The Effect of Irrelevant Information on Consumer Irritation and Attitudes: the Moderating Role of Need to Evaluate

Past research has investigated the effect of irrelevant information related to the advertised product on consumers’ beliefs in the product’s ability to deliver the desired benefit. The results suggest that irrelevant product information systematically weakens consumers’ beliefs that the product will provide the desired benefit. An interesting question that follows is if the impact of brand related irrelevant information is considerable to the extent it may systematically weaken the impact of diagnostic information, then what would be the impact of non-brand related irrelevant information, as it is likely to be in the context of cross-selling? Is the impact of such irrelevant information negative to the extent that it causes irritation in consumers? Since irritation can have negative consequences, does such irrelevant information lead to negative reactions toward the focal product as well as the advertiser? The above questions assume importance when—in an attempt to make additional sales— advertisers and salespeople frequently expose consumers to a substantial amount of information that may be irrelevant to the product under consideration. The current paper explores consumers’ reactions to information that is irrelevant to the product offering itself, as is likely to happen in a cross-selling context. We posit that consumers are likely to be more irritated when they are exposed to descriptions and offers of products that are completely unrelated to the focal product (i.e., highly irrelevant information) than when these products are viewed as complementary to the focal product (i.e., less irrelevant information). Based on excitation transfer theory and recency effects, it is suggested that the irritation elicited as a result of exposure to information that is not relevant to the focal product may negatively affect consumers’ attitudes toward the advertiser, the focal brand, and their purchase intentions. We further posit consumer irritation will be elicited in different degrees in consumers who differ in their propensity to evaluate information. In other words, the individual level variable—need to evaluate—will moderate the elicitation of irritation in consumers and its subsequent transfer to attitudes towards the advertiser and the advertised focal brand. A 2 (nature of irrelevant information: highly irrelevant vs. less irrelevant) X 2 (need to evaluate: high vs. low) between-subjects design was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Seventy-two undergraduate students received course credit for participating in the experiment. Out of these, twenty-eight students were males and forty-four were females. The subjects were randomly assigned to the two conditions related to the nature of information: highly irrelevant vs. less irrelevant. Need to evaluate was a measured variable. The subjects completed a questionnaire which contained a scenario. The subjects were asked to imagine that they had called the toll-free number in the ad for the abdominal exerciser and were in a conversation with a sales representative. The scenarios contained information that varied in its degree of irrelevance—highly irrelevant vs. less irrelevant.