When Less Is More: How Mindset Influences Consumers’ Responses to Products with Reduced Negative Attributes

Marketing communications often describe a reduction in a product’s negative attributes (e.g., “our mineral water now uses 34% less plastic”). This claim may be interpreted as a trend of improving relative to previous state. However, such a claim may also call attention to a negative product feature that might have otherwise been overlooked. The authors suggest that whether consumers are positively or negatively influenced by such claims depends...