Skip to main content
Log in

The effect of disfluency on consumer perceptions of information security

  • Published:
Marketing Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Three experiments investigated the role of metacognitive experience in perceptions of information security. Fluency was manipulated via technical versus nontechnical product descriptions (Experiment 1) or via easy- or difficult-to-read fonts (Experiment 2). In both studies, perceived security was high when fluency was low (versus high), except when consumers focused on product ease of use (Experiment 2). Increasing awareness of the source of feelings of fluency reduced these effects (Experiment 3).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alter, A. L. (2013). The benefit of cognitive disfluency. Psychological Science, 22(6), 437–442. doi:10.1177/0963721413498894.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alter, A. L., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Uniting the tribes of fluency to form a metacognitive nation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(3), 219–235. doi:10.1177/1088868309341564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alter, A. L., Oppenheimer, D. M., Epley, N., & Eyre, R. N. (2007). Overcoming intuition: metacognitive difficulty activates analytic reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(4), 569–576. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.136.4.569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deval, H., Mantel, S. P., Kardes, F., & Posavac, S. S. (2013). How naïve theories drive opposing inference from the same information. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(6), 1185–1201. doi:10.1086/668086.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, T. E. (1996). Knowledge activation: accessibility, applicability, and salience. In T. E. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: handbook of basic principles (pp. 133–168). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, B. C., & Park, Y. W. (2012). Security versus convenience? An experimental study of user misperceptions of wireless Internet service quality. Decision Support Systems, 53(1), 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2011.08.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labroo, A. A., & Kim, S. (2009). The “instrumentality” heuristic: why metacognitive difficulty is desirable during goal pursuit. Psychological Science, 20(1), 127–134. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02264.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labroo, A. A., Dhar, R., & Schwarz, N. (2008). Of frog wines and frowning watches: semantic priming, perceptual fluency, and brand evaluation. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(6), 819–831. doi:10.1086/523290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, J. H., & Escalas, J. E. (2010). Easier is not always better: the moderating role of processing type on preference fluency. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(3), 295–305. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2010.06.016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novemsky, N., Dhar, R., Schwarz, N., & Simonson, I. (2007). Preference fluency in choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 44(3), 347–356. doi:10.1509/jmkr.44.3.347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheimer, D. M. (2006). Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 139–156. doi:10.1002/acp.1178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, Y.W., Herr, P.M., Kim, B.C. (2015). Meaningless procedure can be meaningful in perceived information security. Manuscript in preparation.

  • Pocheptsova, A., Labroo, A. A., & Dhar, R. (2010). Making products feel special: when metacognitive difficulty enhances evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(6), 1059–1069. doi:10.1509/jmkr.47.6.1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N. (1998). Accessible content and accessibility experiences: the interplay of declarative and experiential information in judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 87–99. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0202_2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N. (2004). Metacognitive experiences in consumer judgment and decision making. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(4), 332–348. doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1404_2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song, H., & Schwarz, N. (2008a). Fluency and the detection of misleading questions: low processing fluency attenuates the Moses illusion. Social Cognition, 26(6), 791–799. doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.6.791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song, H., & Schwarz, N. (2008b). If it’s hard to read, it’s hard to do: processing fluency affects effort prediction and motivation. Psychological Science, 19(10), 986–988. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02189.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song, H., & Schwarz, N. (2009). If it’s difficult to pronounce, it must be risky. Psychological Science, 20(2), 135–138. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02267.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamir, M., Robinson, M. D., Clore, G. L., Martin, L. L., & Whitaker, D. J. (2004). Are we puppets on a string? The contextual meaning of unconscious expressive cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 237–249. doi:10.1177/0146167203259934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, D. V., & Chandon, E. (2013). When disfluency signals competence: the effect of processing difficulty on perceptions of service agents. Journal of Marketing Research, 50(2), 228–240. doi:10.1509/jmr.11.0340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unkelbach, C. (2006). The learned interpretation of cognitive fluency. Psychological Science, 17(4), 339–345. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01708.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wanke, M., Bohner, G., & Jurkowitsch, A. (1997). There are many reasons to drive a BMW: does imagined ease of argument generation influence attitudes? Journal of Consumer Research, 24(2), 170–177. doi:10.1086/209502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong-Wan Park.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Park, YW., Herr, P.M. & Kim, B.C. The effect of disfluency on consumer perceptions of information security. Mark Lett 27, 525–535 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9359-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9359-9

Keywords

Navigation