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| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | General Research Fund | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 14504815 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | When Attractive Service Providers Make Mistakes: Who Will Be More Dissatisfied? | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 當俊俏或美麗的服務員犯錯了: 誰會更不滿? | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Prof Wan, Chun Ying | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||
| Department : | School of Hotel and Tourism Management | ||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | lisawan@baf.cuhk.edu.hk | ||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | 852-39438624 | ||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Business Studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Business Studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2015 / 16 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 606,200 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 31-5-2019 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
Consumers typically react more favorably to attractive opposite-sex service providers than to unattractive ones, as evidenced by their greater satisfaction and intentions to purchase the products being sold (Ahearne, Gruen, and Jarvis 1999; Reingen and Kernan 1993). These favorable reactions would suggest that attractiveness has a positive impact on consumer tolerance for service failures. As this proposal suggests, however, there are certain situations in which an attractive provider is likely to have a deleterious effect.
The “beautiful is good” stereotype suggests that attractive individuals are perceived to have more favorable attributes (goodness, innocence, social competence, etc.) than unattractive persons. Among these attributes, social competence is the most robust (Eagly et al. 1991). Because people perceive socially competent individuals to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of others (Griffin and Langlois 2006), consumers are likely to expect the quality of their interaction with an attractive provider to be positive. Therefore, when this expectation is violated, they may be relatively less forgiving of an attractive provider’s mistakes than of an unattractive provider’s errors.
Past research has distinguished between social and nonsocial service failures (Chan, Wan, and Sin 2009). A social failure is one in which consumers suffer a loss of social resources (e.g., status, esteem) as a result of their interaction with the service provider, whereas a nonsocial failure is one in which they suffer a loss of nonsocial resources (e.g., money, time). Expectations for a provider’s social competence are more likely to influence reactions to social service failures. That is, consumers are likely to react less positively to attractive (vs. unattractive) providers when these failures occur than when non-social failures occur. In addition, this pattern will be stronger for consumers with a communal orientation (e.g., females) who are relatively more sensitive than agentic (e.g., males) consumers to interpersonal relationships (Eagly, Wood, and Diekman 2000).
The present research will be the first to examine conditions in which physical attractiveness of service providers increases consumers’ favorable reactions in service failures and when it decreases these reactions. Our findings will offer valuable managerial insights into the role of service providers’ physical attractiveness on consumers’ behavior.
之前的研究顯示，在銷售產品的過程中，俊俏/ 美麗的異性服務員（相比起外貌普通的）可以令消費者更滿意及激發更高的購買意欲。從這些正面反應可以推測，俊俏/ 美麗的服務員可以提高消費者對服務失誤的容忍程度。但這份建議書提出，在某些情況下，外貌俊俏/ 美麗的服務員反而會造成反效果。 因為大眾有「美麗即是好」的觀念，俊俏/ 美麗的人常被視為擁有更多美好特質（例如善良、天真無邪等）。當中，消費者認為「外貌吸引的人擁有更好社交手腕」的印象會在他們評價服務員時帶來最大的影響。 因為人們普遍認為社交能力強的人更能體恤他人的需要，所以消費者會對外貌吸引人的服務員有更高的期望。如果他們達不到這期望，消費者反而會變得更不滿。 以往的研究界定了服務失誤當中社交性和非社交性兩者的分別。社交性失誤指消費者因與服務員的互動而造成社交層面上的損失（例如不受尊重），而非社交性失誤則指該損失不是社交層面上的（如金錢、時間等）。在這兩種失誤中，消費者對服務員社交能力的期望會在社交性失誤中影響更大。因此，當社交性失誤發生時，消費者會對外貌吸引的服務員更為不滿。而且，這模式在更注重人際關係的消費者（例如女性）身上會更強烈。 本研究率先探討服務失誤時，外貌吸引人的服務員會於何時對消費者產生正面或反面的影響。研究結果將會為服務員外貌在消費者行為中扮演的角色帶來重要的管理啟示。 |
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| Realisation of objectives: | This project investigated the impact of service providers’ physical attractiveness on consumers’ reactions to a service failure. Although abundant research has shown that physically attractive individuals are perceived as having more socially desirable attributes and obtain many benefits from these positive evaluations, such as higher customer purchases from an attractive salesperson (i.e., “beauty premium”), our research shows that there are certain situations in which an attractive service provider is likely to have a deleterious effect. We argue that the most robust attribute associated with the “beautiful is good” stereotype is social competence (i.e., the ability to handle social interactions effectively). Therefore, consumers are likely to expect the quality of their interaction with an attractive provider to be positive, and they will form a higher expectation for attractive than for less attractive service providers’ interaction qualities (e.g., manner, attitude). When this social competence expectation is violated, therefore, consumers will be relatively less forgiving of attractive (vs. average-looking) providers’ mistakes. These effects are also depending on the nature of the failure and the importance that consumers attach to social competence. We conducted a pilot study and five experiments to test our hypotheses. All objectives were successfully achieved. Our pilot study confirmed our assumptions that consumers have higher expectations for an opposite-sex service provider’s social competence when the provider is physically attractive than when (s)he is average looking. Two experiments (experiment 1 and 2a) then confirmed our hypothesis that participants’ negative reactions to a provider’s social service failure increase with the provider’s physical attractiveness whereas their negative reactions to a provider’s nonsocial failure decrease. Experiment 2a, which is a field study conducted at a University, demonstrated these effects are mediated by a violation of social competence expectation (objective 1 and 2 are achieved). Additional scenario based experiments (experiment 3 and 4) then confirmed these effects are stronger among consumers who have a communal orientation to interpersonal relationships rather than an agentic orientation (Objective 3 was achieved). Although all the objectives were achieved, we acknowledged that the publication threshold of top tier journals is increasing. To provide additional insights, we conducted two additional experiments, experiment 2b (a real observation situation) and 5 (an online complaint from the Tripadvisor) to examine observers’ reactions. We conducted experiment 2a and 2b in the same consumption setting. We contacted a company that regularly organizes road shows to promote PVA Chamois towels at different shopping malls in Hong Kong. Participants were told that the company had set up a booth at the University to sell a new brand of PVA Chamois towel and wanted to receive feedback. In Experiment 2a, participants were “mystery shoppers” who interacted with a service provider and reported their satisfaction with the experience. In Experiment 2b, yoked observers witnessed the interaction between protagonists in Experiment 2a behind a one-way mirror and reported both their reactions to the interaction and their willingness to purchase the product being promoted. Experiment 2b confirmed our hypothesis that observers’ reactions to customers’ interaction with a service provider are similar to those of the customers themselves. That is, they reacted more negatively to an attractive than to an average-looking provider when they observed a social failure but reacted less unfavorably to an attractive than to a less attractive provider when they observed a nonsocial failure. The interactive effects of failure type and provider attractiveness were mediated by their effects on social competence expectation violations. Experiments 5 investigated the similar observers’ reactions in an online complaint context. Results replicated the findings in experiment 3, that is, the service provider attractiveness effects on observers are stronger among observers who have a communal orientation to interpersonal relationships rather than an agentic orientation. In other words, we confirmed the generalization of these effects to observers of a service provider’s interaction with a consumer in both offline and online contexts. These findings go beyond the requirements of our original project objectives. | ||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | Physically attractive individuals are perceived to have more favorable attributes (goodness, popular, social competence, etc.) and consumers often react favorably to these individuals. Nevertheless, an attractive service provider can sometimes have a deleterious effect on reactions to a service failure. A pilot study and five experiments showed that consumers expect an opposite-sex service provider to be more socially competent when the provider is attractive than when s/he is not. Therefore, they are relatively less forgiving of an attractive opposite-sex provider who conveys social incompetence (e.g., rudeness). This tendency is reversed, however, if the provider’s performance failure reflects technical incompetence (e.g., inefficiency). These directionally opposing effects are evident both when consumers directly interact with a service provider and when they observe about another person doing so. These effects are mediated by a violation of social competence expectation (Objective 1 and 2 were achieved), and are stronger among consumers who have a communal orientation to interpersonal relationships rather than an agentic orientation (Objective 3 was achieved). These effects are confirmed in both offline and online contexts. The conditions in which the physical attractiveness of a service provider increases or decreases consumers’ favorable reactions in service failures have not previously been identified. Moreover, it indicates that a communal orientation is not necessarily “empathetic” as portrayed in past literature. Communal (vs. agentic) consumers actually react more negatively to attractive opposite-sex providers who commit a social failure. These findings also offer valuable insights on using attractive service providers to increase consumer satisfaction and the sale of products. Although consumers are more forgiving of opposite-sex attractive (vs. average-looking) service providers’ technical mistakes, they actually react more negatively to their social incompetence. Managers, therefore, should ensure that attractive service providers are socially competent. We presented the project findings at four international conferences. Conferences: Wan, Lisa C. and Robert S. Wyer (2019), “When A Beautiful Service Provider Makes Mistakes: To Forgive or Not to Forgive?” (Special Session) Association for Consumer Research conference. Wan, Lisa C. and Robert S. Wyer (2018), “When A Beautiful Service Provider Makes Mistakes: The Moderating Role of Service Failure Type” European Association for Consumer Research conference. Wan, Lisa C. (2017), “To Tolerate or Not to Tolerate? When Attractive Opposite-Sex Service Providers Make Mistakes.” 2017 Asia Pacific Tourism Association conference. Wan, Lisa C. (2016), “Consumer Reactions to Service Failure: When Attractive Opposite-Sex Service Providers Make Mistakes.” The Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management conference. | ||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
We submitted the manuscript to Journal of Consumer Research on Oct 8, 2019. However, it was rejected. One of the key issues was a reviewer wanted us to conduct an additional field experiment to demonstrate the robustness of the effects (i.e., a real service failure situation at a retail context). We planned to do it to strengthen the manuscript on Jan 2020, however, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, we expect that we have to wait until July 2020 to conduct the field experiment in Hong Kong. In addition, a reviewer also commented that if we can identify an additional moderator to mitigate the negative impact of physical attractiveness on consumer reactions in the social failure situation, that will enhance the contribution of the project. We are working on the literature review and we will propose a new moderator and work on a new experiment to test its effect. We estimate that we will finish data collection for the field experiment and the new study around October/November 2020. Then we will revise the manuscript and submit it to another top-tier marketing journals (e.g., Journal of Marketing Research). | ||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | “What is beautiful is good!” Attractive (vs. average-looking) individuals are always perceived as being more kind, popular, persuasive, and sociable, and therefore they are better-liked and treated with greater patience. Therefore, consumers should be more forgiving for their mistakes in service failures. As this research suggests, however, there are certain situations in which an attractive service provider is likely to have a deleterious effect. Arguably, consumers are likely to expect the quality of their interaction with an attractive provider to be positive, and they will form a higher expectation for attractive than for less attractive service providers’ interaction qualities (e.g., manner, attitude). When this social competence expectation is violated, therefore, consumers will be relatively less forgiving of attractive (vs. average-looking) providers’ mistakes. Results show that consumers are less forgiving of an attractive (vs. average-looking) opposite-sex provider’s social failure (e.g., rudeness), and this pattern is more pronounced for communal (vs. agentic) participants who are more sensitive to interpersonal relationships. However, consumers are more forgiving of an attractive (vs. average-looking) opposite-sex provider’s nonsocial failure (e.g., inefficiency). These effects happen in both offline and online contexts. The findings offer valuable managerial insights into the role of service providers’ physical attractiveness on consumers’ behavior. | ||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |