How ambivalence towards risky products increases interest among young consumers

Genevieve Silk

Ambivalent attitudes can increase young consumers’ interest in “risky” products that have short-term positive but long-term negative consequences.

Ambivalent attitudes towards “risky” products with short-term benefits but longer-term costs – like energy drinks, e-cigarettes and cognitive enhancers such as “nootropics” – can boost younger consumers’ interest in purchasing these goods.

That was among the main findings of a working paper from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI), entitled “Hasty or hesitant? The behavioral consequences of adolescents’ and young adults’ ambivalence towards risky products”, and written by Anne Hamby (Boise State University) and Cristel Russel (Pepperdine University).

And their research suggested that enhanced interest in these products may occur because a state of ambivalence leaves people in a...

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