Educating customers about flowers is a sales tactic most industry experts rally around. But according to new research, a little information goes a long way.

Newswise reports that researchers at the University of Iowa have found an interesting trait — they refer to it as the Blissful Ignorance Effect — among consumers.  "People who have only a little information about a product are happier with that product than people who have more information," according to the study.

Researchers determined the extent of the "effect" through a series of consumer experiments. In two of the experiments, consumers held two products, chocolate and hand lotion, and they were asked their opinions on each item after being given either a lot of information on the product, or very little information. "In each instance," according to the researchers at the university, "the subjects who had little information were more optimistic about the chocolate or hand lotion than those who had more information."

One of the lead researchers, Dhananjay Nayakankuppam, believes that consumers develop an emotional attachment to the products they know little about and they engage in a form of "wishful thinking." This effect, he says, "demonstrates that people have a need to be happy with their choice, and will often engage in whatever distortion is needed to justify the purchase. That means playing up the positive aspects while downplaying the negatives."

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 

Previous Article    Next Article