Fading Optimism in Products: Temporal Changes in Expectations about Performance

Abstract

The authors demonstrate that choosing one product from a set of competing alternatives can change expectations about the chosen product such that consumers can become optimistic about the product's performance, and this optimism can then fade away. In five experiments, the authors show that this phenomenon of fading optimism in products is robust across different experimental settings and product categories and is moderated by prior attitude toward the product category and ambiguity of the product's performance.