The relationship between risk perception of consumers and consumer skepticism: A research in Batman

Consumers may experience unrest after a purchase behavior. These perceived feelings of unrest can be cognitive. Cognitive dissonance in terms of consumer behavior is a feeling of unrest after purchasing. The restlessness is due to the feeling of psychological tension that the consumer cannot get rid of by purchasing. Consumers with these experiences may experience risk perception even more in the future purchasing decision process. Thus, they begin to develop strategies and methods to reduce perceived risk. On the other hand, consumer skepticism is the tendency of companies to disbelieve the consumer towards market practices. This type of skepticism is also described as susceptibility skepticism and reveals a continuous and orderly disbelief on marketers' objectives or a general tendency to doubt. It is considered that this type of skepticism cannot be completely eliminated because it includes some personality characteristics. In this sense, it is important for businesses and companies to understand consumers' skepticism and improve themselves accordingly. In line with the explanations, it was aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between perceived risk and consumer skepticism in the purchasing decision process of consumers. The questionnaires prepared for this purpose were applied in Batman province. 399 survey data were recorded in statistical analysis data files. Statistical analyzes such as reliability, validity, frequency, t test, anova and regression were performed. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that there is a significant relationship between consumer skepticism and consumer risk perception, as well as between consumer risk perception and consumer skepticism. Based on the results obtained, various suggestions were made for production and commercial enterprises.