Syntax and the Illusion of Fit: How Grammatical Subject Influences Persuasion
研究发现，营销主张中语法主语的选择（用户主语 vs 产品主语）会影响消费者感知到的匹配度，用户主语会引发“匹配错觉”，使读者认为该产品更适合自己而非他人，从而增强说服力。
Abstract We examine how the grammatical subject of a marketing claim affects persuasion. We refer to this phenomenon as the subject bias and introduce the distinction between users subjects (where product users are the grammatical subject of a sentence) and product subjects (where the product is the grammatical subject of the sentence). We find that users subjects can lead to an illusion of fit, where a reader believes that an offer provides a better fit for oneself than for other consumers, which, in turn, affects persuasion. Eight experiments, including a field study, provide support for the subject bias in different domains, ranging from online dating services to medical products, and uncover the underlying process along with its boundary conditions while ruling out alternative explanations. These findings advance the understanding of the antecedents and consequences of idiosyncratic fit and introduce a novel language effect in consumer research that has theoretical, methodological, and practical implications.