When a product takes on characteristics of the person who created it: Sometimes it sounds sweeter

• Published in: Journal of consumer psychology Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 19 - 35
• Main Authors: Folkes, Valerie S., Matta, Shashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.01.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Confirmatory hypothesis testing; Congruence; Consumers; Distortion; Gender; Gender-typing; Judgments; Music; Product quality; Product source; Product trial; Stereotypes; Product source; Product quality; Gender-typing; Stereotypes; Confirmatory hypothesis testing; Product trial
• ISSN: 1057-7408; 1532-7663
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2012.01.006

We investigated when consumers' judgments about a product reflect information about its product source (the person who creates the product). Three experiments manipulated congruence between the source's gender and the gender-typing of the source's product. When congruent with expectations (a male conductor played male-typed music), pre-trial source information had the same effect on post-trial product judgments as when source information was absent. Incongruence (a female conductor played male-typed music) distorted product attribute judgments when the source's competence was questioned. Her music was judged to be more delicate, less powerful and worse quality than his. This process of product experience being assimilated into incompetence stereotypes required minimal cognitive resources. When the incongruent source was undoubtedly competent, the amount of experiential evidence about an attribute influenced distortion. Consumers judged powerful music as powerful regardless of conductor gender, but, lacking much evidence about its delicacy, judged hers as more delicate than his. The selective effect of source gender information reflects consumers' cognitively effortful hypothesis testing of beliefs that gender expresses itself in a person's output against experiential evidence.