Key points about this research on happenstance and consumer psychology:

• Marketers should pay close attention to the broader context that encircles a consumer's experience with a product. In particular, consumers tend to enjoy happenstance with products: a piece of chocolate at a bank produces more enjoyment than one offered at a candy store. 

• Underlying this tendency is the human drive to construct meaning from seemingly random events. While expected products are easy to make sense of, happenstance product encounters leave open the interpretation that the event holds greater significance.

• As a result, chance encounters enhance the enjoyment of the product in that moment, and may also produce a stronger, enduring connection to that product or brand.

As Forest Gump's Mom used to say, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get". She's right, of course: life can be random and unpredictable. 

Sometimes, these random events are easily dismissable as mere coincidences. But other times, it feels meant to be. Now, the event doesn't seem so random at all. Instead, the event assumes a greater significance. 

It turns out that something like this may play out in the consumer world. When we come across a product unexpectedly, do we enjoy it more than if we expected to see it? Does it seem "meant to be"? That is, do serendipitous experiences with products enhance our attitudes towards them? 

Across six studies, researchers Aekyoung Kim and Donnel Briley of The University of Sydney examined the consumer psychology of happenstance. 

Let's dive in. 

Methodology: Happenstance and Product Evaluation

In study 1, 100 participants were approached in the real world and presented with a specific product: a postcard. After examining the card, the researchers gave them the choice of how many they would like to take home. Here, the crucial manipulation was whether the consumers expected to see this product or not. To this end, half the participants were approached outside a post office (high expectancy), while the other half were stopped outside a cafeteria (low expectancy). 

Consistent with the researchers' hypothesis, participants took home significantly more postcards in the cafeteria, suggesting a positive role for happenstance: when the product is less expected, there was a higher product evaluation. 

Study 2 replicated these findings by querying 71 new participants recruited online about their evaluation of a painting. The researchers asked them to imagine seeing the image either in an art gallery (high expectancy) or a bank (low expectancy). Again, participants' enjoyment was higher in the less predictable context. 

Additionally, the second variation of this study directly manipulated the perceived chance of seeing the painting with no mention of the locale. This manipulation also produced higher product evaluations when the probability of the encounter was lower. 

Methodology: Exploring the Consumer Psychology of Happenstance with Products

While studies 1 and 2 solidified the connection between happenstance encounters and high product evaluations, studies 3 - 5 probed the consumer psychological mechanisms. The researchers hypothesize that low chance events provide a greater possibility of interpreting the event positively and self-serving. In addition, while predictable events can be easily understood, less predictable ones leave open the option that they were "meant for me." Therefore, such encounters would produce a strong, meaningful connection to those products. 

They began in Study 3 by examining the self-product connection: While some products are seen more for their essential utility, others carry much greater symbolic meaning to the consumer. That is, a running shoe is linked to the identity of a runner, while it's just a shoe to anyone else. They hypothesized that when self-product connection is high, this serves as the default explanation for consumers to make sense of the event, and therefore does NOT produce a more substantial, meaningful connection. 

They tested this hypothesis with 180 participants recruited online and randomly divided via a 2x2 between-subjects design: they were presented with a painting that either had a personal connection to the participant or not, and which either had high expectancy or low expectancy. The findings support the hypothesis: that the connection consumers feel towards a randomly encountered product is mitigated when their identity is linked to that product. 

Study 4 considered the possibility that people have a dispositional orientation to seeking meaning in life events. Some people are simply more prone to interpret chance events in a meaningful way, while others have a natural tendency to dismiss them as coincidental. 

143 online participants took part. Instead of responding to a painting, they were presented with a poem either in a high expectancy or low expectancy condition. In addition, the researchers also measured each participant's dispositional orientation to "meaning-seeking." The results suggest that, as predicted, those who are more prone to seeking meaning had higher evaluations for unexpected product encounters. 

Study 5 took a similar approach, directly manipulating the need to search for meaning as its own independent variable via the experimental instructions. For example, participants in the "low motivation" to search for meaning condition read an article designed to reduce their motivation to search for meaning from random events, entitled "Research finds people don't need the random events that occur in their lives to make sense." Conversely, participants in the "high motivation" group read an article designed to boost the search for meaning within random events. 

Along with these instructions, participants were also randomly assigned, again, to a high expectancy condition and an unexpected condition, thus employing another 2 x 2 design. Another product - a mug - was introduced to 153 participants recruited online. 

This final study supports the idea that searching for meaning underlies this connection to the products. When the motivation to search for meaning was high, and the products were unexpected, the emotional bond to the product was significantly higher. 

Discussion: The Power of Happenstance and Serendipity

Across 5 studies, the researchers support the idea that when we have chance encounters with products, we enjoy them more, and feel more connected to them, than if the consumer expects it. Unlike expected events, positive chance events leave open the possibility for more meaningful interpretation. In particular, the possibility that the product entered our lives for a reason and must hold greater significance for our lives. 

These studies add to a growing understanding of the power of surprise within the consumer experience. These positive benefits of surprise are true for unexpected discounts, for serendipity in marketing activations, and now for encountering products themselves. Clever marketers who can present their brand and products in unexpected contexts may reap the rewards of stronger, meaningful attachment.  

Original research:

Kim, A., & Briley, D. (2020). Finding the self in chance events. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 37(4), 853-867.

Photo by Illias Chebbi via UnSplash

More on the connection between marketing psychology, neuroscience, and serendipity in my TEDx talk:

References for Happenstance in Consumer Psychology

Kim, A., & Briley, D. (2020). Finding the self in chance events. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 37(4), 853-867.

Leung, E., Cito, M. C., Paolacci, G., & Puntoni, S. (2021) Preference for Material Products in Identity‐Based Consumption. Journal of Consumer Psychology.