Consumer uncertainty: The influence of anticipatory emotions on ambivalence, attitudes, and intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Specific emotions and their combinations have important implications for consumer experiences and decisions. Therefore, emotional response is examined from a future temporal perspective in order to investigate the effect of anticipatory emotions on consumer ambivalence, attitudes, and intentions. In the first study, anticipatory emotions, compared with outcome‐based emotions, are found to be central in prospective consumption situations, and this combination of emotions is most likely to occur when consumers are presented with conflicting information. Furthermore, anticipatory mixed emotions (i.e., anticipatory ambivalence), in contrast to outcome‐based mixed emotions, were the greatest contributor to consumer discomfort and uncertainty regarding future consumption. The second study builds on the first by considering the effect of anticipatory ambivalence on attitudes and intentions in the context of a prospective purchase situation. Ambivalence was found to mediate the effect of evaluative information on intentions, as well as moderate the relationship between attitudes and intentions. Thus, the uncertainty associated with anticipatory emotions negatively affects intentions, as well as the relationship between attitudes and intentions. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.