Fanbois treat criticism of favorite brands as threat to self-image

Fanbois treat criticism of favorite brands as threat to self-image

arstechnica.com

Have you ever found yourself frothing at the fingertips while explaining why someone doesn't deserve to use an iPhone because of their deeply flawed sense of aesthetics? Have you been the type to declare that those who don't use Android are cylons who are under mind control from Cupertino? Or are you Peter Bright, turning up your nose at all of us while you wax on about the unappreciated genius of the Windows 7 Phone?

(visit the link for the full news article)

In what way is the study mentioned in this article breaking news?

The researchers performed two experiments, one on a group of 30 women and another on 170 undergraduate students, in order to see whether the subjects' self esteem was tied to the general ratings of various brands. Those who had high self-brand connections (SBC)—that is, those who follow, research, or simply like a certain brand—were the ones whose self esteem suffered the most when their brands didn't do well or were criticized. Those with low SBC remained virtually unaffected on a personal level.

The residual effect of this is that those with high SBCs tend to discount negative news about their favorite brands, and sometimes even ignore it altogether in favor of happier thoughts.

((emphasis mine))

Well, my 'angle' (if you will) is that this observation applies to politics as much as anything else... (even certain religious discussions illustrate this observation)

America has accepted the media production paradigm of political 'campaigning' and thus we, as a matter of conditioning, attribute a consumer mentality to who/what we pick and why.

Once picked, just as in the study indicates with 'objects,' any challenge or criticism of our 'favorite' leads to aggressive and harsh responses, name-calling, and other relatively child-like reactions. Why? Because our "party" or 'ideology' masquerades as a "choice," but in reality is incorporated into our own self-image.

The paper notes that its conclusions challenge some assumptions from previous literature on brand connections. It had been assumed that brands are treated more like an interpersonal relationship and that brand loyalty is indicative of relationship strength. Instead, the Illinois researchers believe people treat brands as they treat themselves, leading users to feel more affected by brand failure instead of less.

"Because the brand is seen as a part of the self by virtue of being intimately tied to the self, failure on the part of the brand is experienced as a personal failure," reads the paper. "Therefore, in an effort to maintain a positive self-view, high SBC individuals react defensively to brand failure by evaluating the brand favorably despite its poor performance.

It occurs to me that the spewage of rationalization is imminent as people will defend their choices, regardless of the idea that they may have vested their own egos into an important decision which should not include self-gratification as an aspect of the act.

I just found it amusing that if you substitute the researcher's inclination to think of this only in terms of marketing objects, with the reality that politicians and political parties are just as much "consumer items", a new perspective becomes available to determine the reasons of the inevitable hostility that politics infuses into everyday discussions here.

Just one more thing to try... imagine the next time you see a political ad, or some quasi anonymous "Committee for the....." hit piece... what it would be like if it had no background music, and no pictures.... just text that you had to read silently.

Yes... you may be a political "consumer"... which might explain the mystery of why we always end up surprised by the results of every election, once the dust settles and our heads clear.

arstechnica.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's definately true. I've seen so many morons flaming each other over console brands. It's Ps3 VS X360. And the Mac lovers VS the PC lovers. It's so pathetic to watch people argue over crap like a brands performance.

I personally like good quality products. It doesn't concern me much what the brand is. As long as it does what it's supposed to do well, I'm happy. I won't go singing from the roof tops how awesome the brand is and that anything else sucks.

For example, I own an Xbox 360. I quite like it, even though my old one ( I puchased a slim model when they were released) red ringed three times! I'm not gonna get upset if you don't like Xbox though. No skin off my nose. But some people just lose it when you criticize a certain brand.

That article explains why I suppose!

So this comes as no surprise to me at all. Thanks for posting this Max!

Don't talk bad about my PC, Xbox, T-shirts or my trainers

Yeah, it is without a doubt true.

Lines-sorry

Its not exactly breaking news the iTards or console fanbois are moronic.

One just has look at any forum to see the ridiculous posts where the fanbois take any criticism personally and the apple sheeple treat their addiction like a religion and weve seen what people are like when someone says something against their religion.

Wow, I feel like I should have posted this elsewhere now....


... self fulfilling prophecy....