When women are dissatisfied
Gender differences in product failure attribution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13917293 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sujin Song (0000-0002-1035-676X, corresponding author), Dan A Sheinin (University of Rhode Island), Sukki Yoon (0000-0003-0092-1195, Bryant University) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1397-1408 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0301-2212 • E-ISSN: 1179-6391 |
| Publisher | Scientific Journal Publishers Limited (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2224/sbp.6169 |
| OpenAlex | W2754697421 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
We studied whether or not men and women respond differently to product failure by investigating how the level of satisfaction changes according to the failure severity and the locus of causality. We conducted an experiment with 2 types of failure attribution (company or consumer) and 2 different levels of failure severity (less severe or severe) with 237 participants. Results showed that, when product failure was severe, the women had lower satisfaction than the men did for consumer-caused failure, but not for company-caused failure. Utilizing a defensive attribution framework, we ran a mediation analysis to identify why such differences occur. The analysis suggested that defensive motivation, whereby the individual avoids self-blame for severe failure, was heightened more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that, when a product failure is consumer-caused, companies must react more rapidly when managing female consumers than when managing male ones. Further, companies should carefully consider recovery strategies that mitigate dissatisfaction, even for less severe company-caused failure
Attribution · Blame · Causality (physics · Mediation · Political science · Product (mathematics · Clinical Psychology · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Psychology of Social Influence · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |