Vive la résistance: a boomerang effect of resisting incentivized eWOM on consumer trust

Incentivizing consumers to share product recommendations and other forms of eWOM (electronic word of mouth) with their social media friends has become a prevalent promotional strategy among marketers. However, could this strategy potentially backfire? Adopting a metacognitive perspective, we suggest that this approach adversely affects those consumers who reject the incentive and resist sharing the message. We hypothesize that for individuals who rejected an incentive to share a message, lower initial message trustworthiness leads to decreased subsequent message trustworthiness. This effect arises as consumers reflect on their own behavior, subsequently developing perceived manipulative intent. This proposed sequential process was substantiated in two experimental studies. The results demonstrate a negative effect of initial eWOM trustworthiness on subsequent trustworthiness following incentive rejection (Studies 1-2). Furthermore, this effect is mediated by perceived manipulative intent and is bounded by the size of the incentive offered for sharing eWOM (Study 2). Both theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.