Some Effects of Schematic Processing on Consumer Expectations and Disconfirmation Judgments

Recent research has shown that processing based on the product-category schemas of consumers can influence the manner in which consumers evaluate products. This article presents a series of studies that explore how processing based on such schemas interacts with consumer expectations prior to the trial of a new product and influences disconfirmation judgments and product evaluations following the trial. An initial study finds that, when attributes included in the description of a new product are very discrepant from a prior category schema, consumers may switch schemas in forming pretrial expectations. A second study finds that more negative product evaluations following the trial may result when consumers' experience with a product during the trial is very different from schema expectations, compared with the situation in which the product matches schema expectations. A third study demonstrates that disconfirmation judgments and post-trial evaluations may occur through processing at the product-category schema level, rather than through processing at the product attribute level.