Linguistic framing effects in consumer behavior: How 'happiness' versus 'satisfaction' frames influence judgments

Prior literature has documented a host of framing effects, whereby judgments are sensitive to subtle changes in words or syntax. This research contributes to the framing literature by identifying a novel "happiness" versus "satisfaction" framing effect. Although the words happiness and satisfaction are often used interchangeably in survey research by academicians and practitioners alike, I show that reflecting on one's happiness versus one's satisfaction with a product can differentially influence the extremity of subsequent product-related judgments (e.g., likelihood to repurchase, likelihood to recommend). Specifically, I demonstrate that happiness frames produce polarized judgments whereas satisfaction frames result in more moderate judgments. I argue that this effect can be explained by a disparity in the lexical markedness, or implied meaning, of the two words. My claim is that the word happiness is relatively marked and thus conveys more presuppositional information than satisfaction, which is relatively unmarked. As a result, happiness frames polarize judgments by eliciting either positive or negative cognitions, whereas satisfaction frames moderate judgments by generating both positive and negative cognitions. A series of seven experiments demonstrates a robust "happiness" versus "satisfaction" framing effect and implicates lexical markedness as a driver of this effect.