The effects of hope and anxiety in driving consumer intentions to adopt new product solutions

Abstract

New products are often associated with uncertainty. On the one hand consumers may hope that innovative offerings will produce goal-congruent outcomes, while on the other hand, they may be anxious about the possibility that the product will result in goal-incongruent ones. In four studies, I demonstrate the intriguing finding that anxiety about a new product boosts (rather than reduces) the positive effect of hope on adoption intentions. This effect is observed when using different populations of consumers from around the globe, when using products and services, and in contexts that involve different types of consumption goals – i.e., functional, aesthetic, experiential and social goals. I test defensive pessimism and confidence in achieving goal-congruent outcomes as a serial mediation process explaining this effect. The proposed mechanism remains significant, even after accounting for alternative explanations including pain/gain inferences and motivated reasoning. This thesis highlights the crucial role of hope and anxiety in driving consumer intentions to adopt new product solutions and offers important insights that may have implications for both research and practice.