Abstract
Experimentation is the sine qua non of consumer behavior research, and much of what is thought to be known about the behavior of consumers is based on findings from experiments. However, many articles that report consumer behavior experiments contain one or more results that are significantly insignificant. That is, one or more experimental results are so unusually weak or minuscule that they are unlikely to have come about by chance. As such, significantly insignificant results can be due to the Bfailure^ of the theory underlying an experiment and/or the flawed design or implementation of an experiment. Consequently, significantly insignificant results have implications for the theories and methodologies employed in consumer behavior experiments, the quality of conclusions drawn from the experiments, and the credibility of the consumer behavior research discipline as a whole.
Concluding note
The goal of this article is to alert researchers, journal editors and reviewers, and journal readers to the concept and existence of significantly insignificant results emanating from consumer behavior experiments, and to present this information in a readable and descriptive style so that it is widely applied by all consumer behavior researchers. Although the proffered metric has been alluded to in the consumer behavior and marketing literatures (e.g., Monroe 1976; Peterson and Cagley 1973), for whatever reason consumer behavior researchers do not seem to be aware of the metric or how it can be used to improve consumer behavior research. The fact that nearly one-fifth of the articles that have appeared in a prestigious consumer research journal and that report the findings of experiments contain one or more significantly insignificant results should be of concern. Such results undermine both the quality and credibility of consumer behavior experiments and potentially have theoretical, methodological, reputational, and knowledge implications for the discipline. Therefore, significantly insignificant results in consumer behavior experiments must be publicly acknowledged and addressed. They cannot be simply ignored.
