At least when it comes to novel products, a new study finds that consumers are more commonly "explanation foes," or those who "gain a strong sense of understanding and desire for products through shallow explanations."
By comparison, "explanation fiends" are those who "derive desire for products from deep and detailed explanations," according to the study led by the University of Colorado Boulder and Brown University.
"There are these two different types of consumers," said lead author Phil Fernbach, assistant professor of marketing at CU-Boulder's Leeds School of Business, in a statement. "On these two sides, consumers differ in the amount of detail that makes them feel like they understand and — because of that feeling of understanding — the amount of detail that will make them prefer a product."
In one part of the study, participants were given varying explanations of a new tinted food wrapper product. "Explanation foes" highly rated their understanding and preference for the item when they read a simple description of how its "white coloring protects food from light that causes it to spoil, thereby keeping food fresh for longer."
"Explanation fiends" highly rated their understanding and preference for the food wrapper when they read a more detailed description of how "atoms in the tinting agent oscillate when hit by light waves causing them to absorb the energy and reflect it back rather than reaching food, where it would break the bonds holding amino acids together, thereby keeping food fresh for longer."
The authors didn't delve into whether it was better to be a "fiend" or a "foe," but said consumers should recognize whether their intuition on whether they understand a product is based on objective information and "not just a feeling."
For brands, Steven Sloman, a study co-author and professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, advises, "Marketers should target these different consumer groups with different types of explanations."