Gratitude, Delight or Guilt: The Role of Consumers’ Emotions in Predicting Post- Consumption Behaviors

This study investigates the relationships among appraisals (goal congruence/incongruence and agency), consumption emotions (gratitude, happiness, guilt, anger, pride and sadness), and post-consumption behaviors (positive and negative word of mouth, repurchase intention and complaint behavior). The findings demonstrate that these emotions predict specific different types of post-consumption behaviors and that they are elicited by appraisals specified in the psychology literature. In particular, gratitude but not happiness predicts repurchase intention and positive word of mouth. On the other hand, guilt inhibits complaint behaviors and negative word of mouth. The implications of these findings for marketing practice are discussed.