The Awe Paradox: When Wonder Leads to Bad Choices
Psych 🧠- 387/500
Hello Reader,
How was the month of February for you? Let’s talk!
(psst. you can always reply to this email and i’ll write back :)
What is it?
This commentary expands on Keltner's (2025) conceptual model of awe, innovation, and choice, focusing on how awe influences consumer behavior.
It explores the complexities of awe, considering both its positive and negative consequences for consumers and brands.
Major Findings:
Awe's impact on choice can be double-edged: While awe can promote positive outcomes like openness to new experiences and prosocial behavior, it can also lead to negative outcomes like cognitive biases, reduced self-indulgence, and decreased customization in certain contexts.
Consumer behavior can illuminate awe's nuances: Examining specific aspects of the consumer behavior setting, such as brand communities, levels of social integration, and how brands generate awe (directly vs. indirectly), can further enhance our understanding of how awe influences different types of consumption choices and behaviors.
Brand-generated awe can be risky: Directly evoking awe through a brand's product or service (e.g., nature imagery in car ads) raises expectations and exposes the brand to post-purchase risks if the experience doesn't live up to the hype. Indirectly evoking awe by facilitating awe-inspiring experiences (e.g., MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign) might be less risky and build stronger brand loyalty.
Support this free newsletter by buying my book!👇
This Handbook explains 150+ biases & fallacies in simple language with emojis.
Or the Amazon Kindle copy from here.
What do I need to know:
This commentary provides a more nuanced perspective on the impact of awe on consumer behavior, highlighting both its positive and negative consequences.
It encourages researchers to move beyond simply measuring awe as a unidimensional construct and explore its complex interplay with other psychological processes, cognitive functions, social contexts, and marketing strategies.
Also, this offers valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and leverage the power of awe in the marketplace.
Source:
https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcpy.1451?campaign=wolearlyview