BIASES IN SATISFACTION: THE MODERATOR EFFECT OF DIFFICULTY AND OBLIGATION ON POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MEMORIES

Abstract

Based on the theoretical assumption that individuals can distort information and opinions in their memories recovery process, this article proposes that satisfaction evaluations are influenced by such distortions. In two experiments individuals were requested to remind and to report facts about service providers companies, demonstrating that it is possible to positively influence (vs. negative) satisfaction evaluations by asking only positive facts (vs. negative). However, the influence of positive or negative valence does not act isolated, but depends on two other factors together, the difficulty and the obligation perceived. In volitional acts (with intention, not forced) individuals who had to recall positive events (vs. negative) of their business relationships evaluated themselves as more (vs. less) satisfied, but only when the perceived difficulty was higher, indicating more deliberation on the events. However, when forced to remember and disseminate information, the different valences influence only occurred when the task was perceived as easier. Therefore, this study contributes to relationship marketing theories by investigating the influence on an important factor, satisfaction evaluation and, contributes to information processing and decision theories by demonstrating that bias of evaluations depends not only of the perceived difficulty, but also of the perceived obligation on the task.