reactance". ^ Reactance is process would come close to an actual buying situation.
viewed as dissonant with compliance. Any attempt by Since the subjects for this study were male college
the inducing agent, in our case the group influence, students, a buying situation was chosen that would re-
which threatens the freedom of the individual, accord- flect their familiarity with the buying process for that
ing to this theory, would lead to a tendency for the in- product.
dividual to avoid compliance. Brehm [3], in an explora-
Procedure
° Many authors have made it clear that distinctions between
the processes of social influence are necessary for understanding Subjects were 144 college juniors and seniors who
the different meanings of conformity behavior. Kelman [7, p. were drawn from a pool of the basic students in the
62] distinguishes three processes of social influences, all of which School of Business Administration, University of Minne-
have generally been termed as "conformity" by others: com- sota.
pliance, identification, and internalization. "Compliance can be
said to occur when an individual accepts influence from another The task required the subjects to evaluate and choose
person or from a group because he hopes to achieve a favorable the best suit among three identical men's suits labeled A,
reaction from the other. He may be interested in attaining B, and C. The three suits were of the same style, color,
certain specific rewards or in avoiding certain specific punish- and size. All other means of identification were removed
ments that the influencing agent controls."
^ "Reactance is a motivational state which impels the individ-
from the suits. The positional arrangements were varied
ual to resist further reduction in his set of free behaviors, and in Latin square design so that each suit was displayed
which also impels him to restore the potential behaviors lost, or in each position with equal frequency. The subjects were
eliminate any jeopardy to them [3, p. 2]." told: (1) that the three suits were from three diflerent
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, NOVEMBER 1966
386
condition {Z = - 0 . 6 3 , NS). Therefore, it was concluded right to choose different brands or variations. In this
that in this condition, where acceptance of group pres- way, it seems, the feeling of independence in the con-
sure would have restricted the choices available, the sub- sumer decision-making process is maintained. The the-
jects tended either to be indifferent or to deliberately ory of reactance is undergoing extensive empirical test-
make a choice that would negate the effect of group ing. However, our findings are supported by Whyte's
pressure. study [9] of the effectiveness of personal interaction in
influencing the purchase of air conditioners. His analysis
IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETING indicated that an "individual may sell his neighbor on
the idea of a {air) conditioner; he does not necessarily
Implications from this study for consumer decision- sell him on a particular brand or a particular store;
making processes are limited because study was explora- where you see a row of adjacent {air) conditioners, only
tory and was set in the laboratory. However, the find- a few of them will be of the same make, and only a
ings support other small group studies on conformity to few from the same store [9, p. 117]."
group pressure and the preliminary findings of the
studies based on the theory of reactance.
REFERENCES
The acceptance of social influence, as shown in the
Conformity Condition, implies that consumers accept 1. S. E. Asch, "Effects of Group Pressure Upon the Modifica-
tion and Distortion of Judgments," in Harold Geutzkow, ed..
information provided by their peer groups on the quality Groups, Leadership and Men, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Carnegie Press'
of a product, of a style, etc., which is hard to evaluate t95t.
objectively. More generally, the group norm or the pre- 2. E. S. Bourne, "Group Influences in Marketing and Public
vailing group standard directs attention of its members Relations," in Rensis Likert and S. P. Hayes, Jr., eds.. Some
Applications of Behavioral Research, New York: UNESCO
to a new style or a product. It provides a frame of ref- 1957.
erence which is the first stage in the consumer decision- 3. J. W. Brehm, "A Theory of Psychological Reactance," Un-
making process. In many buying situations there exists published paper. Duke University, Durham, N.C., 1965.
no objective standard independent of others' opinions. 4. Robert Ferber, "Research on Household Behavior," Ameri-
For those situations the implications are clear. The can Economic Review, 52 (March 1962), 19-36.
5. J. A. Howard, Marketing: Executive and Buyer Behavior,
findings also imply that peer groups, friends, and ac- New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
quaintances may be a major source of infiuence and in- 6. Marie Jahoda, "Conformity and Independence: A Psy-
formation in the attention-directing stage of the buying chological Analysis," Human Relations, 12 (May 1959) 99-
process for major items. 199.
7. H. C. Kelman, "Processes of Opinion Change," Public Opin-
The findings that group pressure for compliant be- ion Quarterly, 25 (Spring 1961), 57-78.
havior is ineffective implies that any attempt to restrict 8. Mazafer Sherif, The Psychology of Social Norms, New
independent choice behavior in the consumer decision- York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963.
making process may be resisted under certain conditions. 9. W. H. Whyte, Jr., "The Web of Word of Mouth," in L. H.
In the marketplace we can observe that individuals pur- Clark, ed.. Consumer Behavior: The Life Cycle and Con-
sumer Behavior, New York: New York University Press
chase a product or adopt a new style, but reserve the 1955.