The vulnerability of defensiveness: The impact of persuasion attempts and processing motivations on trust

People are generally defense motivated during interactions with sales-clerks. In this research, we demonstrate that defense motivation can make consumers vulnerable to a less stereotypical persuation attempt as compared to a more stereotypical one. The consequence is that consumers are willing to pay a higher price and exhibit greater trust in a salesclerk who uses a less stereotypical persuasion attempt. Thus, the stereotypicality of a persuasion attempt is identified as one key factor that impacts perceptions of trustworthiness. In addition, we show that accuracy motivations can attenuate the positive effect of a less stereotypical persuasion attempt. In other words, accuracy motivations can protect consumers from being susceptible to less stereotypical persuasion attempts.