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Consumer reactions to attractive service providers

Imagine that you are going to buy a health care product. You see a highly attractive salesperson. What would be your reaction? Would you feel very happy? Would you spend more time interacting with the salesperson and be more likely to buy his/her products?

There is a common belief that people have very favorable reactions to physically attractive individuals. People think that attractive individuals are intelligent and sociable. They love to be around them and to be friends with them. Therefore, consumers should be more willing to interact with and buy products from an attractive salesperson than an average looking one. As our research indicates, however, this may not always be true. Customers may react more negatively to a highly attractive service provider than to an average looking one.

Specifically, we find that attractive service providers can sometimes lead consumers to have self-presentation concerns (that is, concerns about their ability to make a good impression on others).  When this is true, they often avoid interacting with physically attractive providers and so the providers are relatively ineffective. The processes that underlie this effect can depend on whether the consumer and provider are the same or the opposite sex. When the provider is of the opposite sex, consumers are likely to experience evaluation apprehension and their willingness to interact will decrease. When the provider is of the same sex, however, consumers are likely to compare themselves with the provider and perceive themselves as relatively unappealing. In this case, they will dislike the provider and be unwilling to interact for this reason. Thus, self-presentation concerns will generally decrease consumers’ willingness to interact with a highly attractive service provider, but the reason depends on whether the provider is of the same or opposite sex. If consumers do not experience these self-presentation concerns, however, they will be more likely to approach an attractive provider than an average looking one.

A pilot study, five field and laboratory experiments confirmed these effects.

In a pilot study, we conducted an observational study at a store in a Hong Kong shopping center (Richmond Shopping Arcade) that specializes in Japanese figures, models, and gifts, and is a popular place for Otaku to shop. Otaku is a group of HK Chinese who are believed to have chronically high social anxiety. People with high social anxiety in general have stronger self-presentation concerns than those with low anxiety. As we predicted, fewer Otaku males made a purchase when the female salesperson was attractive than when she was average looking in a toy store. We also conducted an observational study at a hospital where a display of health care products were being sold. We found that female consumers were more likely to interact with a physically attractive male salesperson than with an unattractive one when they were buying non-embarrassing products (i.e. a foot insole) but were less likely to do so if they are buying embarrassing products (i.e. a thermal waist belt to facilitate weight loss). This was because embarrassing products are more likely to activate self-presentation concerns. Our laboratory studies replicated these findings. Interestingly, in opposite sex interactions, embarrassing consumption does not have a negative impact on consumers’ liking of the attractive service providers; it only reduces their willingness to interact with him/her. However, in same sex interactions, embarrassing consumption increases consumers’ feelings of jealousy and negative mood, decreases their self-perceptions of attractiveness and decreases their liking of the attractive service providers; therefore, reduces their willingness to interact with him/her.

Customers may react more negatively to a highly attractive service provider than to an average looking one.

Our research is the first attempt to examine the conditions in which the physical attractiveness of a service provider can decrease as well as increase consumption behavior. As such, it sheds new light on the physical attractiveness and embarrassment research. We also distinguished two different processes of self-presentation concerns underlying the same and the opposite sex interactions: self-presentation motives are sexually driven when an opposite-sex provider is physically attractive, but are driven by social comparison processes when a same-sex provider is attractive.

In addition, our research places constraints on the desirability of using attractive service providers to increase the sale of products. This strategy may indeed be effective when the product being promoted is not embarrassing. It can have an adverse effect, however, when the purchasing of the product is embarrassing. That said, it is important to note that the negative impact of attractive service providers is restricted to face-to-face situations in which the motive to create a favorable impression is relatively high. The use of attractive models or celebrities in advertisements for embarrassing products could have a positive effect on online shopping in which social interaction is not an issue.

Featured image credit: Stairs shopping mall by jarmoluk. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

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