Detection of consumers' cynical behaviors with netnography

Consumer cynicism is defined as the negative behaviors of consumers towards the business. The basis of these behaviors is the belief that they harm consumers for the benefit of businesses. Therefore, consumers develop a negative attitude towards the business. In this study, the behaviors of these consumers are discussed. How do cynical consumers behave? Netnography, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to find the answer to the question. For this purpose, the researcher followed the web complaint sites where consumers expressed their cynical attitudes on the internet for two months. Considering the high number of daily complaints, one of the complaint sites was preferred. However, it has been observed that the complaints include different issues. For this reason, the research is limited to cargo companies. While collecting the data, the researcher took part in the selected website as an unattended observer. Consumer complaints were registered for five months (from March 15, 2021 to August 15, 2021). A total of 564 complaint texts were obtained. The data were collected as archival data and evaluated through the Atlas.ti qualitative analysis program. Thematic analysis method was used in the interpretation of the data. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the information obtained was compatible with the literature. It was concluded that consumers show three cynical behaviors: Cognitive Cynicism, Behavioral Cynicism and Emotional Cynicism. It has been found that cognitive cynicism behavior develops in situations of distrust, coercion (threat) and injustice, behavioral cynicism behavior develops in cases of complaint, regret, being deceived and victimized, and emotional cynicism behavior develops in cases of doubt, empty promise, injustice and victimization.