ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Association for Consumer Research, University of Minnesota Duluth, 115 Chester Park, 31 West College Street Duluth, MN 55812 Pride & Prejudice: How an Individual’S Hubris Makes Them Say Bad Things About Your Brand Felix Septianto, University of Auckland, New Zealand Gavin Northey, University of Auckland, New Zealand Tung Moi Chiew, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia Vicki Andonopoulos, University of New South Wales, Australia Liem Viet Ngo, University of New South Wales, Australia This research develops and tests a novel prediction that hubristic pride can increase negative word of mouth following a service failure. Results from six experiments show that the effect of hubristic pride is driven by increased psychological entitlement. [to cite]: Felix Septianto, Gavin Northey, Tung Moi Chiew, Vicki Andonopoulos, and Liem Viet Ngo (2019) ,"Pride & Prejudice: How an Individual’S Hubris Makes Them Say Bad Things About Your Brand", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 47, eds. Rajesh Bagchi, Lauren Block, and Leonard Lee, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 840-841. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/2550402/volumes/v47/NA-47 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Pride & Prejudice: How an Individual’s Hubris Makes Them Say Bad Things About Your Brand Felix Septianto, University of Auckland, New Zealand Gavin Northey, University of Auckland, New Zealand Tung Moi (Eileen) Chiew, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia Vicki Andonopoulos, University of New South Wales, Australia Liem Viet Ngo, University of New South Wales, Australia EXTENDED ABSTRACT pride, and happiness to predict intentions to engage in NWOM. We also controlled for the negative affect in the model. Results revealed Purpose that increasing dispositional hubristic pride was associated with in- Consumer word-of-mouth (WOM) is an important driver of eco- creasing intentions to engage in negative WOM. nomic activity and accounts for over $6 trillion in global consumer Study 2a (N = 189) employed a one-factor, four-level (emotion: spending each year (Cardona, 2015). However, negative WOM can hubristic pride, authentic pride, happiness, neutral) between-subjects be a significant issue for companies, since consumers are twice as design. Results revealed that participants in the hubristic pride con- likely to spread negative WOM as they are to spread positive WOM dition had higher intentions to engage in negative WOM, as com- (Anderson, 1998; Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). This is even more pared to those in authentic pride, happiness, and neutral conditions relevant in service settings such as restaurants, hotels, and airlines, supporting Hypothesis 1a. We then conducted a series of mediation where the complexity of services and delivery processes mean there analyses using PROCESS Model 4 with 10,000 resamples (Hayes, are many opportunities for a service failure to occur (Boston Con- 2017). Results revealed significant indirect effects of hubristic pride sulting Group, 2013). Much research on the antecedents and drivers (as compared to happiness, authentic pride, and neutral conditions) of negative WOM have mostly focused on examining how a firm’s via psychological entitlement, supporting Hypothesis 1b. Study 2b negative performance can give rise to negative emotional reactions, (N = 201) found that participants in the hubristic pride condition had thus leading to negative WOM (Kalamas, Laroche, & Makdessian, higher intentions to engage in NWOM, as compared to those in au- 2008; Soscia, 2007; Wetzer, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2007). However, thentic pride, happiness, and neutral conditions. We also replicated it remains unclear whether contextual factors that seem to be unre- the indirect effects via psychological entitlement. lated to a firm’s negative performance might further influence nega- Study 3 (N = 184) employed a 2 (emotion: hubristic pride, neu- tive WOM. tral) × 2 (entitlement: heightened, control) between-subjects design. This is particularly important when we consider the fact that We expected that the emotion effects should be attenuated in the firms regularly evoke positive emotions in their advertising and mar- heightened entitlement condition. Results showed that in the con- keting campaigns (Cavanaugh, Bettman, & Luce, 2015; Septianto trol condition, participants in hubristic pride condition had higher & Pratiwi, 2016). This present research seeks to investigate whether intentions to engage in negative WOM than did those in the neutral positive emotions experienced by consumers, while unrelated to a condition. However, these differences were non-significant in the firm’s negative performance, can further influence negative WOM. manipulated entitlement condition. Theoretically, this is also significant because it involves how emo- Study 4 (N = 400) employed a 4 (emotion: hubristic pride, au- tions unrelated to a firm’s negative performance (i.e., incidental thentic pride, happiness, neutral) × 2 (promotion: discount, donation) emotions) might further affect consumer intentions to spread nega- between-subjects design. We found that in the discount-promotion tive WOM. This is controlling for the fact that consumers’ negative condition, participants in the hubristic pride condition had higher WOM is influenced by negative emotions arising from that negative intentions to engage in negative WOM, as compared to those in experience (i.e., integral emotions). authentic pride, happiness, and neutral conditions. However, these differences across emotion conditions were non-significant in the do- Design/Methodology nation-promotion condition. Moderated mediation analysis also pro- We test our predictions across six experimental studies. Study vided support for Hypothesis 2b. We also replicated these findings 1 aims to test Hypothesis 1a using dispositional emotions. Studies using different stimuli. This additional study (N = 239) employed a 2a and 2b extend the findings of Study 1 by directly manipulating 2 (emotion: hubristic pride, neutral) × 2 (promotion: discount, dona- emotion states to establish the causal relationship between emotion tion) between-subjects design. and intentions to engage in negative WOM. Studies 1 and 2a use the context of a service failure in a hotel, whereas Study 2b examines a Findings, originality and contribution context in which participants recall their own experience to provide The present research makes several important implications, convergent evidence and increase confidence on our findings. Study theoretically and managerially. First, this research contributes to the 3 further examines the underlying mechanism driving the emotion emotion and WOM literature by demonstrating how incidental emo- effects using the ‘moderation-of-process’ approach. Studies 3 and 4 tions that are unrelated to a firm’s negative performance can influence also explore a different service failure case in a restaurant to increase negative WOM following a service failure. Second, it establishes the the robustness of the results. Finally, Study 4 investigates the bound- underlying process driving the effect of hubristic pride – psychologi- ary condition and examines the moderating role of different promo- cal entitlement – and test a boundary condition of the emotion ef- tion types (H2a and H2b). fects. That is, when consumers’ attention is directed to helping other Study 1 (N = 206) employed a one-factor, three-level (disposi- people, the hubristic pride effect is attenuated. Managerially, these tional emotion: hubristic pride, authentic pride, happiness) within- findings are beneficial for firms and service providers to understand subjects design. Specifically, we examine the association between how to minimize the potential backlash of using positive emotions dispositional emotions and intentions to engage in negative WOM. in their marketing communications, especially when service failures We conducted a regression analysis using hubristic pride, authentic occur. Advances in Consumer Research 840 Volume 47, ©2019 Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 47) / 841 REFERENCES Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and Anderson, E. W. (1998). Customer satisfaction and word of mouth. conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, Journal of Service Research, 1(1), 5-17. 2nd edition. New York: Guilford Press. Boston Consulting Group. (2013). Advocacy Drives Growth Across Kalamas, M., Laroche, M., & Makdessian, L. (2008). 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