Disheartened consumers: impact of malevolent apparel business practices on consumer’s heart rates, perceived trust, and purchase intention

Abstract In response to consumers’ increasing desires to know about apparel businesses’ ethical/responsible practices and the importance of trust between a firm and its consumers in today’s marketplace, this study investigated how distrustful messages, specifically malevolent messages, affect consumers’ perceived trust and purchase intention. The results of 67 participants’ heart rate deceleration patterns and psychometric responses from a randomized experimental design showed that participants experienced greater heart rate deceleration during exposure to messages about a firm’s malevolent business practices, than during messages about benevolence. Indeed, consumers seemed to get more disheartened when they were exposed to messages about malevolent business activities, and these messages seemed to affect consumers’ perceived trust and purchase intention. The study concludes with important business implications for building and strengthening trust, or reducing and eliminating distrust, with consumers.