The dilution effect: The influence of expertise and abstraction on consumer's judgements of products

Abstract

Social studies suggest that adding obviously irrelevant product information to diagnostic information mitigates consumers’ judgments of products, a concept named dilution effect. This study shows that expert consumers are not only less subject to the dilution effect than novice consumers but it also suggests that experts are in fact shielded against the effects of irrelevant information. In addition, this project was also able to demonstrate that irrelevant information may be positive for brands to communicate when the target is not an expert in the product category and the irrelevant information is somewhat abstract and vague. As irrelevant information becomes more concrete, consumers with low expertise will be subject to the dilution effect whereas experts will remain unaffected.