Consumers are often exposed to information that may contradict their consumption experience, leading to “false memory” for aspects of the consumption. We develop a theory suggesting why false memory may be heightened due to imagery processing. We subject this theory to a rigorous test in three experiments. We find that post-consumption imagery makes it more difficult to discern between consumption and misleading information thereby boosting false recall. Yet, imagery that is more consumption-based helps reduce consumers' susceptibility to false memory. Consistent with this notion, we explicate the role that attention plays at different stages of consumption in affecting false memory.
Consumers often encounter information that contradicts their consumption experience. Contradictory information may be seen while answering surveys or participating in message boards, online discussion groups and/or social networking sites. Even conversations with other consumers or salespeople may expose us to misleading information. Conventional wisdom suggests that consumption experiences lead to lasting impressions that are impervious to misinformation. Yet, anecdotal evidence offers evidence to the contrary. The commotion surrounding “unpatchable” flaws in the Firefox browser during an industry conference highlights this problem (Lyman, 2006). Although untrue, the speed with which news about this “problem” spread and the outpouring of concern among users—even after retraction of the report—underlines the potential effect of post-consumption misinformation on consumer memory.
Academic research demonstrates that exposure to misleading information leads to a post-consumption misinformation effect (Braun, 1999). Findings suggest that while evaluations are susceptible to misinformation, facts—especially those central to the consumption—may be immune (Braun, 1999 and Cowley and Janus, 2004). However, conclusions about the immunity of facts centrally related to consumption are based on two implicit premises that may not generalize to a significant chunk of modern consumption. The first premise is that consumption is largely underpinned by reasoning-based or “discursive” information processing (e.g., ELM, Petty and Cacioppo, 1986 and Schlosser, 2003, p. 184). The second, stemming from the first premise, is that when facts are judgments about the product, the centrality of a fact might even sharpen memory—possibly due to greater thought (e.g., Cowley & Janus, 2004).
Both these premises are subject to challenge when consumption-related information processing is seen from a broader, more inclusive viewpoint. Modern consumption spans both products that may be viewed from a discursive processing lens (such as food products, financial services, and consumer durables) and those that implicate imagery processing (e.g., Green and Brock, 2002 and Wyer et al., 2008) such as movies, video games, leisure parks and many forms of internet usage. With such products, imagery is not only an integral part of the consumption, but is also intertwined in various post-consumption behaviors. For instance, narrating the experience to a friend, posting on blogs, or responding to market research in these contexts would involve imagery. Indeed, previous research on web-based consumption suggests that inferences using a discursive lens may not readily generalize to imagery-rich environments (Schlosser, 2003). When consumption involves imagery, the centrality of a fact may not accord it any particular benefit (in terms of greater thought). This raises the question of memory resilience in such environments.
In this paper we investigate the false memory problem using the misinformation experimental paradigm with interactive consumption as the imagery-based consumption context. We find that key facets of consumption may not only be susceptible to false memory, but—when post-consumption imagery is explicitly encouraged—also be heightened because it is difficult to monitor the true memory of consumption versus the images generated via imagery. Yet, imagery that is more focused on the consumption itself may help reduce consumers' susceptibility to false memory due to additional opportunities to discern between competing sources of information. Consistent with this notion, we find that attention devoted to the consumption at retrieval may help reduce false memory. Fig. 1 summarizes our conceptual model.
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Fig. 1.
Conceptual Model.
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Reconstructive memory and the role of source monitoring
The broad theoretical framework guiding false memory research is the idea of reconstructive memory (Bartlett, 1932). This framework suggests that we do not necessarily retrieve our memories about previous events in a manner similar to replaying a video recording. Rather, our seemingly veridical memories are reconstructed from different pieces of information accessed on the basis of retrieval cues. Thus it might include pieces of the picture that have been inferred from the rest of the information available to us. The false memory effect is one specific manifestation of this process whereby post-consumption stimulus information is integrated into the memory for the consumption event during (a later) reconstructive process.
Source monitoring theory (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993) may help explain how misinformation seen after consumption becomes integrated with consumption memory. This framework has been used to explain misidentification of event sponsors or brands in advertisements (Johar and Pham, 1999 and Pham and Johar, 1997). Johnson et al. (1993) define source monitoring as the set of processes involved in making attributions about the origins of memories, knowledge and beliefs. A failure in source monitoring leads to misattribution between information remembered from a consumption episode versus post-consumption information (such as ads, word of mouth or even erroneous questions). This, in turn leads to the merging of post-consumption information into consumption memory leading to the misinformation effect. Thus, the mix-up between post-consumption information and memory for the consumption occurs because of failure to accurately monitor the source of each piece of information.
