The role of arousal congruency in influencing consumers

19 Pages·2007·0.11 MB·English

Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableat
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-4233.htm
IJSIM The role of arousal congruency
18,1
in influencing consumers’
satisfaction evaluations
6 and in-store behaviors
Received22November2005 Jochen Wirtz
Revised24April2006
NUS Business School, National University of Singapore,
Accepted21June2006
Singapore
Anna S. Mattila
School of Hospitality Management, Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, Pennsylvania, USA, and
Rachel L.P. Tan
Singapore Airlines, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose–Itiswidelyacceptedthatconsumersenterintoaserviceconsumptionexperiencewitha
setofexpectations,includingaffectiveexpectations.Thisresearchaimstoinvestigatethematching
effects between arousal-level expectations and perceived stimulation (i.e. arousal congruency) on
satisfactionandin-storebehaviors.
Design/methodology/approach–A 3 (under-stimulation, arousal congruency and under-
stimulation) perceived arousal congruency)£2 valence (pleasant or unpleasant environment)
factorialdesignwasemployedandtestedacrosstwoservicesettings,amusicstoreandabookstore.
Ashortnarrativewasusedtoinducearousallevelexpectations(highandlow).Subjectswerethen
exposedtoavideoclipinwhichtheactualarousalofthestoreenvironmentwasmanipulatedatthree
levels(high,moderate,low).Consequently,subjectscouldperceivethestoreenvironmenttomatchtheir
expectations(arousalcongruency),exceedtheirexpectations(over-stimulation)ortofallshortoftheir
expectations(under-stimulation).Halfofthevideoclipsshowedapleasantstoreenvironment,whereas
the other half of the videos involved an unpleasant store environment. Satisfaction and in-store
behaviorsservedasthetwodependentvariablesinthisstudy.
Findings–Theresultsofthisstudyindicatethatthevalenceoftheserviceenvironment(pleasantor
unpleasant)moderatesthearousal-congruencyeffectonsatisfactionandin-storebehaviors.Satisfaction
inpleasantserviceenvironmentswasmaximizedatarousalcongruency,whilesuchmatchingeffects
failed to influence satisfaction in unpleasant settings. For in-store approach behaviors, perceived
under-stimulation,comparedwithover-stimulation,hadapositiveeffectonin-storebehaviors.
Practicalimplications–Thefindingsofthisstudyindicatethatretailersneedtopayattentionnot
onlytothepleasantnessofthestoreenvironment,butalsotoarousallevelexpectationsregardingthe
servicescape.
Originality/value–Thispaperpositsahithertoneglectedtheorythataffectiveexpectations,which
InternationalJournalofService
reflect people’s expectations about how they expect to feel in a given situation, might be equally
IndustryManagement
Vol.18No.1,2007 importantininfluencingcustomerresponsesinaservicesetting.
pp.6-24
qEmeraldGroupPublishingLimited KeywordsConsumerbehaviour,Storesandsupermarkets,Environmentalpsychology,Serviceclimate
0956-4233
PapertypeResearchpaper
DOI10.1108/09564230710732876
Introduction The role of
It is widely accepted that consumers enter into a consumption experience with a set arousal
of expectations of what they would like to happen. Yet, previous research in the
congruency
consumer satisfaction literature has mainly examined the role of cognitive
expectations in the post-purchase evaluation process (Phillips and Baumgartner,
2002). In this study, we propose that affective expectations might be equally
important in influencing customer responses in a service setting. Affective 7
expectations reflect people’s expectations about how they anticipate to feel in a
given situation (Wilson et al., 1989).
Ourfocusisonintroducingarousallevelexpectationsasakeyvariableofinterestin
theinterplaybetweenemotionsandtheservicescape(Bitner,1992;MorrinandChebat,
2005; Pullman and Gross, 2004; Vilnai-Yavetz and Rafaeli, 2006). Arousal level
expectations are particularly important in the contextof retail services. For example,
after a boring day at work, a consumer might want to visit a hip music store with a
funkyenvironmentorgotoanexcitingdiscotheque.Similarly,she/hemightpreferto
patronizeacalmingandrelaxingbookstoreafterahecticdayintheoffice,orrelaxina
spa(Wirtzetal.,2000).Yet,arousalasanaffectivedimensionhasbeenlargelyignored
in the serviceliterature (Rafaeli and Kluger, 2000).
To close that gap, the primary objective of this study is to gain a richer
understanding of the role of arousal-congruency on consumer satisfaction responses
and in-store behaviors in retail and service settings. Arousal congruency is achieved
when the actual store environment matches the consumer’s desired arousal level.
Conversely, exceeding or falling short of expected arousal levels results in perceived
over- or under-stimulation.
Thespecificobjectivesofthisstudyaretwo-fold.First,wedevelopandtesttheidea
that the valence of the service environment (pleasant or unpleasant) moderates the
arousal-congruency effect on satisfaction and in-store behaviors. We advance that
satisfaction in pleasant service environments is maximized at arousal congruency,
whilesuchmatchingeffectsfailtoinfluencesatisfactioninunpleasantsettings.Inthe
latter, satisfaction is proposed to be uniformly low.
Second,weseektoclarifydifferencesbetweensatisfaction(anevaluativeresponse)
and in-store behaviors (behavioral responses), and to illustrate the importance of
doing so. We propose that while consumers’ satisfaction evaluations in pleasant
environmentsaremainlyafunctionofarousalcongruency,theirbehavioralresponses
aremorestimulus-driven.Specifically,wesuggestthatunder-stimulationshouldlead
to low levels of satisfaction but high levels of in-store behaviors. Under such
conditions,consumersaremotivatedtoincreasearousalthroughtheirownactions(i.e.
engageinaffiliativebehaviors,suchasexploretheenvironment,spendmoretimeand
moneyinthestoreandapproachservicestaff)tomoveclosertotheirdesiredlevelof
stimulation.Conversely,over-stimulationshouldleadtolowapproachbehaviorsasthe
goal is to reduce stimulation.
Literatureand hypotheses
Affective expectations andmoderating effects of valence
Prior to discussing the affective expectations model, it is important to establish the
larger emotions framework used in this study. Consistent with recent work in
prototypical emotional episodes (Russell and Feldman, 1999), we postulate that
IJSIM consumerresponsestoretailenvironmentscanbedescribedbytwodimensions,namely
18,1 degreeofpleasantnessanddegreeofactivationorarousal.Thevalencecontinuumrefers
tothehedonicqualityofanaffectiveexperience(Feldman,1995),whileactivationrefers
toasenseofmobilizationorenergy(RussellandFeldman,1999).Inthisstudy,weare
interestedinthejointeffectsofarousalandvalenceoftheenvironmentonsatisfaction
and in-store behavioral responses. We chose Meharabian and Russell’s circumplex
8 model as our emotions framework since this model is strongly supported in
environmentalpsychology,anditisarguablythemostwidelyappliedmodelofaffect
in the context of service environments (Bitner, 1992; Donovan and Rossiter, 1982;
Donovanetal.,1994;Huietal.,1997;MattilaandWirtz,2000,2001;WirtzandBateson,
1999; Wirtz et al., 2000). However, we acknowledge that other conceptualizations of
emotionssuchasdiscreteemotionmodels(Izard,1977;Plutchik,1980)mightbemore
applicabletootherresearchcontexts,especiallywheninterpersonaldiscreteemotional
responsessuchasanger,disgustorguiltarestudied(Wirtz,1994).
The affective expectation model (AEM) postulates that people’s preferences are
determined by affective expectations and by stimulus information (Dodges and
Klaaren,2000;GeersandLassitier,2002;Wilsonetal.,1989).Inthisstudy,wefocuson
arousallevelexpectations,anditcanbearguedthatsuchexpectationsarepositivein
valenceinatypicalconsumerbehaviorsetting(i.e.consumersdesirepositiveoutcomes
when purchasing products and services). Similar to cognitive expectations, affective
expectations are postulated to guide an individual’s perceptions of new information
and facilitate the processing of congruent information (Bower, 1981; Niedenthal and
Setterlund, 1994 for studies supporting emotion-congruent information processing).
When the incoming information is expectation-consistent, then matching effects
shouldoccur(GeersandLassitier,1999;Wilsonetal.,1989).Conversely,insituations
wherethenewinformationisnoticeablyincongruent,peoplearepredictedtoscrutinize
the discrepancy due to contrast effects (Geers and Lassitier, 1999). This mismatch
between prior expectations and actual stimuli tends to have a negative impact on
subsequentevaluations.Inthispaper,weproposethatsatisfactionshouldbeenhanced
whentheactualstoreenvironmentmeetstheindividual’sdesiredarousal,whereasany
discrepancy (over- or under-stimulation) should lead to less positive evaluations.
In addition, we argue that the valence of the environment moderates the impact of
arousalcongruency effects on satisfaction evaluations.
Relying on the negativity effect, we propose that the negative valence of the
environmentovershadowsanyothercue,includingarousallevelexpectations.Robust
findings from various areas of psychology suggest that the power of bad events is
greater than that of good ones (for a recent review see Baumeister et al., 2001). For
example, people are quick to form bad impressions or bad stereotypes because
negatively valenced information is more thoroughly processed than positive
information (Baumeister et al., 2001). The positive-negative asymmetry effect is
well-established in the impression formation literature (Anderson, 1965; Skowronski
andCarlston,1989).Iftheimpactofbadinformationisgenerallystrongerthanthegood,
then we propose that the valence of an unpleasant physical environment should
overshadow the power of other environmental cues including its arousal-eliciting
qualities.Inotherwords,thevalenceoftheenvironmentbecomesthemajordeterminant
of consumer reactions. Consequently, low levels of satisfaction are expected in
unpleasant settings regardless of arousal levels. Furthermore, independent of initial
arousallevelexpectations,lowarousalmayresultinthelowestlevelsofdissatisfaction The role of
and avoidance behaviors, as low arousal is generally seen as the optimum level in arousal
unpleasant environments (Berlyne, 1960; McClelland et al., 1953).Taken together, we
congruency
predictthefollowing:
H1. In pleasant environments, satisfaction will be maximized at the point of
arousal-congruency (i.e. at the match condition, where the desired level of
9
stimulationandtheactuallevelarematched).Over-orunder-stimulationwill
result in reducedsatisfaction.
H2. Arousal congruency will be a more important predictor of satisfaction in
pleasant than in unpleasant environments. Specifically, satisfaction in the
latter will be uniformly low as it is mostly driven by the valence (i.e.
unpleasantness)of the environmentrather than by arousal congruency.
In-storebehavioralresponses toarousal congruency
We argue that in addition to satisfaction, one needs to assess in-store behavioral
responsestofullyunderstandconsumers’affectivereactionstoshoppingenvironments.
Prior research in emotions indicates that feelings and behavior can be disassociated
from one another (Lang, 1979; Mineka, 1979). For example, a person can be afraid
(negativeemotioncombinedwithhigharousal)ofroller-coaterridesandyetgoonone
(Rachman,1984).
We rely on the optimal arousal theories as a framework to explain the impact of
arousalonconsumers’approach-avoidancebehaviors(Berlyne,1960,1967;Mehrabian
and Russell, 1974; Zuckerman, 1979). Previous research shows that high levels of
arousal have a negative impact on approach behaviors (North and Hargreaves, 2000;
Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). In other words, highly arousing environments exceed
theoptimallevelofarousalformostpeople,thusresultinginadesiretoescapeorflee
the store. Yet,in this paper weextend previous literature by demonstrating thatit is
not the absolute level of arousal that matters – rather perceived over- or
under-stimulation drives people’s behavioral responses. In pleasant environments,
when the actual arousal level is congruent with the consumer’s arousal level
expectations, then optimal arousal level has been reached. Consequently, positive
in-storebehaviors should be maximized in the arousalcongruency condition.
Althoughourpredictionforthearousalcongruencyconditioncloselymatchesthat
for satisfaction in pleasant environments, it is important to note that the theoretical
frameworks are different (i.e. affective expectations model for satisfaction versus
optimal arousal theories for in-store behaviors). Both frameworks predict optimal
responsebehaviors(i.e.satisfactionandin-storebehaviors)forthearousalcongruency
condition, but their predictions differ in situations when actual arousal falls short of
arousal level expectations. Under-stimulation is expected to result in low levels of
satisfaction while inducing high levels of positive in-store behaviors. When the
environmentislessarousingthanexpected,thenconsumersaremotivatedtoactively
engage in approach behaviors (Berlyne, 1960; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1992).
Such efforts will lead them closer to the optimal arousal level. Conversely, when the
retail environment exceeds consumers’ desired arousal levels, in-store behaviors
should bereduced.
IJSIM As with satisfaction, we propose that unpleasant environments will lead to low
18,1 levels of approach behaviors aspeople want to minimize time spentinsuchsettings.
Taken together, these arguments lead us to the followingpredictions:
H3. In pleasant environments, in-store approach behaviors will be maximizedat
thepoint of arousal-congruency.
10 H4. In pleasant environments, under-stimulation will lead to higher levels of
in-store approach behaviors than over-stimulation.
H5. In unpleasant environments, in-store approach behaviors will be uniformly
lowassuchbehaviorsaremostlydrivenbythevalence(i.e.unpleasantness)
of the environmentrather than by arousal-congruency.
Method
Overview
In this study, a 3 (under-stimulation, arousal congruency or under-stimulation)£2
valence (pleasant or unpleasant environment) factorial design was employed and
tested across two service settings, a music store and a book store. A short narrative
was used to induce arousal level expectations (high and low). Subjects were then
exposed to a video clip in which the actual arousal of the store environment was
manipulated atthreelevels (high, moderate,low). Asaresultof thesemanipulations,
subjects could perceive the store environment to either match their expectations
(arousal congruency), exceed their expectations (over-stimulation) or to fall short of
theirexpectations(under-stimulation).Halfofthevideoclipsshowedapleasantstore,
whereastheotherhalfofthevideosinvolvedanunpleasantenvironment.Satisfaction
and in-store behaviors served as the twodependent variablesin this study.
Atotal of 506 respondents drawn from the general public (52 percent) and from a
university sample (48 percent) participated in the study. The general public
respondentswereinterceptedonabusyhighstreetandwalkedtothenearbyfacility
wheretheexperimentwasconducted.Participantsattheuniversitywererecruitedin
the university canteen. All participants received a small gift as appreciation for their
participation. The gender split of the respondents was about equal, with 53 percent
males.About19percentofrespondentswerebetween15and20yearsold,58percent
between21and30years,and23percentwereolderthan30years.Wehad242and264
respondents, respectively, for the music andthe book store scenarios.
Research context, manipulations, andstimuli development
Researchcontext.Thetwoservicegenres,amusicstoreandabookstore,werechosen
astheresearchcontextsbecauseweneededasettinginwhicharousallevelexpectations
couldberealisticallymanipulated.Asecondreasonforselectingthesetwoserviceswas
that they were believed to be highly relevant to a wide spectrum of people. As such,
respondents would be able to imagine themselves in the service settings they were
exposedto.
Arousal level expectations. We used a role-play scenario method to manipulate
desired arousal. The narrative for creating high arousal level expectations read as
follows:
Samhashadanunexcitingweekatwork.Havingheardoftheopeningofanewmusicstore The role of
(bookstore),Samhasdecidedtovisitthestore,andhopesthatthenewshopwouldoffera
arousal
place for upbeat listening (new and interesting items/readings) in a vibrant and lively
congruency
environment,andthatthemusicstore(bookstore)visitwouldberefreshing.
Conversely, the narrative for inducing low arousal level expectations described the
followingsituation:
11
Samhashadahecticweekatwork.Havingheardoftheopeningofanewmusicstore(book
store),Samhasdecidedtovisitthestore,andhopesthatthenewshopwouldofferaplacefor
quiet listening (quiet browsing) in a leisurely and idyllic environment, and that the music
store(bookstore)visitwouldberelaxing.
Wechoseaprojectiveroleplaycumvideosimulationforthisstudyforseveralreasons.
First, this method enabled us to inject sufficient variance into the independent
variables while minimizing idiosyncratic responses to the research context (Havlena
and Holbrook,1986; Wirtz and Bateson,1999). Second, thescenariomethodhas been
showntohaveecologicalvalidityinserviceresearchinvolvingconsumeremotionsand
complex cognitive processes (Bateson and Hui, 1992; Echeverri, 2005; Lemmink and
Mattson,1998).Third,thismethodworksbestwhenrespondentsarefamiliarwiththe
research context (Dabholkar, 1996). Accordingly, our scenarios involved common
service encounters.
Actual arousal and pleasure manipulations. We first developed two videos, one
portrayingatypicallargebookstore,andtheotheralargemusicstore(theidentityof
theretailerswasnotrevealedinthevideos).Thesevideosweretheneditedviamusic
tempo,soundandlightingmanipulations.Threedifferentmusictempos145bpm(fast),
105bpm (moderate) and 60bpm (slow) were used to create high, moderate and low
arousalenvironments(Milliman,1982,1986).Next,wecontrolled forthesoundlevels
usingadecibelmeter.Thesuggested“soft”orlowarousallevelwasascertainedtobe
below60db(typicalbackgroundmusicinretailenvironments),moderatearousalwas
setatabout90db(typicalforegroundmusicinretailenvironments),andhigharousal
wasinducedwithvolumeover100db(KellarisandAltsech, 1992).Finally,tofurther
ensure that our arousal manipulations were effective, we used different color filters.
Inthe low arousalconditions, we used ayellow-orange filter for asoft lightingeffect
whiledimmingthebrightnesslevels.Theoriginalstoreilluminationlevel(moderately
brightlylit)waskeptintactforthemoderatearousalconditions.Forthehigharousal
conditions, the lighting filter was saturated to increase the brightness effect (Valdez
and Mehrabian,1994).
After re-engineering the musical pieces to elicit different arousal levels, the
manipulation of high-low pleasure levels was conducted. For the unpleasant
conditions,“white”noisewasengineered,whereasthemusicpieceswereleftintactfor
pleasantconditions.Carewastakenthatthenoisewasseenasanintegralpartofthe
ambientserviceenvironmentandnotduetoafaultyrecordingorviewingequipment.
Aseriesofpre-testswereconductedtoensurethatourmanipulationswereperceived
asintended.Intotal,weconductedfourpretests.Thefirsttestguidedtheselectionofa
pleasant piece of music that was not disliked by any respondent. The second tested
that the tempo, volume and white noise edits of the music piece were perceived as
intended in termsof their arousalintensityand pleasurelevel. Thethird checkedthe
arousal quality of the lighting manipulations in the videos, and the fourth pretest
IJSIM ensuredthatthevignettesmanipulatingarousallevelexpectationswereeffective.The
18,1 pleasureandarousalmeasuresemployedinthepre-testswerethesameasthoseused
in the study proper (see the measures sectionfor details).
Experimentalprocedure
A total of 48 experimental sessions were held where groups of 10-15 subjects were
12 randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions. At the beginning of each
session,subjectsweretoldthecoverstory,whichstatedthattheywereparticipatingin
amarketstudyforanewmusic(book)storedesign.Respondentswerethenexposedto
the role-play scenario which manipulated desired arousal, and they were given
instructions to imagine themselves as the character described in the scenario. The
manipulation check for this variable was administered after respondents had read
thescenario.Subjectsweretheninstructedtoimaginethattheyhadarrivedatthenew
store and to imagine themselves in the service environment depicted in the video
simulation. Next, subjects were asked to view a three-minute video clip of the music
(book) store experience, in which actual arousal and pleasure were manipulated. The
video was shown in a darkened seminar room using an LCD projector and a high
qualitysoundsystemgivingsubjectsavividimpressionofthestoreenvironment.The
viewing experience was highly involving, somewhat similar to watching a film in a
movietheater.Havingviewedthevideoclip,subjectscompletedtheremainderofthe
questionnairewhichcontainedthepleasureandarousalmanipulationchecks,arousal
congruency,thedependentvariables(satisfactionandin-storeapproachbehavior),and
finally demographics. After each session, respondents were debriefed about the real
purpose of thestudy.
Measures
Desiredarousalmanipulationcheck.MehrabianandRussell’s(1974)six-itemsemantic
differentialscaleofarousalwasadaptedtomeasuredesiredarousalforthestorevisit.
The original scale was modified to measure desired arousal in the way the question
wasposedtotherespondents.Specifically,subjectswereaskedtoratehowthey“hope
tofeel”whilebeinginthestore,ratherthanhowthey“actuallyfelt”inthestore(Wirtz
et al., 2000). The scale items included calm-excited, sleepy-wide awake, and
sluggish-wild. The scale items were summated and used as an index for desired
arousal(for Cronbachavalues,means and STDs see Table I).
Pearsoncorrelationcoefficients
Cronbacha Mean STD 1 2 3 4 5 6
1.Pleasure 0.92 3.95 1.65 1.0
2.Actualarousal 0.93 4.57 1.41 20.06 1.0
3.Desiredarousal 0.93 4.08 1.45 0.06 0.05 1.0
4.Arousalcongruency 0.94 0.38 1.24 20.11a 0.60b 20.66b 1.0
5.In-storeapproachbehavior 0.93 3.23 1.69 0.69b 20.34b 0.06 20.31b 1.0
6.Satisfaction 0.94 2.99 1.99 0.63b 20.05 0.17b 20.22b 0.66b 1.0
TableI.
Summaryscalestatistics Notes: Scales 1 to 3 refer to manipulation checks. All scales range from 1 to 7, except arousal
andPearsoncorrelation congruency,whichrangesfrom23toþ3.Unlessindicatedotherwise,thecorrelationcoefficientsare
coefficients insignificantatp.0.10.aSignificantatp,0.01,bsignificantatp,0.001
Actualarousalandpleasuremanipulationchecks.Afterviewingthevideo,theoriginal The role of
MehrabianandRussell(1974)12-itemsemanticdifferentialscaleforactualarousaland arousal
pleasure felt was administered to measure emotional responses to the store
congruency
environment (e.g. calm-excited, sleepy-wide awake, and sluggish-wild for actual
arousal, and unhappy-happy, despairing-hopeful, melancholic-contented, and
annoyed-pleased for pleasure). Thesixitems for the two scales were summated.
Arousal congruency. To directly measure perceived under/over-stimulation, we 13
adaptedMehrabianandRussell’s(1974)arousalscale.Thescaleitemswererelaxation
level,excitementlevel,alertnesslevel,stimulationlevelandcalmnesslevel,measured
on a seven-point scale, anchored in 1¼“much higher than desired” and 4 “just as
desired,”and7¼“muchlowerthandesired.Aseriesofpretestswasconductedonthis
scale, with thelast pretest of a100 respondents showinggood reliability.
Satisfaction. Overall, satisfaction with the retail experience was measured using a
three-item scale in a seven-point Likert format (ranging from “strongly disagree” to
“strongly agree,” (Oliver, 1997). The three items captured the degree of satisfaction
with the music store/book store, the enjoyment of the entire store visit, and their
evaluation that thechoiceto cometo the store was a good one.
In-storeapproach-avoidancebehavior.Afour-item,sevenpointsemanticdifferential
measureofapproach-avoidancewasusedtomeasuretheintendedin-storebehavioral
responses to the physical environment (adapted from Donovan and Rossiter, 1982).
Weincludedthefollowingitemsthatrelatedtoin-storebehaviors:toexplorethestore,
to spend more time than planned, to spend more money than planned, and to be
friendlytowards strangersin the store.
Initialanalysis
We combined the music and book store samples as store type neither had main nor
interaction effects at p.0.10 with any of the other independent variables on our
dependent variables of satisfaction and in-store behavior. In addition, the store-level
analysis yielded identical results to a combined sample analysis. For reasons of
parsimony, wepresentthe combined sample analysisin this section.
Reliabilityand validity of measures
The relationship between the dependent variables of satisfaction and approach/
avoidancescaleswascheckedusinganexploratoryfactoranalysiswithobliquerotation
as satisfaction and in-store behaviors were correlated. The measure of sampling
adequacy(MSA)wasexcellentat0.90.Thefactoranalysisresultedinacleantwo-factor
structure (all factor loadings exceeded 0.86). The first factor consisted of the three
satisfaction items (satisfied, enjoyed visit and good choice), while the second factor
comprisedofthein-storeapproach-avoidanceitemsofexploration(explore,spendtime),
spending(spendmoney),andaffiliation(feelfriendlytowardsothers).Thetotalvariance
explainedwas83.2percent.TheCronbachavaluesindicatedhighreliabilityofallscales
used(TableI).
To ensure that our manipulation checks measure separate constructs, an
exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the actual arousal, desired arousal
and actual pleasure scales. As expected, the results indicate a three-factor solution
with 74.1 percent overall variance explained by the three constructs. All the factor
loadings were high and loaded on their expected factors. Moreover, the correlations
IJSIM coefficients in Table I show that the manipulation checks were not significantly
18,1 correlated, suggesting clean manipulations.
Also, as intended, arousal congruency was determined by actual arousal and
desired arousal. Actual arousal was negatively correlated to in-store behavior, but
showednosignificantcorrelationwithsatisfaction.Furthermore,incontrasttoactual
arousal, desired-arousal showed no significant correlation with in-store approach
14 behavior. These initial findings suggest a differential impact of actual arousal on
in-storeapproachbehaviorandsatisfaction,andofactualarousalanddesired-arousal
onin-storeapproachbehavior,whichwillbeexploredfurtherinthehypothesistesting
section.
Assessment of manipulations
As expected, subjects who expected a highly arousing store environment scored
significantlyhigheronthedesiredarousalmanipulationcheckthantheirlowarousal
expectations counterparts, X ¼5:44 and X ¼2:73,
highdesiredarousal lowdesiredarousal
t¼57.1, p,0.001. Consequently, the target-arousal manipulation was successful.
Similarly, subjects who were shown pleasant store environments rated the store as
significantlymorepleasantthansubjectsshownunpleasantstores,X ¼5:46
highpleasure
and X ¼2:38, t¼59.8, p,0.001. In other words, the valence of the
lowpleasure
environment was perceived as intended. Finally, the means for actual arousal are as
expected,X ¼2:71, X ¼5:05, andX ¼5:77for thelow,
lowarousal mediumarousal higharousal
moderate and high arousal video clips. All comparisons were significant at p,0.05
level. Taken together,theseresults indicatethatourmanipulations were effective.
Hypothesis testing
Arousalcongruencywasmanipulatedthroughtheactualarousalanddesiredarousal
conditions. For reasons of parsimonyandtoallowusto directly test ourhypotheses,
we coded the summated arousal congruency scale into three categories:
under-stimulation (scale mean , 3.5), arousal congruence (3.5#scale mean , 4.5),
and over-stimulation (scale mean$4.5). The satisfaction and in-store approach
behaviormean scores across theexperimentalconditions areshown in Figure 1. The
ANOVA tables for satisfaction and in-store behavior are shown in Tables II and III,
respectively.
Satisfaction response
The results from an ANOVA table indicate a significant main effect for both
pleasureand arousalcongruencyon satisfaction,and these maineffects arequalified
by a significant two-way interaction (Table II). We expected that, in pleasant
environments, arousal congruency would lead to higher satisfaction levels than
either perceived under- or over-stimulation (H1). The cell means shown in Figure 1
clearly support this hypothesis. Satisfaction is highest in the arousal congruency
condition (X ¼5:98), and equally low in the two mismatch conditions
congruency
(X ¼2:18, and X ¼2:06). The contrast between the
under–stimulation over–stimulation
under-stimulation and arousal congruency is highly significant (t¼22.7; p,0.001),
as is the contrast between arousal congruency and over-stimulation (t¼33.3;
p,0.001). The contrast between the under- and over-stimulation means is not
significant at t¼0.74, p.0.10.Together,thesefindingsprovide support for H1.
The role of
Satisfaction
6.00 arousal
5.98
congruency
5.50
5.00
15
4.50
4.00
3.50 Understimulation
3.00 Congruency
2.50 Overstimulation
2.18
1.96
2.00
2.06
1.81
1.50
1.56
1.00
Low pleasure High pleasure
In-Store Approach Behavior
6.00
5.50
5.00
5.00
4.50
4.28
4.00
Understimulation
3.50 3.44
3.00 Congruency
2.75
2.50 Overstimulation
2.00 2.03
Figure1.
1.69 Satisfactionandin-store
1.50
behaviorsasafunctionof
arousalcongruencyand
1.00
pleasure
Low pleasure High pleasure
Conversely, the mean satisfaction ratings are uniformly low in unpleasant
environments. These results are congruent with our valence-moderation hypothesis.
Here, the contrast between under-stimulation and arousal congruency was not
significant (t¼1.39; p.0.10), and satisfaction dropped significantly in the
over-stimulation condition (t¼4.72; p,0.05), but much less so than in the pleasant