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Teddy-bear effect in service recovery

2022; Elsevier BV; Volume: 94; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.annals.2022.103400

1873-7722

Biqiang Liu, Yaoqi Li,

Emotions and Moral Behavior

The extent of the widely demonstrated babyface effect in other disciplines remains understudied in hospitality-based service failure situations. By addressing this research gap, our pioneer study based on the Stereotype Content Model adopts four scenario-based experiments (text and video) with results revealing that a babyfaced (vs. mature faced) service provider has a more positive effect on consumer forgiveness and recovery satisfaction. However, the babyface effect diminishes while the mature face effect increases as service failure severity increases. Furthermore, warmth or competence inference is found to play a mediating role depending on service failure severity. This paper not only extends the well-documented babyface effect into tourism and hospitality but also provides cost-effective service recovery strategies by involving service providers' facial traits.