סמינר בשיווק

Nira Munichor , Bar-Ilan University

Given that anger is generally considered a negative feeling, intuitively we should expect people to refrain from consuming anger-eliciting items. Contrary to this intuition, our research suggests that sometimes people deliberately consume items (e.g., news articles) that make them angry. This effect may occur when anger is intertwined with a conflict between personal attitudes and the message conveyed by a consumed item. The research further suggests that this effect arises because such anger-involved consumption may have positive effects on subsequent self-perceptions. Results from a set of experiments show that anger encourages people to consume items that convey a conflict with their personal attitudes (e.g., an article or television show that speaks in favor of a rival political party). The research further shows that enhanced consumption of anger-eliciting items eventually helps people feel better about themselves. These findings contribute to our understanding of the evasive interplay between emotions, consumption and self-perceptions.