Share My Failure, Not My Success: How People Make Ubiquity Judgments Based On Past Events
(A2020-64484)

AUTHORS

Mengmeng Niu, University of Mannheim; Maximilian Gaerth, University of Mannheim; Florian Kraus, University of Mannheim

KEYWORDS

ubiquity judgments; self-other difference; experience valence

ABSTRACT

While previous research reports that consumers demonstrate biased judgments between self and others, little research has looked at the extent to which consumers consider their own (vs. others’) experiences when they make judgments concerning the ubiquity of positive (vs. negative) experiences. Across two studies, we showed that consumers evaluated their own negative experience to be more ubiquitous than the same event experienced by another person, whereas for the same experience with a positive valence, the interaction effect reversed. The article concludes with a discussion of findings and avenues for future research.