Failing to Follow Your Own Star : Preference Formation, Deviation, and the Negative Influence of Community-Feedback on Self-Designable Products

Modern mass customization systems are increasingly becoming social and foster user interactions and discussions about self-designable products. However, recent research noted that a concise analysis of the psychological effects along consumers' decision process in virtual environments is needed. We applied an experimental research design within a virtual community and provide evidence that (1) consumers' preference formation is significantly affected by anticipated social evaluations in the pre-decisional phase, (2) systematic preference deviations occur within the core decisional phase due to deviant community feedback, and that (3) these deviations may not in- but rather decrease consumers' choice related post-decisional outcome measures.