Love Denied: The Emotional Paradox of Romantic Jilting

This paper introduces romantic jilting, a sudden, unexpected denial of an emotionally significant romantic offering, and reveals a compelling paradox that follows jilting: consumers want the offering more, even as their liking diminishes. Across four studies, we demonstrate that sadness resulting from jilting triggers both emotional detachment (reducing liking) and psychological reactance (intensifying wanting). This paradox emerges consistently across contexts, influences behavioral outcomes (e.g., reduced word-of-mouth, increased grey-market intent), and is moderated by perceived justice over time. When justice is perceived as high, liking rebounds while heightened wanting persists, enabling affective recovery while sustaining consumers’ motivation to re-engage. These findings challenge the longstanding assumption that liking and wanting align, offering novel insights into the dual pathways through which emotions shape consumer behavior. By uncovering romantic jilting as a distinct and impactful consumer experience, this research opens new theoretical and managerial avenues in the study of emotionally charged consumption and post-failure brand dynamics.