“Take no risk!”: Immediate and delayed backfire-effect of risk-reducing messages in retailers' return and exchange policies

Abstract

While much research highlights the positive effects of appropriate risk framing in online retail advertising, this study reveals its potential adverse impact on consumer purchase decisions, particularly when communicating retailers' return and exchange policies. We conducted four studies, including three distinct field experiments in partnership with a major online retailer, to explore immediate and deferred consumer behaviors - advertising engagement and actual purchases - across over 452,632 consumers, and one controlled online experiment to test the proposed hypotheses. Studies 1a and 1b examined the short-term adverse effects of reassuring risk framing on immediate advertising engagement, and Study 2 assessed its impact on delayed decisions (actual purchase). Study 3 provided insights into the underlying psychological mechanisms using the persuasion knowledge theory. Our findings indicate that framing messages such as “take no risk” can diminish advertising engagement and actual purchasing behavior, because of greater persuasion knowledge. Advertisers are advised to carefully evaluate the use of risk-reducing messages in their communication to avoid unintended negative impacts on both advertising engagement and actual purchase behavior. This study enriches the advertising literature by uncovering the backfiring effects of reassuring risk-reducing framing.