Asymmetry in the disconfirmation of expectations for natural yogurt

Effects of expectations conveyed by a product description or an empty packa ge on the evaluation of four types of natural yogurt were studied in a labo ratory setting. Hedonic and perceptual responses for the correctly or incor rectly identified products generally showed assimilation: they fell between the responses to the unlabelled products and the responses for the expecte d properties evoked by presenting only product descriptions or empty packag es. Hedonic judgments remained close to the expectation when the product pe rformed better than expected, whereas they were relatively close to the eva luation for the unlabelled product when the product performed worse than ex pected. The asymmetry was largest for the buying intentions of subjects who received product packages. This is in accordance with the theory that posi tive disconfirmations are regarded as "gains" and negative disconfirmations as "losses". The asymmetry is likely to be more important in actual buying behaviour than in the experimental settings generally studied, as here. (C ) 1999 Academic Press.