Post-purchase rationalization
Post-purchase rationalization is a cognitive bias whereby someone who purchases an expensive product or service overlooks any faults or defects in order to justify their purchase. It is a special case of choice-supportive bias.
Expensive purchases often involve a lot of careful research and deliberation, and many consumers will often refuse to admit that their decision was made in poor judgement. Many purchasing decisions are made emotionally, based on factors such as brand-loyalty and advertising, and so are often rationalized retrospectively in an attempt to justify the choice.
For example, a consumer cannot decide between two popular video game consoles, PS3 and XBox360, but in the end decides to purchase the first one on the basis that many of their peers also own this console. After purchasing it, they find that XBox360 has more titles that the consumer would like to play, while PS3 has no games. However, they do not wish to feel they made the wrong decision, and so will convince themselves, and their peers, that PS3 is better than XBox360, and the consumer's opinion is better than everyone's opinion, e.g. using sour grapes arguments.[1]
This rationalization is based on the Principle of Commitment and the psychological desire to stay consistent to that commitment. Some authorities would also consider this rationalization a manifestation of cognitive dissonance.
[edit] See also
- Buyer's remorse
- Sunk cost
- Choice-supportive bias
- Escalation of commitment
- List of cognitive biases
- Star Wars: The Old Republic
[edit] References
- ^ Joel B. Cohen; Marvin E. Goldberg (August 1970). "The Dissonance Model in Post-Decision Product Evaluation". Journal of Marketing Research (American Marketing Association) 7 (3): 315–321. doi:10.2307/3150288. JSTOR 3150288.
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