When atmospherics lead to inferences of manipulative intent: Its effects on trust and attitude Renaud Lunardo a, ⁎, Ababacar Mbengue b, 1 a Troyes Champagne School of Management, 217, avenue Pierre Brossolette, BP 710, 10002 Troyes Cedex, France b Université de Reims & Reims Management School, 57 bis rue Pierre Taittinger, 51096 Reims, France abstract article info Article history: Received 1 March 2010 Received in revised form 1 March 2011 Accepted 1 May 2011 Available online 25 June 2011 Keywords: Atmospherics Inferences of manipulative intent Integrity Attitude The atmosphere of a retail store is a powerful marketing tool for inﬂuencing consumer behavior to the beneﬁt of the retailer. This article explores the case where consumers perceive the store environment as a manipulative tool in use by the retailer. This article hypothesizes that incongruent store environments urge consumers to make inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) from the retailers, and that those inferences negatively inﬂuence consumer's perception of the retailers' integrity, and attitudes toward the atmosphere and the retailers. Empirical results from an experiment conﬁrm the hypotheses. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Atmospheric cues can exert a strong inﬂuence on consumer's behavior and attitude (Turley & Milliman, 2000). However, ﬁndings regarding the relationship between atmospherics and consumer behavior are quite inconsistent (Kaltcheva & Weitz, 2006). As an explanation, one may argue that the inﬂuence of atmospherics is not so mechanical and that consumer's cognitive processes actually mediate their inﬂuence. However, compared to consumer's attitudinal and behavioral responses, such consumer's cognitive evaluations of atmospherics receive little attention in the literature. This is quite surprising when considering that research dealing with the inﬂuence of atmospherics generally has relied on the S–O–R model (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). According to this model, stimuli (S) from the environment stimulate perceptual and emotional individual's responses (O) which in turn affect their attitude and behavior (R). When transferred to the retail context, this model posits that when exposed to stimuli in the store environment, consumers evaluate information provided to them, and their perception of the information – and not the actual information – affects their behavior. Consequently, the importance of factors internal to the individual is of tremendous importance (Jacoby, 2002). These factors include the individual's active motives, moods, perceptions, cognitions, and so forth. Though some literature exists on the inﬂuence of atmospherics on such internal factors, especially mood (Chebat & Michon, 2003; Gardner, 1985; Swinyard, 1993), only a few articles apply to the issue of the inﬂuence on atmospherics on the special cognitive response of inference (Baker, Grewal, & Parasuraman, 1994; Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, & Voss 2002; Schlosser, 1998). Indeed, to date, relatively little is known about the inﬂuence of atmospherics and the store environment on consumer's inference-making process. This article addresses this gap by focusing on the effects of atmospherics use on consumers' inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) and their subsequent effects on trust and attitude. Particularly relevant in the present context are studies in advertising that focus on IMI. Results from studies in this area show that when consumers infer manipulative intent by the marketer, they have negative attitudes toward the sponsor and the advertisement (Cotte, Coulter, & Moore 2005). One might suppose that consumers can draw such inferences not only when exposed to advertising but also when exposed to in-store stimuli. As active recipients of the retailer's attempt, consumers may not only behave in a passive way by only feeling pleasure and enjoy the quality of the shopping experience when exposed to atmospherics. They may also interpret the reasons why the store environment is so. Thus, this article posits that consumers may interpret the store environment not only as a tool used by the retailer to improve their shopping time, but also as a manipulative mean used to make them behave as wanted by the retailer. In this case where consumers perceive store environment as a manipulative intent from the retailer, consumers will attribute less integrity to the retailer and develop a negative attitude toward the retailer and the atmosphere. Thus, the goals of the present article are to offer a conceptual framework and empirical evidence for the relevance of IMI in the store environment and their consequences on trust and attitude. Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 823–830 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 325 71 22 29; fax: +33 325 71 22 38. E-mail addresses: renaud.lunardo@groupe-esc-troyes.com (R. Lunardo), ababacar.mbengue@univ-reims.fr (A. Mbengue). 1 Tel.: +33 326 91 87 31; fax: +33 326 91 38 69. 0148-2963/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.06.007 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research