When brand cynicism turns into brand hate: the mediating role of brand hate on the relationship between brand cynicism and negative WOM

This study aims to investigate the effect of brand cynicism on negative WOM and analyse the mediating role of brand hate in this relationship. The study focuses on brand cynicism, which refers to a defensive attitude towards brands' efforts to convince consumers, who have lost their trust in the brand and think that they have been deceived or sacrificed for the brand's interests. An online survey is conducted to collect data. Results of the study show that brand cynicism has a significant effect on brand hate, and brand hate has a significant effect on the negative WOM variable. Our results also demonstrate that brand hate has a full mediating role in the relationship between brand cynicism and negative WOM, which means, brand cynicism affects negative WOM indirectly through brand hate. The paper can be regarded as a significant contribution to brand cynicism literature which is fairly new and an unexplored area.