First-Year Student Dissonance: How Action Trumps Inaction

Research into first-year students’ attitudes towards their studies has revealed there is often a gap between their pre-commencement expectations and their perceived experience. A qualitative research design comprising 20 interviews explores how Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) influences gist-based expectations for first-year, first-time (FYFT) regional and remote students and how they reconcile these expectations with their actual higher education experience through action or inaction responses to reach a state of satisfaction. Synthesising FTT, Festinger’s (1957) and Cancino-Montecino's et al. (2020) cognitive dissonance theories and Oliver’s (1989) hierarchy of satisfaction modes, the empirical model shows how FYFT students respond to mismatches when gist-based expectations are incongruent with perceived experience. The novel findings reveal the relationships between action-based responses to dissonance with increased satisfaction and inaction-based responses with decreased satisfaction. This research also provides practical insights for marketing practitioners to strategically shape gist representations through integrated communications and better manage FYFT pre-commencement expectations.