Does Missing Information Influence Purchase Intention? Mediating Role of State Epistemic Curiosity
This study demonstrates that missing information in pre-launch teaser advertising positively influences purchase intention primarily by triggering state epistemic curiosity, which acts as a significant mediator, rather than through a direct negative effect as previously hypothesized.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
Imagine you are walking through a massive, futuristic toy store. In the middle of the aisle, there is a giant, glowing box covered in a velvet cloth. You can see the outline of something cool inside, maybe a new gadget, but you can't see the buttons, the screen, or the price tag. This is the world of teaser advertising, where companies intentionally hide parts of their new products to make you wonder, "What's under the cloth?"
To understand why this works, we need two simple ideas from psychology. First, there's the Zeigarnik Effect. Think of it like a song that stops right before the final chorus. Your brain hates unfinished things; it keeps humming that missing part, trying to "close the loop." Second, there's Information Gap Theory. This is the feeling you get when you know a little bit about a secret but realize you're missing the most important piece. That gap between "what I know" and "what I want to know" creates a itch in your brain called epistemic curiosity. It's not just being bored; it's a specific drive to seek knowledge to scratch that itch. Marketers have long wondered: Does hiding information make us want to buy the product, or does it just make us annoyed because we can't make a decision?
This study, led by researchers from Universitas Negeri Surabaya, dives into that exact question. They looked at how "missing information" in pre-launch ads for two giant smartphone brands—Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone—changes our desire to buy. They tested a specific theory: that the missing info doesn't make us buy directly; instead, it first wakes up our curiosity, and that curiosity is what actually pushes us toward the purchase.
The researchers gathered 305 people in Indonesia who had seen teasers for either the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold or the Apple iPhone 17e. They showed these people ads with incomplete details and asked them how curious they felt and how likely they were to buy the phone. They used a sophisticated statistical tool called PLS-SEM to map out the connections between the missing info, the curiosity, and the buying intention.
Here is the twist: The study found that the old idea—that missing information directly makes people less likely to buy—was wrong. In fact, the data showed that missing information did not have a negative effect on purchase intention at all. For the Samsung group, the effect was positive but not strong enough to be sure; for the iPhone group, it was also positive but not significant. However, when they looked at the whole group together, the missing information actually had a small, positive, and significant direct effect. But the real story wasn't the direct link.
The study proved that missing information is a powerful trigger for state epistemic curiosity. When the ads left out details, people's curiosity spiked significantly. And here is the key finding: that curiosity was the real engine driving purchase intention. The researchers found a clear path: Missing Information → Wakes Up Curiosity → Increases Purchase Intention. This "curiosity bridge" was strong and significant for both the Samsung and iPhone groups.
So, what does this mean? It suggests that when a company hides details about a new phone, it doesn't necessarily scare customers away. Instead, it turns the product into a puzzle. The missing pieces make our brains itch to solve the mystery. That itch (curiosity) is what makes us want to buy the phone to get the answer. The study also checked if Samsung fans and Apple fans reacted differently, but they found no major difference; the "curiosity engine" worked the same way for both groups.
In short, the paper rules out the idea that hiding info is bad for sales. Instead, it suggests that in the world of high-tech teasers, a little bit of mystery is a great way to get people interested, as long as that mystery wakes up their curiosity. The missing info doesn't sell the phone directly; it sells the desire to know more, and that desire is what leads to the sale.
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