When stories backfire: how emotional appeals trigger others' ownership in peer-to-peer fashion resale

초록

Second-hand peer-to-peer platforms depend on seller-generated product descriptions, yet little is known about how message framing shapes consumer responses. Across four studies, we show that emotional (vs. rational) appeals in second-hand listings can backfire by triggering other-focused mental simulation, which makes prior users psychologically present. This increases perceived others' ownership and lowers product attitudes. Study 1 combines text mining of marketplace descriptions with an online experiment to derive a data-grounded emotional-rational appeal mapping and validate how consumers perceive it. Studies 2 and 3 use controlled experiments to demonstrate that emotional appeals heighten perceived others' ownership and reduce evaluations via other-focused (but not self-focused) mental simulation. Study 4 shows that self-concept clarity (SCC) moderates this process, with high-SCC consumers being more sensitive to others' ownership cues. The findings extend psychological ownership theory to second-hand contexts and offer guidance for sellers and platforms seeking to improve listing communication in circular resale markets.

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