The curious case of curiosity: unpleasant advertising and curiosity

Previous research demonstrated that advertisements that induce positive feelings are effective. However, unpleasant advertising are frequently used and can be effective as well. This research examines whether evoked curiosity can explain the effectiveness of unpleasant advertising. Our results indicate that although unpleasant advertising did not lead to behavioral intention with regard to the advertised product, unpleasant advertising did evoke curiosity. Curiosity itself proves to be a strong predictor of behavioral intention

I-curiosity and D-curiosity in smoking initiation: is regret the key?

The current paper shows that individuals can be I-curious (interest-driven) and D-curious (deprivation-driven) for initiating smoking (study 1). Further, we demonstrate that scoring high on D-curiosity to start smoking is associated with a higher motivation to quit smoking, because people who initiate smoking out of D-curiosity experience more regret (study 2). A third study shows that anti-tobacco advertising is effective to enhance smokers motivation to quit smoking, in the case of individuals who started smoking out of D-curiosity, but not for individuals scoring high on I-curiosity to start smoking. A fourth study shows that when regret is made salient, anti-smoking advertising works for both curiosity-type smokers

Follow your curiosity, you won’t regret it : how disconfirmed expectations will not always result in dissatisfaction

The present paper shows that higher curiosity levels are related with higher expectations regarding the product and more negative disconfirmation between expectations and performance of the product. However, satisfying curiosity leads to pleasure so that this negative disconfirmation does not lead to dissatisfaction or regret after product trial

Follow your curiosity, you won’t regret it

Previous research demonstrates that advertisements that induce curiosity are stimulating product trial. However, little research has looked at post-purchase satisfaction and regret after product trials induced by curiosity. We show that higher curiosity levels are related with higher expectations regarding the product and more negative disconfirmation between expectancies and performance of the product. Contrary to what the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm would predict, this negative disconfirmation does not lead to dissatisfaction or regret about product trial. Inducing curiosity does not affect product satisfaction in a negative way and leads to less regret, even though expectancies are disconfirmed