Postdis: A Short Rating Scale for Measuring Post Purchase Dissonance

Abstract

This paper examines the methods and scales that have been developed to measure post purchase dissonance. Post purchase dissonance occurs when the buyer wonders if he or she made the correct decision. Dissonant consumers often display anxiety and uncertainty with purchase and need their decisions supported. The authors develop a 10 item post purchase dissonance scale (POSTDIS) and validate the scale by assessing content validity, predictive validity and construct validity. Coefficient alpha was used to assess scale reliability, exploratory alpha factoring and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess construct validity. Scale reliability was .84 for the 10 item scale and .88 for a shorter 8 item version. Factor analysis revealed that two factors "correctness of the decision" and "support" accounted for 35 % of the variance. Multiple regression was used to assess predictive validity. Predictors of dissonance included consumer's self confidence, stores visited, purchase expectations, frequency of purchase and how easily the consumer was persuaded by salespeople. The most important predictor was the consumer's self confidence level.