Threat Perception in Older Customers

Previous research indicates that older consumers have a reduced capacity to engage in primary control behaviors that involve active responses to counteract threats, and thus compensate with secondary control processes that involve perceiving negative events as less threatening. Two studies were conducted to examine secondary control processes in older vs. younger consumers in relation to product harm crises. In both studies, older consumers perceived themselves as less vulnerable to the product harm crisis and viewed the crisis as less severe than younger consumers. Older consumers also placed less blame on the company involved in the crisis than younger consumers, and had stronger intentions to purchase and recommend products associated with the involved company in the future. These results suggest that secondary control processes in older consumers can exert an important influence on how this consumer segment interprets negative marketing events.