THE IMPORTANCE OF AFFECT TO BUILD CONSUMER TRUST IN HIGH-CONSEQUENCES EXCHANGES

The present article investigates the importance of affect displayed by service provider to build consumer trust in high consequence exchanges. High-consequence exchanges are difficult situations in which the choices present a dilemma that can cause stress and severe emotional reactions (KAHN; LUCE, 2003). In this specific case, trust based on affect seems to become important; mainly because consumers may not have ability to evaluate the cognitive aspects of the situation, and moreover, a medical services failure can be highly problematic or even fatal (LEISEN; HYMAN, 2004). On the other hand, in low-consequence choices, we are predicting that cognition will be more important than affect in building trust. In this kind of situation, patients are more self-confident, less sensitive, and don’t perceive a high probability of loss (KUNREUTHER et al., 2002), and therefore focuses more on the rational outcomes