Induction of Construal-Level Mindset via Experience of Surprise: An Abstract

Abstract

An experience of surprise is often an outcome of disconfirmation of expectations and can be associated with positive or negative affect depending on the valence of disconfirmation. In case of a positive surprise, the unexpectedness quality of the surprise may get associated with the positive affect and in turn may induce an affinity toward unexpectedness for future events. In contrast, after experiencing a negative surprise, people may dislike the quality of unexpectedness and may look to avoid that quality for future events. According to the construal-level theory, high (low) unexpectedness of an event has a reciprocal relationship with a high-level, abstract (low-level, concrete) construal of the event. Therefore, we theorize that an experience of surprise may induce a construal-level mindset such that a positive surprise may lead to an abstract mindset, whereas a negative surprise may lead to a concrete mindset. Consequently, the induced mindset may influence evaluations and judgments of subsequently presented stimuli in the same fashion as abstract/concrete processing of the stimuli would do. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were asked to evaluate promotionally or preventionally framed ad messages following manipulation of surprise. In Study 1, participants in the positive (negative) surprise condition evaluated promotionally (preventionally) framed message more favorably than preventionally (promotionally) framed message for a personal care product. In Study 2, the same pattern of results was observed for a health product. In Study 3, following manipulation of surprise, participants were asked to make a series of trade-offs between factors that alluded to either feasibility or desirability considerations. Participants in the positive surprise condition leaned toward desirability-related factors, whereas those in the negative surprise condition leaned toward feasibility-related factors. The three studies together support the idea that an experience of surprise may induce a construal-level mindset and in turn influence consumer evaluations and judgments of subsequently presented stimuli even when the stimuli are not related to the factors that caused the experience of surprise. Future studies should examine the theorized effects on other relevant dependent variables and also strive for more direct evidence of the induction of construal-level mindset following an experience of surprise.