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Retail therapy: A strategic effort to improve mood
Abstract
“Retail therapy” is often applied to the notion of trying to cheer oneself up through the purchase of self-treats. The negative moods that lead to retail therapy, however, have also been associated with greater impulsivity and a lack of behavioral control. Does this lead to mindless shopping when consumers are “down” and regret later? The current work documents that a bad mood does lead to greater purchase and consumption of unplanned treats for the self. However, it also provides evidence that the consumption of self-treats can be strategically motivated. Those individuals who do indulge can also exercise restraint if the goal of restraint also leads to improved mood. Finally, retail therapy has lasting positive impacts on mood. Feelings of regret and guilt are not associated with the unplanned purchases made to repair a bad mood. The implications of the research are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. ...
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. Kang and Johnson (2011) operationalized retail therapy in terms of consumers' therapeutic shopping motivation, positive mood reinforcement and negative mood reduction due to shopping and therapeutic shopping outcomes (e.g., elevated positive mood). ...
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. Kang and Johnson (2011) operationalized retail therapy in terms of consumers' therapeutic shopping motivation, positive mood reinforcement and negative mood reduction due to shopping and therapeutic shopping outcomes (e.g., elevated positive mood). ...
Based on the cognitive dissonance theory and compensatory consumer behavior model, we tested a conceptual model on compensatory consumption during the Covid pandemic by conducting an online survey (n = 490) with the U.S. national population. Analyzing the data with structural equation modeling, we found that COVID-stress positively influenced panic buying and therapeutic shopping but did not influence need-based buying. Need-based buying negatively influenced panic buying and therapeutic shopping. MANCOVA test revealed that when both COVID-stress and perceived financial insecurity are high, panic buying and therapeutic shopping are higher as compared to when COVID-stress and perceived financial insecurity are low. Based on the findings of our study, we suggest that therapeutic shopping and panic buying could be strategies for coping with COVID-stress.
... Retail therapy is the application of retail in the retail sector (Lee and Lee, 2019). It refers to the repair of negative conditions by purchasing unplanned self-treats (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). During the COVID-19, consumers experienced various psychological illness. ...
... Additionally, ANX (b = 0.442, p<0.001), ANX (b = 0.348, p<0.001), and ANX (b = 0.368, p<0.001) were identified as important antecedents of TSM, TSV, and TSR, supporting Hypotheses 7, 8, and 9. Anxious consumers may use shopping as a coping strategy to compensate for stress and to escape the stress of everyday life (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). Anxiety may lead consumers to feel a lack of personal control over the situation (Raghunathan and Pham, 1999), and shopping may serve as a means of regaining that control. ...
... Shopping motivations are rooted in consumer emotions, and in the pandemic, shopping can trigger positive emotions to lift up consumers' emotions. Therapeutic shopping can bring long-term benefits to strategic shopping (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). ...
With the stabilizing of COVID-19 and the lessening of isolation measures, the consumption market is gradually recovering. Consumers exhibit a tendency to compensate for the previous pent-up demand, triggering the phenomenon of revenge spending. Nevertheless, research on revenge buying during the pandemic has been limited thus far. Moreover, the role of negative emotions and retail therapy has not been well explored. Therefore, drawing from retail therapy theory and the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study aims to investigate how negative emotions, physiological motivations, and self-seeking stimulate consumers to form positive perceptions that revenge buying can provide therapeutic utilities, and consequently choose revenge buying. Empirical data were collected from China. The structural equation modelling results reveal that anxiety, boredom, self-seeking, and psychological motivation have a positive influence on therapeutic shopping motivation , therapeutic shopping value and therapeutic shopping outcome, which subsequently influence revenge buying behavior. The theoretical model provides a novel perspective to research revenge buying. Additionally, the results provide managerial implications for consumer, retailers, and policymakers to make preparedness for revenge buying in future health crises.
... College students were the chosen population because they may also be particularly susceptible to peer influence and social status associated with buying (Yurchisin & Johnson, 2009) and impulse buying behaviors (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). Impulse buying is characterized as an immediate unplanned purchase, where buyers had no previous intentions to buy a particular product category or fulfill the buying task (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998). ...
... Expressions such as "retail therapy" describe when consumers purchase products to relieve stress and make oneself feel happier. College students may participate in impulsive, unplanned purchasing behavior to regulate and improve their mood, condition or emotion (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). Impulsivity can be a factor related to consumption choices, but there is not a clear understanding of how impulsive buying tendencies interact with their motivational choices and thus, impact the consumption of single-serve premium juices among college students. ...
... Expressions such as "retail therapy" describe an activity where consumers purchase products to relieve stress and alleviate unpleasant psychological states (Baumeister, 2002;Darrat et al., 2016). College students may participate in impulsive, unplanned purchasing behavior to regulate and improve their mood, condition or emotion (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). As a result, researchers have called for an understanding of retail and marketing factors that may curb unhealthy impulse buying; encouraging healthy behaviors (Iyer et al., 2019). ...
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. ...
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. Kang and Johnson (2011) operationalized retail therapy in terms of consumers' therapeutic shopping motivation, positive mood reinforcement and negative mood reduction due to shopping and therapeutic shopping outcomes (e.g., elevated positive mood). ...
... Consumers often shop to escape from the reality and daydream about an imaginary world where they do not need to worry about an imminent problematic situation (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Kang & Johnson, 2011). Shopping could be a therapy and an alternate way to deal with (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Irwin, 2018;Kang & Johnson, 2011) and alleviate (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014) negative psychological states. Kang and Johnson (2011) operationalized retail therapy in terms of consumers' therapeutic shopping motivation, positive mood reinforcement and negative mood reduction due to shopping and therapeutic shopping outcomes (e.g., elevated positive mood). ...
... Bu noktada ürünler ilk akla gelen çözüm alternatifleri olabilmektedir. Ruh halimizi düzenlemede ve kendimizi iyi hissetmede tüketim önemli bir rol oynamaktadır (Kacen, 1998;Andrade, 2005;Atalay ve Meloy, 2011). Duygularımız tüm davranışlarımızda etkili olduğu gibi tüketimimizde de etkilidir. ...
... Bu kavramın perakende bağlamına uygulanması, genellikle "perakende terapisi" olarak adlandırılır (Atalay ve Meloy, 2011, s. 639). Araştırmalar stresi azaltmak için artan tüketimin, ilaç veya ameliyat olmaksızın zihinsel semptomları iyileştiren bir terapi türü olarak işlev gördüğünü bulunmuştur (Atalay ve Meloy, 2011;Rick, Pereira ve Burson, 2014). Perakende terapisi, olumsuz ruh hallerini hafifletmek için alışverişi ifade eder (Kacen, 1998). ...
... Ruh halini düzenlemek ve psikolojik faktörleri iyileştirmek için alışverişin duygusal ve psikolojik değeri hakkında önemli çalışmalar yapılmıştır (Atalay ve Meloy, 2011;Kacen ve Lee, 2002). Türkiye'de yapılan çalışmalar incelendiğinde perakende terapi konusunda sadece bir çalışmaya rastlamıştır ve bu çalışma kişilik özellikleri ile perakende terapi kavramını birlikte incelemiştir (Uyar, 2019). ...
Bu araştırmanın amacı tüketicilerin olumlu ve olumsuz duygu durumlarının online perakende terapi üzerindeki etkisini incelemektir. Araştırma verileri online alışveriş yapan tüketicilerden, 7-21 Nisan 2021 tarihleri arasında toplanmıştır. Çalışmada 466 kullanılabilir veri elde edilmiştir. Çalışmada olumlu duyguların online perakende terapi üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Online perakende terapi ölçeğinin boyutları incelendiğinde ise olumlu duygu durumunun; terapatik alışveriş motivasyonları, pozitif duygu takviyesi ve terapatik alışveriş sonucu üzerinde pozitif yönde etkiye sahipken negatif duygu durumu azalması üzerinde ise istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir etkisinin olmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Çalışmada ayrıca olumsuz duygu durumlarının da online perakende terapi üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Yine perakende terapi ölçeğinin alt boyutları incelendiğinde olumsuz duygu durumlarının terapatik alışveriş motivasyonları ve pozitif duygu takviyesi üzerinde etkisinin olmadığı görülmüştür. Buna karşın negatif duygu durum azalması ve terapatik alışveriş sonucu üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Analiz sonucunda elde edilen bulgular ışığında, tüketicilerin duygu durumlarının online perakende terapi düzeyi üzerindeki etkisine ilişkin yorumlar sunulmuş ve araştırma kısıtları belirtilmiştir.
... However, unlike the panic buying that occurred early in the pandemic in response to possible product scarcity, revenge buying that occurred late in the pandemic acted as a compensatory mechanism. Revenge buying appeared to be a form of therapeutic consumption, a way for consumers to improve their mood and well-being by self-medicating through shopping (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). Revenge buying occurs when individuals shop to compensate for negative emotions triggered during times they are being prevented from buying, such as the lockdowns and quarantines caused by the pandemic. ...
... When their freedom is regained, they are motivated to purchase to compensate for their deprivation. In addition to being a compensatory behavior, revenge buying appears to be a form of therapeutic consumption-a way for consumers to improve their mood and well-being by self-medicating through making purchases (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). ...
With the end of the pandemic and the lifting of the lockdown, the consumer market experienced revenge buying. The purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of revenge buying using the stimulus-organ-response (SOR) framework and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data collected from 350 residents of Shanghai, China, after the city's lockdown was lifted. The findings imply that perceived scarcity, perceived susceptibility, and social influence regarding the lockdown can stimulate in-dividuals' anxiety, inducing behavioral intentions and ultimately leading to revenge buying consumer behavior. Theoretically, this study provides a novel explanation of revenge buying behavior. Additionally, conclusions offer ramifications for management and implementation strategies for dealing with revenge buying after sudden disasters.
... Evidence shows that compulsive buying contains the main behavioural elements associated with other addictions [2]. Compulsive or mindless buying has been shown to reduce negative mood and is used as a coping method in which context it has also been referred to as retail therapy [3]. There is some evidence that females are more prone to compulsive buying [4]. ...
... Shopping addiction may not be a clinical disorder and it may not be useful to label it as such, but it does exhibit many of the behaviours associated with addiction and does cause distress [1][2][3]. It has become a widespread phenomenon and in practical terms it can lead to financial hardship and relationship break up [34]. ...
... Thwarted belongingness makes consumers consume, even in personally unfavorable ways, for social affiliation (Mead et al., 2010). Thus, CL has been associated with impulsive, unhealthy, and problematic consumption (Atalay and Meloy, 2011;Rippé et al., 2021). Mead et al. (2010) contended that socially excluded consumers may exhibit distinct spending and consumption strategies. ...
... TSR centers on research that seeks to create uplifting changes in the wellbeing of all service entities. Lonely consumers tend to engage in more mood-regulation activities to repair their negative moods that accompany loneliness (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). Hence, researchers could explore the link between CLs and transformative services and their integrative effects on consumer outcomes. ...
Treading on the heels of the spread of the coronavirus, the “loneliness virus” has been capturing territories globally. Consumers are not immune to loneliness. Although academics and the general public have recognized the devastating effects of loneliness, the academic attention given to consumer loneliness (CL) is scattered and fragmentary. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the antecedents (predictors and alleviators) and consequences (consumer behaviors, emotions, preferences, attitudes, and cognition) of CL in various consumption contexts. This review also presents findings on CL as a mediator and moderator in consumer studies. This work adds to the growing body of CL literature by synthesizing the existing findings and knowledge. More importantly, we present a future research agenda by linking CL to significant research lines and detailed implications for practitioners in the marketplace.
... First, this study will answer what and how the compensatory consumption experience is demonstrated for the people who join in tourism activity after the public health crises. Second, the possible restorative effect of compensatory consumption, although a new emerging topic, has been revealed in regard to tourists' perceived mood [34,35] and self-concept [36]. This study will answer whether and how the experience of such activity contributes to their psychological restoration by examining the relationship between compensatory experience and restorativeness in the context of hot springs. ...
... Although scholars believe that there exists a certain benefit to experiencing compensatory consumption, little is known about how that experience works or its outcome. Regarding the existing positive influence of compensatory experience on perceived restorativeness, this result demonstrates that there is a beneficial effect of compensatory consumption behavior on repairing negative moods to maintain mental health [34,35]. Concerning the health and well-being of each person from a global perspective, this result provides a theoretical solution in the field of hot spring tourism for the impacts in the special period of a public health crisis. ...
Considering the public health crisis induced by the COVID-19 disease, hot spring tourism has attracted more people who want to compensate for this themselves and seek restoration of health. Research regarding consumer experience and their psychological restoration from compensatory travel activities is lacking. To address this gap, a conceptual model is developed that links the compensatory experience quality and the perceived restorative value. The model was assessed using a sample of 631 tourists who visited hot spring resorts in the post-pandemic environment. Our findings confirm the positive influence of the quality of compensatory experience (CEQ) on perceived restorativeness (PR). In particular, the cognitive image and affective image partially mediated the effect of CEQ on PR. These research findings provide both theoretical contributions and managerial implications on hot spring destination management and marketing.
... While resilience has been used to explain selected behaviors of post-COVID consumers, for example, vulnerability and purchase satisfaction (Milakovi c, 2021), it has not been studied as a basic differentiator between consumers who will manifest pandemic anxiety versus those who will resist or overcome it. Finally, whereas shopping has been studied for its positive role as retail therapy (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Campbell, 2021), its dysfunctional role when circumstances deny consumers access to shopping in physical stores has not been studied before. ...
... While this relationship has not been studied in the literature, the anxiety-intensifying effect of this consumer trait is intuitively understandable. In normal times, many consumers use shopping as retail therapy, that is, it is used to alleviate boredom and negative moods (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Lee & Böttger, 2017). Although the online shopping channel was still available, and consumers' use of it increased during the lockdown (Gu et al., 2021), online shopping could not have become a good substitute for shopping in physical stores. ...
COVID‐19 turned the lives of all people across the world upside down. Everyone faced the threat of catching the virus and denial of access to the physical marketplace. For many, it also brought the threat of partial or full unemployment. This trinity of upheaval produced heightened anxiety. The purpose of this paper is to understand how consumers coped with anxiety during the pandemic and lockdown periods. We hypothesized that consumers coped with such anxiety by engaging in diverse creative and productive activities, which served as anxiety suppressors. In addition, we hypothesized that one’s enduring mind positivity provided resilience and helped consumers mitigate their anxiety. In survey data from a random sample of 550 consumers in U.S., we found support for these hypotheses. Consumers who engaged in voluntary productive activities suffered less anxiety. And consumers with higher resilience levels also felt lower levels of anxiety. Additionally, we found that enjoyment of shopping intensified the experience of COVID‐19‐induced anxiety. The research framework linking this specific set of antecedents to COVID‐induced anxiety and its affirmation in this study are new to the literature and therefore offer a notable contribution to it. These findings show two pathways to marketers: Organize and promote voluntary productive activities and offer means for consumers to cultivate personal resilience, on for‐profit and not‐for‐profit platforms. Also, we suggest a future consumer research agenda for when fate again brings us face‐to‐face with similar or even lesser catastrophes, which, according to scientific forecasters, it sadly but surely will.
... For marketing researchers, browsing has been discussed both as a distinctive concept, such as in the form of offline browsing (Bloch & Richins, 1983), and as a dimension or part of related concepts, such as window shopping (Rowley, 2001), ongoing search (Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgway, 1986), retail therapy (Atalay & Meloy, 2011), and thrift shopping (Bardhi & Arnould, 2005). In the online context, browsing has been researched as part of a search strategy that consumers engage in when they conduct an exploratory, non-directed search (Moe, 2003;Ono et al., 2012) ...
... The concept of browsing has also evolved into various concepts within the consumer behavior literature. The entertainment dimension of shopping comprises two concepts that contain elements of browsing in their definitions: window shopping, which is browsing to collect information about a product that the consumer is considering buying in the immediate or long-term future (Rowley, 2001); and retail therapy (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick, Pereira, & Burson, 2014), which is when consumers browse for products to buy to improve their mood. In both window shopping and retail therapy, consumers browse for buying things to satisfy their need to shop. ...
This chapter discusses the outcomes of online browsing for consumers, a behavior that is on the rise as social media and online content increased exponentially in the last year. An extensive literature review about browsing and its outcomes to consumer behavior, together with empirical data collected from 10 in-depth interviews with Generation Z consumers from Portugal, showcased that online browsing mainly produces positive outcomes, such as discovering new brands and products, increasing product knowledge and therefore improving consumer confidence in their purchase decision. Gen Z consumers from Portugal behave as expected, except that because they live in a more conservative and traditional context, they still have some barriers to online shopping and experience more traditional retail in their daily lives. However, the positive outcomes for online browsing remain the same, as consumers from this generation are digital natives.
... It has been suggested that materialism and consumption are endorsed by individuals as a coping mechanism, in order to lift one's mood and to escape negative moods (e.g., Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Donnelly, Ksendzova, Howell, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2016). Extensive evidence suggests that materialism is associated with lower life satisfaction (e.g., Felix & Garza, 2012;Frost & Frost, 2000;Norris & Larsen, 2011;Wong, Rindfleisch, & Burroughs, 2003), a higher negative affect (e.g., Hudders & Pandelaere, 2012;Kasser et al., 2014;Romero, Gomez-Fraguela, & Villar, 2012), and higher stress and anxiety levels (e.g., Burroughs, & Rindfleisch, 2002;Niemiec, Ryan, & Deci, 2009). ...
... We conducted a content analysis on Twitter of Tweets containing the hashtag "#retailtherapy". We chose this hashtag, because it reflects shopping behaviours for the purpose of "lifting oneself up" (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). We deemed this hashtag relevant to capturing any changes in shopping behaviours in the context of a global pandemic (Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020), and because a single unit for data retrieval and analysis ensures consistency in data interpretations (Humphreys & Wang, 2018;Kassarjian, 1977). ...
The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to an increase in the factors that typically facilitate the endorsement of materialistic values (e.g., higher media consumption, stress and anxiety, loneliness, death anxiety, and lower moods). In this paper, we examine how contextual changes affecting the antecedents of materialism influence its advocacy with a mixed‐method approach. First, a correlational study (Study 1) suggests that increases in media consumption and stress and anxiety during the pandemic predicted current levels of materialism, however, these effects were limited. Second, contrary to our expectations, a longitudinal study (Study 2) shows that people's focus on money decreased during the pandemic. Last, a social media content analysis (Study 3) reveals a downward trend in users’ online discourses about consumption‐related behaviors, but an upward trend in brands promoting spending as a way to attain well‐being. The observed effects could fuel deeper societal change in the labor market and in consumer behavior, and have further implications for individual and societal well‐being in a post‐pandemic world. We recommend future interventions aimed at diminishing materialistic attitudes to examine the effects of decreasing media consumption and to explore how other factors introduced by the pandemic (e.g., a health or well‐being focus) might moderate its advocacy.
... Hedonic shopping is mostly associated with entertainment or enjoyment; however, it is also known to be a coping mechanism against stress (Atalay and Meloy, 2011;Tauber, 1972). The choices a person has while shopping is known to be helpful in decreasing one's troubles and creating a sense of control over their environment again (Rick, Pereira and Burson, 2014). ...
The aim of the research is to determine how the death anxiety felt by individuals during the Covid-19 process affects hedonic consumption and utilitarian consumption.. The original aspect of this research is that it covers the period of the Covid-19 epidemic processively and includes psychology,socioalology,religion and marketing of sciences. Death anxiety, which has been widely reported to have an effect on consumer behavior in the literature, has generally been interpreted later or examined retrospectively in disaster studies. This research was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic process. Although there are many studies in the literature affecting utilitarian and hedonic consumption, it is thought that its contribution to the literature is to focus on the effect of death anxiety. E-survey with Google forms was used as the research method. Three different measurement tools were used for the data, namely “Hedonistic Consumption Scale”, “Utilitarian Consumption Scale”, and “Death Anxiety Scale” with demographic variables. In the research, an electronic questionnaire was applied to 403 people in the 18-64 age group residing in Istanbul using the "Snowball Sampling Method" and the data obtained were analyzed and interpreted with licensed SPSS 24 and AMOS 27 statistical programs. According to the results of the structural equation modeling used in the research, the 1st dimension of death anxiety affects (Uncertainty of Death) the 5 dimensions of hedonic consumption( hedonic effect, hedonic adaptation, passiveness, impulsive tendency and the reflection of identity) negatively, and the 2nd dimension affects(Thinking of and Witnessing Death) the 5 dimensions of hedonic consumption (hedonic effect, hedonic adaptation, passiveness, impulsive tendency and the reflection of identity) in a positive way. On the other hand, while the 1st dimension of death anxiety (Uncertainty of Death) is ineffective in 2 dimensions of utilitarian consumption(goal orientation and control orientation), the 2nd dimension( Thinking of and Witnessing Death) negatively affects 2 dimensions of utilitarian consumption (goal orientation and control orientation).
... Compulsive buying behavior has been linked to distress and depression (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). In this study, "retail therapy" was tested for its effectiveness in reducing depression. ...
Compulsive buying behavior must be considered in consumer research. Social science, psychology, and medicine have long discussed the negative effects of this behavior irrespective of its positive aspects. The current empirical investigation of the mediating role of compulsive buying behavior between a variety of psychosomatic social antecedents including depression, anxiety, stress, materialism, the need for uniqueness, the lack of self-control, and repurchase intentions among university students. In addition, the study explores the moderation effect of credit purchase facilities on compulsive buying. A questionnaire was used to collect data in survey research. The sampling unit and sample size were determined using multistage clusters sampling. Using SPSS and Amos, 781 valid questionnaires were selected for analysis and testing the proposed model among university students. Anxiety, depression, and stress are key triggers of compulsive buying behavior and repurchase intentions. Additionally, materialism, desire for uniqueness, and lack of self-control were positively correlated with compulsive buying behavior. Compulsive buying behavior mediated the relationship between CBB and CRI. Furthermore, credit card usage was found to have a significant negative impact on CBB and CRI. Based on the results, the results add to existing literature on compulsive buying, repurchase intentions, and credit card usage in developing countries. The current study on compulsive buying behavior may benefit society, academicians, marketers, and retail researchers.
... Another type of internal stimuli, which is tied to impulse buying, is customer personality characteristics, including impulsivity, stress reaction, and trust, in addition to variety seeking, mood regulating, and escapism behaviors (Rook, 1987;Liu et al., 2013;Baker Qureshi et al., 2019;Youn & Faber, 2000;Bratko et al., 2013;Atalay & Meloy, 2011). Scholars have found a relationship between impulsivity and impulse buying in prior research (Parsad et al., 2017;Dawson & Kim, 2009), where customers with greater impulsive tendencies were more likely to be influenced by external shopping stimuli, fueling their impulse buying behaviors (Youn & Faber, 2000). ...
Today, the concept of technology and innovation management in healthcare is prevalent in the literature. Managers who interpret technology from a management perspective, interpret it as a significant factor in determining the starting point for an analogous investigation. However, if we consider that technology and innovation management is essential to business success and competitive advantage, one may wonder why the evaluation of technology and innovation management in healthcare organizations is still considered problematic. What makes this singular focus so elusive to define and measure? We consider the significance of technology and innovation management in a business context, and we debate a metaphysical perspective that is contrary to prevailing knowledge, but is associated with healthcare. To identify suggestions for helpful recommendations that advocate current routines and systems, we reflect on epistemic states and draw on descriptions of conditional doxastic maps that are natural extensions of parallelism between agents who believe propositions (managers) and the formal system that generates the proposition (NHS). We propose a proposition that differentiates “technology and innovation management”; this proposition is based on the comparison of knowledge that is epistemically different from a innovation decision. We believe that perspectives that are recognized, rather than implied, have a definable knowledge point of view that can be described as a specific form of technology within innovation management, which can help healthcare organizations save money and increase efficiency, productivity and patient satisfaction.KeywordsHealthcare technologyIotInnovation management
... Another type of internal stimuli, which is tied to impulse buying, is customer personality characteristics, including impulsivity, stress reaction, and trust, in addition to variety seeking, mood regulating, and escapism behaviors (Rook, 1987;Liu et al., 2013;Baker Qureshi et al., 2019;Youn & Faber, 2000;Bratko et al., 2013;Atalay & Meloy, 2011). Scholars have found a relationship between impulsivity and impulse buying in prior research (Parsad et al., 2017;Dawson & Kim, 2009), where customers with greater impulsive tendencies were more likely to be influenced by external shopping stimuli, fueling their impulse buying behaviors (Youn & Faber, 2000). ...
Augmented reality apps bring a novel trend in online shopping by providing a physical experience of virtual objects. The current study described how augmented reality apps could influence consumers’ purchase intention. We empirically explore consumers’ knowledge and perception based on utilitarian values, hedonic values, and satisfaction. However, several retail stores, such as Nike, Ray-Ban, IKEA, Timberland, etc., facilitate their online customers to experience their virtual products in the physical environment. However, these stores provide maximum information about the products through visual signs developed with augmented reality applications. In this regard, the visual of products through augmented reality applications empowers the consumers to make their shopping experience easy; thus, such application encounters the consumers’ utilitarian, hedonic, and satisfaction level while shopping online via augmented reality applications. Augmented reality apps dynamically enhance consumer buying intention and promote a valuable perception of brands. Further, it is concluded that the critical role of augmented reality apps plays a dynamic role in developing high potential implementation in the retail sector. Finally, augmented reality apps are bringing the modern shopping culture worldwide.KeywordsAugmented realityHedonic valueUtilitarian valueSatisfactionPurchase intentionRetail sector
... 2.053]. The notion that chocolate can be efficacious even when received after a delay is supported by research showing the people hold a very strong association between chocolate and feeling better (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Macht & Mueller, 2007;Scholey & Owen, 2013). Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. ...
Stressors (e.g., a dangerous environment) that create a need (e.g., a need for safety) can also elicit negative emotions (e.g., fear, distress, and sadness) and different strategies for coping with them. Subsequently, the types of coping strategies a person can employ either address (1) the source of the negative emotions (i.e., the need) or (2) the consequences of the negative emotions (i.e., the negative affective state). We hypothesized that the temporal efficacy of need-based actions determines when each type of coping strategy is pursued. Negative emotions encourage a person to address the need when the available need-based actions are efficacious (i.e., they meet the need) in the present (i.e., they meet the need soon after acquisition or usage). Negative emotions encourage a person to prioritize the negative affective state when the available need-based actions are efficacious in the future or have delayed availability.
... While valuable in identifying associations, these studies cannot determine whether social isolation causes maladaptive consumption or vice versa. Only a few studies have attempted to address this limitation by using longitudinal designs, finding that higher social isolation predicted increases in impulsive buying over time (Erzen & Çikrikci, 2018;Rippé et al., 2021;Atalay & Meloy, 2011). However, longitudinal studies also cannot prove causality definitively due to the influence of confounding variables. ...
Maladaptive consumer behaviors like compulsive buying, herding behavior, and hoarding pose risks to consumers' well-being. However, less is known about how distinct consumer conflicts differentially predispose individuals to specific behaviors through psychological factors. This study aimed to test a socio-environmental model whereby financial stress, work-life imbalance, information overload, and social comparisons predict compulsive buying, herding, and hoarding through mental health difficulties and personality factors. An online sample of 384 Iranian adult consumers completed measures of consumer conflicts, psychosocial variables, and behavioral disorders. Results indicated that a wide range of conflict types is most strongly associated with particular disorders of consumer behavior. Mental health difficulties mediated some relationships while also conferring transdiagnostic vulnerability. Findings highlight the need for tailored interventions addressing the most relevant conflict sources for each behavioral disorder. Limitations include cross-sectional correlations and self-report methodology. Experimental, longitudinal, and clinical research manipulating conflict sources and measuring behaviors objectively can clarify causal processes and inform interventions to reduce maladaptive consumer behaviors.
... This result could have been caused by the hedonic nature of the music excerpts that we used in the study, which potentially erased the negative low-arousal state. This speculation is in line with findings in consumer research, suggesting a "retail therapy" when consumers' mood is down (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Rick et al., 2014). For example, sadness triggers increased consumption of unhealthy food and money spent as a means to uplift or "repair" the unpleasant affective state (Cryder et al., 2008;Garg & Lerner, 2013). ...
The way we evaluate an experience can be influenced by contextual factors that are unrelated to the experience at hand. A prominent factor that has been shown to infuse into the evaluation processes is incidental affect. Prior research has examined the role of such incidental affect by either focusing on its valence or its arousal, while neglecting the interplay of these two components in the affect infusion process. Based on the affect-integration-motivation (AIM) framework from affective neuroscience, our research proposes a novel arousal transport hypothesis (ATH) that describes how valence and arousal of an affective state jointly influence the evaluation of experiences. We test the ATH in a set of multimethod studies combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), skin conductance recording, automated facial affect recording, and behavioral approaches across a range of sensory modalities including auditory, gustatory, and visual. We find that positive incidental affect, induced by viewing affect-laden pictures (vs. neutral pictures) or winning (vs. not winning) monetary rewards, enhances how much an experience (i.e., listening to music, consuming wines, or looking at images) is enjoyed. Tracking moment-based changes of affective states at the neurophysiological level, we demonstrate that valence mediates reported enjoyment and that arousal is necessary to implement and moderate these mediating effects. We rule out alternative explanations for these mediation patterns such as the excitation transfer account and the attention narrowing account. Finally, we discuss how the ATH framework provides a new perspective to explain divergent decision outcomes caused by discrete emotions and its implications for effort-based decision-making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
... Thus, such purchases are not attributable to prudent or logical thinking in consideration of long-term goals (e.g., saving money or gaining social benefits). Some attempts have been made to use self-regulation theory to explicate consumers' unplanned and impulsive purchases (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). However, such research has clearly distinguished unplanned purchases from impulsive purchases (Stern, 1962;Suher & Hoyer, 2020;Zhang et al., 2010). ...
Unplanned purchases, such as same-day bookings for hotel stays, are an emerging trend. However, few studies have examined unplanned purchases, particularly luxury hospitality and tourism purchases. This study compares consumers’ unplanned purchases of luxury goods and experiences. Four studies of luxury consumers in Hong Kong and the United States show that unplanned purchases of luxury experiences (vs. luxury goods) increase positive emotions and that the underlying mechanism is escapism. This study also shows that the price of luxury experiences enhances escapism whereas the price of luxury goods does not. This study contributes to the literature by challenging the universally negative view of unplanned luxury purchases. Luxury marketers should appeal to consumers’ sense of escapism to induce unplanned purchases of luxury experiences. Further, luxury marketers should maintain the monetary exclusivity of luxury experiences.
... It was demonstrated [19] in a study of Scotland that bad weather was the main cause of traveler dissatisfaction. • Uncertainty and randomness of the expectation of decision utility: Uncertainty and randomness might relate to the psychological state of consumers at that time [20] or mindset [21] or even the consumers' emotional evaluation of the retail environment [22]. As a result, the utility of real consumption is not only not easy to predict but is also entangled with the act of prediction itself [23]. ...
In the study of consumer behavior, we believe that a distinction should be made between the subjective mental activity of consumption and the objective process of consumption experience, and that the deviation and fluctuation of “decision utility” and the randomness of “experience utility” have essential effects on consumer behavior. For one thing, purchase often precedes experience, and consumers cannot precisely predict utility and its distribution but can only make decisions based on adaptive expectations. Secondly, there is often uncertainty in the experience of goods, making predictions more difficult. Thirdly, the revision of consumer decision utility is carried out through memory in an adaptive process. We introduce two stochastic forms of decision and experience utility functions and build a two-period model. In the model, consumers make decisions based on a pre-determined decision utility function in the first period and a randomly realized experience utility function in the second period. The analysis shows that the volatility of “decision utility” and “experience utility” affects consumers in opposite directions; the former may trigger expansionary consumption, while the latter makes consumers more cautious. Finally, the consumption behaviors in the model can be divided into 24 categories based on the dimensions of chance, systematicity, luck, and deviance, corresponding to various scenarios. The total number of consumer behavior categories is a full ranking of the size relationship of the four factors mentioned above, thus 24 categories. For example, when good luck is accompanied by chance underestimation versus systematic underestimation, it leads to a better process experience for the consumer.
... Besides shopping people may visit malls for relaxing (Rajagopal, 2009) , browsing (Blotch, Ridgway, & Nelson, 1991), catching up with friends (Underhill, 2010), seeking escape and retail therapy to repair their bad moods (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). ...
... Urban customers use shopping malls as leisure destinations where they may unwind (Rajagopal, 2009) and browse (Bloch & Nelson, 1991); they frequently stay there for a long time (Rajagopal, 2009). To lift their spirits, they turn to retail therapy for escape (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). ...
2022). The effect of mall ambiance, layout, and utility on consumers' escapism and repurchase intention. Abstract Shopping malls are visited for both functional as well as entertainment values. They provide emotional comfort and escape from boredom and stress to the shoppers. This study investigates the relationship of ambiance, layout, and utility of a mall with escapism and repurchase intention using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. Using a survey instrument, a convenience sampling procedure was adopted to obtain data from 316 respondents (mall visitors of the Delhi National capital Region in India). Delhi is the mall capital of India, with the highest population density in the world. The relationships between utility-escapism (β = .0265, p = .018), layout-escapism (β = 0.269, p = .012), layout-utility (β = 0.776, p < 0.001), utility-ambiance (β = 0.480, p < 0.001), layout-ambiance (β = 0.407, p < 0.001), and escapism-repurchase intention (β = 0.708, p < 0.001) are validated. However, the relationship between ambiance-escapism (β = 0.073, p = .509) is not supported. The results indicate that mall layout facilitates escapism followed by utility, whereas ambiance does not play a vital role. The purpose of the mall visit moderates this effect. Mall managers can create engaging shopping experiences to help shoppers escape boring routines/stress through improved layouts and enhanced functional values. The study establishes a strong linkage between mall layout, utility, and escapism.
... Furthermore, another alternative account of the effects is that the lower indulgence of participants implementing the self-focus strategy could be due to the fact that they engage in a fluent task, which in turn makes them feel competent and elevates mood. This more positive mood could explain lower indulgence (Atalay & Meloy, 2011) in comparison to the possibly more disfluent others-focus strategy. Some of our data points lean against this alternative account: specifically, in two studies (in which mood was measured either immediately after the strategy use or after the indulgence decision) we did not find any differences in mood between the two strategies. ...
The ability to cope with social identity threats is a crucial consumer capacity. But are all coping methods equally beneficial? Our work examines two dominant coping strategies—where individuals either highlight positive dimensions of the self (self‐focus strategy), or where they emphasize other out‐groups' worse performance (others‐focus strategy). We demonstrate that while the two strategies are equally effective at repairing the threatened identity, the others‐focus strategy leads to greater indulgent consumption for those who hold the threatened identity strongly. We also provide evidence of the underlying mechanism, showing that accessibility drives the differences in the indulgent consumption consequences of these coping strategies, which makes it possible for marketers to externally alter such effects. Specifically, we show that if marketers externally raise the accessibility of outgroups‐related concepts, for example, via an advertising message or environmental design, the impact of the others‐focus strategy on indulgence is diminished.
... Spending money to improve one's mood and escape negative emotions is a common practice in developed societies (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Donnelly et al., 2016;Richins, 2011). Indeed, the search for happiness through spending behaviours is often reflected in marketing slogans such as 'Open happiness' by Coca-Cola or Volkswagen's 'Get in, get happy'. ...
Consumption is thought to be a goal‐directed behaviour often marketed as a source of happiness. However, it has yet to be tested whether we associate greater happiness with purchases that help us move towards our goals—goal satisfaction mechanism—or whether spending behaviours that help us primarily to attain intrinsic goals—such as affiliation or self‐growth—are linked to higher well‐being as self‐determination theory would predict. Across two studies, intrinsic goal satisfaction was associated with greater well‐being, rather than the purchase helping the consumer to satisfy their goals. Moreover, intrinsic goal satisfaction predicted significantly more variance in well‐being (13%–16%) than the material‐experiential purchase typology (2%–5%) used in past research. Finally, higher dispositional extrinsic goals predicted both extrinsic and intrinsic goal satisfaction through consumption suggesting that materialistic individuals might use consumption as a strategy to seek the attainment of intrinsic goals. These findings suggest that future research should shift the focus from the purchase (what is bought) to the consumer (who is spending money and why) when looking at the links between spending money and happiness. Finally, this report hints that future interventions aiming to reduce excessive consumption should explore lessening people's extrinsic goals.
... Fashion shopping for new versions of products that are valued and bought for reasons of social desirability and acceptance (Moisander et al., 2010;Niinimäki and Hassi, 2011) points to threat-like qualities of refraining from such shopping. The literature recognizes that fashion shopping positively affects insecurity and self-esteem (Clarke, 2001;Ling and Yttri, 2002;Gram-Hanssen and Bech-Danielsen, 2004;Katz and Sugiyama, 2006;Atalay and Meloy, 2011;Rafferty, 2011;Mikkonen et al., 2013). Shopping for novel fashion items is understood as a form of anxiety reduction, as such shopping makes you the person who you are expected to be, thus making you feel better (Miller, 2001(Miller, , 2009Woodruffe-Burton and Elliott, 2005;Dittmar, 2008). ...
This conceptual article uses an embodied theoretical lens to describe how consumption and shopping are bodily activities shaped by marketplaces. This article contributes to research on sustainable consumption in general and research on sustainable shopping in particular. The social and situated embodiment perspective highlights how sociomaterial marketplace elements configure shopping outcomes. The context of fashion shopping is used, and this article shows how an embodied view of shopping can increase our understanding of unsustainable shopping practices and promote shopping for sustainable products. This article aims to enrich the structural strand of sustainable consumption research by describing how the sustainability of individual shopping can be understood as skills and dispositions acquired within, or in relation to, marketplace activities and discourses. This suggests that current Western unsustainable fashion shopping practices, characterized by excessive consumption, change only if supply and communication practices in the fashion marketplace change.
... We subsequently examined (a) whether the effects were partially or fully attributable to a 'retail therapy' effect of purchasing patterns more generally, and (b) whether the previously observed association between loot box spending and problem gambling symptomology might partially or fully account for the observed associations. First, we considered whether this effect might indicate a more general 'retail therapy' effect, where gamers experiencing severe distress might be spending more, via their hobby, in an attempt to improve their mood 28 . If so, gamers who spend money on any gaming-related purchases may be more likely to score in the very high range of the To test this, we examined the relationship between Kessler-10 scores and spending on non-randomised video game purchases-namely games themselves, downloadable content (a form of www.nature.com/scientificreports/ ...
Loot boxes are randomised rewards available in some video games, often purchasable for real-world money. Loot boxes have been likened to conventional forms of gambling and may satisfy legal requirements to be considered bona fide gambling in some jurisdictions. Research has consistently shown that people with problem gambling symptoms report spending more on these mechanisms than people without such symptoms. However, a significant gap in our current understanding is whether engaging with these mechanisms is associated with harm. Here we examine the prevalence rates of severe psychological distress among purchasers of loot boxes relative to non-purchasers. A reanalysis of two cross-sectional surveys collected online via online collection platforms. Participants were 2432 Aotearoa New Zealand, Australian, and United States residents recruited through online survey. Our results show that purchasers of loot boxes are at approximately 1.87 times higher risk of severe psychological distress on a standardised clinical screening tool than people who do not purchase loot boxes. These relative risk rates are not due to gender, age, spending on other video game related purchases, or problem gambling symptoms. Individuals who purchased loot boxes appeared to also have higher risk of severe psychological distress irrespective of demographic characteristics or problem gambling status. Loot boxes appear to be associated with significantly higher risk of experiencing psychological harm even for players without problem gambling symptoms.
... For instance, Brougham, Jacobs-Lawson, Hershey, and Trujillo (2011a) are one of the first to show a direct relationship between these two mechanisms (high levels of neuroticism and CBB). Similarly, retail therapy studies have shown that consumers in unfavorable circumstances try to change their moods or ease their minds by shopping (Atalay & Meloy, 2011). However, it is necessary to investigate the costs as well as the benefits of these purchases for individuals in different emotional states or traits. ...
Around 300 million people are affected by consumption-related psychological disorders. Despite the prominence of this problem, which impacts 1 in every 20 people, the number of studies on consumption-related problems in marketing is limited. Furthermore, although marketing scholarship focuses on identifying antecedents of compulsive buying, the potential variables involved in this complex mechanism are still unknown. For this purpose, this study investigated (1) the mediating role of past-negative time perspective (PNTP) in the effect of neuroticism on compulsive buying behavior (CBB) and (2) the moderating role of consumer’s need for uniqueness (CNFU) on the direct or indirect effects of neuroticism on CBB. In the study using data (n = 666) from a questionnaire survey, the Hayes PROCESS macro was used to perform mediation and moderated mediation analysis. Results demonstrated that consumers’ PNTP partially mediate the impact of neuroticism on CBB. Moreover, moderated mediation analysis showed that the CNFU moderated the pathway between neuroticism and CBB; that is, the path was weaker in the context of a greater need for uniqueness. The study offers an empirical contribution to the international research on compulsive buying behavior, including mediator and moderator variables. The findings are discussed in theoretical and practical insights to better understand compulsive buying behavior and related constructs.
... Furthermore, both constructs increase their target's sensitivity toward inclusionary cues (Dewall et al., 2009), and have a similar effect on an individual's consumption preference and behaviour. In particular, as passive coping strategies, such behaviour includes preferences for majorityendorsed goods (Wang et al., 2012), indulgence in materialism (Gentina, 2014), 'retail therapy' (Atalay & Meloy, 2011) and opting for nostalgic products (Loveland et al., 2010;Sedikides et al., 2008). ...
While social exclusion in the consumption context has gained significant interest recently, its literature remains fragmented and underexplored due to restricted categorization and limited conceptual lenses. This systematic review attempts to broaden social exclusion literature by including multiple possible aspects of social exclusion, and providing a nuanced approach to identifying changes in the consumption response of excluded individuals. Using the “Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Review” (SPAR‐4‐SLR) (Paul et al., 2021) protocol to assemble, arrange, and assess studies published between 2010 and 2021, we selected 83 studies as the basis of this review. With the objective of providing a synthesized view of the existing literature and presenting possible explanations for inconsistencies, this paper (a) undertakes a systematic review of the existing research in the domain, (b) introduces a conceptual framework, and (c) provides a taxonomy to categorize diverse strands of consumption responses. Identifying gaps, this study also provides directions for future research using the TCCM (Theory, Characteristics, Context, and Methodology) framework (Paul and Rosado‐Serrano, 2019; Paul and Criado, 2020). This study can thus enable marketers, advertisers, and public policymakers to understand the needs of socially excluded individuals, and subsequently make more inclusive decisions.
... Considered from a regulatory rather than a resource perspective, selecting hedonic consumption when under stress may also be an act of high self-control driven by selfregulatory motives. Several studies have shown that selecting and using hedonic consumption under stressful conditions may be motivated by emotional regulation (e.g., Tice et al., 2001;Atalay and Meloy, 2011;Dorman Ilan et al., 2019). Mead et al. (2016), moreover, show that pleasure can offset stress if it is sufficiently potent and can benefit subsequent goal pursuit and long-term affective wellbeing -which are also hallmarks of high self-control (Tangney et al., 2004;de Ridder et al., 2012). ...
Hedonic consumption is pleasant but can interfere with the capacity to self-regulate. In stressful moments, when self-regulation is arguably still important, individuals often indulge in hedonic consumption. In two experiments, we investigate whether hedonic consumption negatively affects self-regulation under moderately stressful conditions and whether selecting hedonic consumption under moderately stressful conditions is driven by high or low self-control. In both studies, participants were randomly exposed to a mental arithmetic task that was either completed under time pressure with performance feedback (moderate stress) or without time pressure and without feedback (no stress). Experiment 1 assigned participants to a hedonic (vs. neutral) consumption task and then measured impulse control via a color-word Stroop task. Experiment 2 measured self-control as a second independent variable and recorded hedonic (vs. neutral) consumption. The results show that moderate stress buffered the negative effect that hedonic consumption has on self-regulation under no stress conditions and that high rather than low self-control predicts hedonic over neutral consumption under stress. These findings indicate that hedonic consumption in response to moderate stress may be a strategic choice to reap the pleasure benefit of hedonic consumption while the costs to self-regulation are low.
... The idea of self-regulation may be unappealing when tempted by a product that offers immediate pleasure (Atalay and Meloy, 2011). Given that self-regulation may confer short-term hardship, it may initially be experienced as an interruption of natural tendencies (Tangney et al., 2004), but its application endorses resistance to temptation, thereby supporting a path toward achieving long-term aims (Myrseth et al., 2009). ...
... Also high emotional activation can lead to unplanned purchases or impulse purchases. Macinnis, (2010) stated that consumer's decision for buying can be affected by both positive and negative emotions [2]. Murray, (2013) stated that majority of people trust that the selections they make result from a balanced evaluation of available alternatives [3]. ...
Retail therapy refers to the act of going shopping or buying special things for oneself in order to feel better when they are unhappy. In other words, it is the habit of shopping in order to make oneself feel more cheerful and to get rid of negative moods. The article i ntends to understand the motive and psychology behind the behaviour of obtaining comfort through shopping. Retail therapy describes that purchase behaviour which uplifts one's mood. Shopping has now turned into a stress-relief activity. Successful mood management during the course of shopping might affect perceived quality of life and emotional well-being. The significance of retail therapy was acknowledged in retail businesses and has been utilized in marketing efforts.
... However, in general, Indian women are more isolated than men (Nevetia, 2019), thereby suggesting that isolation may bring about contextual reasons for self-gifting, such as cheering oneself up or managing moods (Atalay & Meloy, 2011 ...
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, insecure attachments and rising levels of loneliness threatened consumers’ well-being across the globe. Insecure and lonely individuals lack interpersonal support for positive and negative events resulting in the utilization of shopping as a coping mechanism. The arrival of the pandemic collided with the existing epidemic of loneliness, exacerbating loneliness and simultaneously changing shopping as it once was known. By virtue of lacking support, insecure and lonely consumers may be more motivated to engage in a particular type of shopping known as self-gifting. This research examines a conceptual model across countries with samples from collectivist and individualistic societies (n=610), revealing a universal framework to explain self-gifting motivation parallels for consumers affected by insecure attachment and emotional loneliness. Theoretical and practical implications provide cross-cultural research on the connections of attachment style and self-gifting to help the disconnections of loneliness in today’s world.
Impulse buying behaviors have received a lot of research attention over the years, starting with investigating customer experiences in brick-and-mortar stores in the 1950s and not ending with gauging customer impulse buying tendencies on the digital shopping platforms of today. Indeed, marketers and scholars are interested in understanding more about the customers’ motivations to engage in impulse buying behaviors, as they are tied to desirable marketing outcomes, including increased sales and profits.This paper presents an overview of impulse buying in a modern, digital world, based on a study of the literature. It, first, defines the concept and highlights its different types. Following this, it contrasts offline impulse buying behaviors with impulse buying in e-commerce and social media platforms and discusses the factors that influence impulse buying in customers. Finally, the authors provide relevant recommendations for future research in the field of impulse buying behaviors.KeywordsDigital marketingImpulse buying behaviorSocial media
This paper focuses on producing a holistic understanding of Retail Therapy and systematically reviewing the existing literature in the field of retail therapy and negative affect. Previously, there was a dearth of direct investigation on retail therapy. This paper synthesizes the different sources of knowledge on retail therapy published between 1988 to 2018 and provides an integrative and comprehensive understanding of the therapeutic role of shopping in emotional regulation. The study used only secondary data collected from different scientific journals, books, and, websites. The finding of the paper is consistent with previous studies on retail therapy that, shopping is therapeutic but not always. It has a healing power but also can make a person addicted to compulsive buying.
The goal of this study is to identify the self-perception of cancer survivors’ body image distress and to illustrate fashion-oriented consumption as a coping mechanism. Retail therapy (RT) may be a promising intervention for cancer survivors to mitigate body image distress and promote positive health outcomes. The impact of cancer treatments on each survivor should be considered based on their body investment, cancer type, diagnosis, body weight and other demographic characteristics. Developing mitigation strategies using RT for cancer survivors with visible physical changes is crucial. Fashion-oriented shopping can give cancer survivors a sense of control and boost a positive self-image. Cancer survivors who are highly conscious of societally prescribed definitions of normal appearance may benefit significantly from RT.
Although the selection of wine as a gift has been discussed in the relevant literature, the purchase of wine as a self-gift remains unexplored. Driven by the assumption that a profound analysis of self-gifting patterns and behaviour could have some important marketing implications for the wine industry, the current paper attempts to identify the most common situational contexts for self-gifting wine and explore the consumer behaviour and decision-making process behind it. Using an exploratory approach, totally 32 in-depth interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Results reveal that consumers being involved in negative emotional or stressful conditions are very likely to prefer wine as a self-gift. It is also common to purchase wine as a self-reward when celebrating an event. Based on the key findings of the study, wineries could adjust their marketing strategies by including the concept of self-gifting.
Problematic shopping can include uncontrollable and frequent urges to shop. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have influenced these behaviors in several ways, such as through increased online shopping opportunities and pandemic-related stress. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine shopping and other behavioral addictions in the context of COVID-19. Canadian participants (n=546) reported on shopping, gambling, and gaming behaviors, using an online questionnaire. Many participants reported that they shopped more overall (42%), shopped more online (57%), and shopped more for nonessential goods (38%) during the pandemic. Online shoppers also demonstrated greater scores on 2 measures of problem shopping behavior: the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale, and the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale. Further, female participants were more likely to report problematic shopping behaviors, whereas male participants were more likely to report problematic gaming behaviors. However, both problematic gambling and gaming were associated with problematic shopping. The present findings may shed light on how individuals are faring in relation to behavioral addictions and consumerism during COVID-19. The clinical implications are that a number of individuals may be struggling with problematic shopping, which may overlap with other behavioral addictions (ie, gambling, gaming), and which could be exacerbated by the current economic pressures of the pandemic. Le magasinage problématique peut comprendre des envies incontrôlables et fréquentes de faire des achats. La pandémie de la COVID-19 peut avoir influencé ces comportements de plusieurs manières, notamment par le biais de l’augmentation des possibilités d’achat en ligne et le stress lié à la pandémie. L’objectif de cette étude exploratoire était d’examiner le magasinage et d’autres dépendances comportementales dans le contexte du COVID-19. Les participants canadiens (N=546) ont déclaré leurs comportements de magasinage, de paris d’argent et de jeux vidéo, à l’aide d’un questionnaire en ligne. De nombreux participants ont déclaré avoir fait plus d’achats dans l’ensemble (42%), plus d’achat en ligne (57%) et ont acheté davantage de biens non essentiels (38%) pendant la pandémie. Les acheteurs en ligne ont également obtenu des résultats plus élevés sur deux mesures de comportement d’achat problématique : l'échelle de Bergen sur la dépendance au magasinage et l'échelle de Richmond sur les achats compulsifs. En outre, les femmes étaient plus susceptibles de signaler des comportements de magasinage problématique, tandis que les hommes étaient plus susceptibles de signaler des comportements de jeu problématiques. Cependant, les paris d’argent et les jeux vidéo étaient associés à des achats compulsifs. Les présents résultats peuvent éclairer la façon dont les individus se comportent par rapport aux dépendances comportementales et à la consommation pendant la COVID-19. Les implications cliniques constatées sont qu’un certain nombre de personnes peuvent être aux prises avec des problèmes de magasinage compulsif, qui peuvent se chevaucher avec d’autres dépendances comportementales (p.ex. les paris d’argent et les jeux vidéo), et qui pourraient être exacerbées par les pressions économiques actuelles de la pandémie.
What makes fashion “local”? What makes it “sustainable”? Can non-Western fashion locales have the same definitions of sustainability espoused by the global industry? This article reflects on a fashion “sustainability” for Bahrain and the Arab Gulf that goes beyond a focus on product. Specifically, the article explores how fashion space is used in Bahrain by different groups, as well as equity of experience and phenomenology of these spaces in Bahrain. Fashion spaces—such as the mall or souk—are primary areas of public gathering in the Gulf. Based on the results of qualitative interviews and a Delphi study, this article puts forward the example of fashion spaces and tailoring in Bahrain, where an expanded definition of use is found in Gulf fashion practice when compared to the traditional “life cycle” view used in fashion sustainability discourse. These differences in fashion ontology compared to a Western context impact what could be considered true “innovation” in the case of the Arab Gulf. For instance, cocreation through tailoring in the Gulf is culturally prevalent and a default feature of existing material culture, whereas similar notions are classified in a context of “innovation” in Western discourse. Thus it becomes crucial to explore an Arab Gulf ontology of fashion as a precursor to its “sustainability” and honest discussion of its own transformation toward sustainability.
Introduction
Considering the theory of self-escape, this research systematically investigates the effect of stress on consumers' preference for experiences vs. material possessions.
Methods
We conducted one survey and two experiments to demonstrate the effect of stress on individuals' relative preference for experiential vs. material consumption and its psychological mechanism.
Results
The findings of the three studies revealed that stress increases consumers' preference for experiences over material possessions. Additionally, self-escape motivation plays a mediating role between stress and preference for experiential consumption (vs. material consumption). Stress as a self-threat triggers individuals' motivation to escape from negative self-concept, and experiences can help individuals temporarily escape from negative self-recognition and provide more leisure value than material possessions. Therefore, individuals increase their consumption preference for experiences. Furthermore, we observed that the type of experiences plays a moderating role between stress and preference for experiential consumption (vs. material consumption). Specifically, compared with low cognitive resource demanding experiences, the effect of stress on experiential consumption disappears when experiences have a high demand for cognitive resources.
Discussion
These findings extend the research on stress, experiential consumption and material consumption and provide significant advice for public mental health.
The purpose of this article is to contribute to an understanding of the impact of the Lebanese economic crisis on fashion buying behavior. It uses a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with 29 Lebanese consumers. The study reveals that consumer fashion purchases are motivated by emotional, social, and functional drivers. It also indicates that subjective norms, such as societal and cultural values dictate buying behaviors. The findings provide further insights into social media and highlight its influence on shaping trends and making fashion products desirable. The article concludes that Lebanese consumers exhibit impulsive buying behavior, and explains how fashion brands can remain relevant amidst a wrenching economic crisis.
The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between physical activity, body satisfaction, psychological distress, and life satisfaction. In addition, the effects of impulse and compulsive shopping behaviors concerning body satisfaction and psychological distress are analyzed. Two hundred thirty female college students participated in an online survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that physical activity positively influences body image and ultimately improves life satisfaction. Compulsive shopping negatively affects psychological distress for individuals with poor body image. Physical activity professionals should recognize the factors that will impact one's life satisfaction.
Loneliness has spread globally and the COVID-19 outbreak has boosted the number of lonely consumers. The retail industry and its consumptions channels have changed dramatically since the pandemic and helped consumers resist loneliness. Faced by multiple channel choices, how consumers' loneliness affects their channel preferences is a contemporary issue that needs to be addressed. By introducing protection motivation theory, logit model, and maximum likelihood estimation, we find that consumers' perceived vulnerability to loneliness and their self-efficacy towards online shopping are the main factors influencing channel preference. Additionally, their negative attitude towards online shopping mediates the effect of perceived vulnerability on channel preference. Simultaneously, the perceived vulnerability and severity caused by loneliness improve consumers' negative attitudes towards online shopping. The results show that retailers need to pay attention to the differentiated layouts of diverse shopping channels, improve the communication skills of retail service personnel, strengthen the integration of online and offline channels, and pay more attention to the treatment and compensation of bad online shopping experience.
This book considers the nature, causes, and consequences of extreme pro- and anti-sustainability rhetoric, exploring how and why the expressions of radical views on sustainability-related themes may prevent real sustainable development. Following a thorough introduction on sustainability rhetoric, on dialogue, and on the role played by ideologies in the building of environmental beliefs, Fracarolli Nunes and Lee Park examine positions and statements expressed or made by individuals, companies, governments, and NGOs in the last decades. The outcomes of these considerations lead to the classification of expressions in different categories of sustainability rhetoric, laying the groundwork for the development of a ‘sustainability spectrum’: a metric for the level of radicalization of sustainability positions, which ranges from apocalyptic views to ultimate denial. Through the combination of historical perspectives, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual developments, this book provides a foundation for a more informed and productive dialogue between radically opposing views on sustainability issues. This volume will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners researching and working in the areas of environmental communication and media, environmental politics, and sustainable development.
Consumers often respond to a self‐discrepancy in a certain domain by engaging in consumption that may restore their perceived standing in that domain. However, less is known about when and why consumers seek products that affirm the self in domains that are important to their self‐worth, yet unrelated to the discrepancy (known as fluid compensation). We address this gap by identifying an important factor that influences fluid compensation: thinking style. Across five studies and three follow‐up studies, we find that people with a temporarily activated or dispositional holistic thinking style are more likely to engage in fluid compensation than people with an analytic thinking style. This phenomenon occurs because, by perceiving parts as more functionally related to a larger whole, holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers are more likely to view fluid compensation as instrumental to enhancing global self‐worth. Holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers’ greater propensity to engage in fluid compensation, in turn, better enables them to restore their global self‐worth. These findings contribute to the literature on compensatory consumption, thinking style, and consumer well‐being.
The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between retail therapy (RT) and college students' reasons for exercising, perceived physical fitness, and psychological distress. A total of 204 usable responses were collected from female college students, with an average age of 20.69 years old. The effect of RT is significantly more positive for individuals who engage in exercise for appearance purposes and for individuals who experience psychological distress more frequently. However, the effect is negative for individuals who perceive their bodies as physically fit. Fashion-oriented consumption should be understood in tandem with exercise and physical fitness for people who have psychological distress and a distorted body image.
The goal of the study is to understand the effect of retail therapy (RT) based on individuals’ body shame, body mass index (BMI) and weight preoccupation. A total of 285 female college students, with an average age of 20.55 years, were collected. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to compare four types of RT (i.e. therapeutic shopping motivation, positive mood reinforcement, negative mood reduction and therapeutic shopping outcomes) based on the degree of body shame, BMI and weight preoccupation. The effect of RT was significantly stronger for individuals who experience body shame. However, based on the individuals’ BMI, the effect of RT did not show statistical differences for any of the subcategories. Only negative mood reduction was significantly stronger for individuals who were highly preoccupied with their weight. Individuals who shop to compensate for personal features may do so to rectify negative perceptions of their weight. Retailers should focus on creating a shopping environment for plus-size consumers and provide a shopping environment that will change their weight perceptions by carrying a broader range of sizes in their stores. Mental health professionals should investigate RT as a modality to treat the symptoms of body image issues.
The development of an adequate assessment instrument is a necessary prerequisite for social psychological research on loneliness. Two studies provide methodological refinement in the measurement of loneliness. Study 1 presents a revised version of the self-report UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Loneliness Scale, designed to counter the possible effects of response bias in the original scale, and reports concurrent validity evidence for the revised measure. Study 2 demonstrates that although loneliness is correlated with measures of negative affect, social risk taking, and affiliative tendencies, it is nonetheless a distinct psychological experience.
This article tackles empirically the phenomenon of mood-alleviative consumption in Finland. In an attempt to advance consumer-behavior theory development toward building a theory or model of mood-alleviative consumption, empirical insights derived from Finnish consumers concerning the practices and therapeutic power of mood-alleviative consumption activities are offered. A phenomenological analysis identified eight types of therapeutic power stemming from different mood-alleviative consumption activities: distraction, self-indulgence, stimulated elaboration, outcomes of mood-alleviative activities, recharging, discharging, retreat, and activation. It was also discovered that certain mood-alleviative consumer behaviors can be therapeutic in multiple ways simultaneously, that different persons may experience the same mood-alleviative consumer behavior therapeutically differently, and that certain mood-alleviative consumption activities are more typically engaged in by women, whereas certain other mood-alleviative consumption activities are more typically pursued by men. The article is concluded by a discussion highlighting theoretical implications and suggestions for further research. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This article addresses the convergence and complementarity between self-regulatory control-process models of behavior and dynamic systems models. The control-process view holds that people have a goal in mind and try to move toward it (or away from it), monitoring the extent to which a discrepancy remains between the goal and one's present state and taking steps to reduce the discrepancy (or enlarge it). Dynamic systems models tend to emphasize a bottom-up self-organization process, in which a coherence arises from among many simultaneous influences, moving the system toward attractors and away from repellers. We suggest that these differences in emphasis reflect two facets of a more complex reality involving both types of processes. Discussion focuses on how self-organization may occur within constituent elements of a feedback system—the input function, the output function, and goal values being used by the system—and how feedback processes themselves can reflect self-organizing tendencies.
A new model of consumer behavior is developed using a hybrid of cognitive psychology and microeconomics. The development of the model starts with the mental coding of combinations of gains and losses using the prospect theory value function. Then the evaluation of purchases is modeled using the new concept of “transaction utility.” The household budgeting process is also incorporated to complete the characterization of mental accounting. Several implications to marketing, particularly in the area of pricing, are developed.
Throughout the past few thousand years, historical accounts, philosophical treatises, and works of fiction and poetry have often depicted humans as having a need to perceive themselves as good, and their actions as moral and justified. Within the last hundred years, a number of important figures in the development of modern psychology have also embraced this notion that people need self-esteem (e.g., Adler, 1930; Allport, 1937; Homey, 1937; James, 1890; Maslow, 1970; Murphy, 1947; Rank, 1959; Rogers, 1959; Sullivan, 1953). Of these, Karen Homey most thoroughly discussed the ways people try to attain and maintain a favorable self-image. The clinical writings of Horney, and other psychotherapists as well, document the ways in which people attempt to defend and enhance self-esteem; they also suggest that difficulty maintaining self-esteem, and maladaptive efforts to do so, may be central to a variety of mental health problems. In this chapter, we will first review the research supporting the existence of a need for self-esteem. Then we will present a theory that accounts for this need and specifies the role it plays in a variety of phenomena including self-presentation.
Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, 1994) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a happy mood are more attentive than neutral or sad people to the hedonic consequences of their actions. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 finds that a happy mood can lead to greater message scrutiny than a neutral mood when the message is not mood threatening. Experiment 2 finds that a happy mood leads to greater message scrutiny than a sad mood when an uplifting message is encountered, but to less message scrutiny when a depressing message is encountered.
We propose a theory of regret regulation that distinguishes regret from related emotions, specifies the conditions under which regret is felt, the aspects of the decision that are regretted, and the behavioral implications. The theory incorporates hitherto scattered findings and ideas from psychology, economics, marketing, and related disciplines. By identifying strategies that consumers may employ to regulate anticipated and experienced regret, the theory identifies gaps in our current knowledge and thereby outlines opportunities for future research.
Each scale is prefaced by the same information. Details are provided of construct, description, development, samples, validity, scores, sources, references, and other evidence. The book includes a number of measures that have been used in several studies. The volume serves as a guide to the literature and may spur further refinement of existing measures in terms of item reduction, dimensionality, reliability, and validity. This Handbook also aims to help identify areas where measures are needed, thus encouraging further development of valid measures of consumer behavior and marketing constructs.
Making choices, responding actively instead of passively, restraining impulses, and other acts of self-control and volition all draw on a common resource that is limited and renewable, akin to strength or energy. After an act of choice or self-control, the self's resources have been expended, producing the condition of ego depletion. In this state, the self is less able to function effectively, such as by regulating itself or exerting volition. Effects of ego depletion appear to reflect an effort to conserve remain ing resources rather than full exhaustion, although in principle full exhaustion is possible. This versatile but limited resource is crucial to the self's optimal functioning, and the pervasive need to conserve it may result in the commonly heavy reliance on habit, routine, and automatic processes.
Consumers' attempts to control their unwanted consumption impulses influence many everyday purchases with broad implications for marketers' pricing policies. Addressing theoreticians and practitioners alike, this paper uses multiple empirical methods to show that consumers voluntarily and strategically ration their purchase quantities of goods that are likely to be consumed on impulse and that therefore may pose self-control problems. For example, many regular smokers buy their cigarettes by the pack, although they could easily afford to buy 10-pack cartons. These smokers knowingly forgo sizable per-unit savings from quantity discounts, which they could realize if they bought cartons; by rationing their purchase quantities, they also self-impose additional transactions costs on marginal consumption, which makes excessive smoking overly difficult and costly.
Such strategic self-imposition of constraints is intuitively appealing yet theoretically problematic. The marketing literature lacks operationalizations and empirical tests of such consumption self-control strategies and of their managerial implications. This paper provides experimental evidence of the operation of consumer self-control and empirically illustrates its direct implications for the pricing of consumer goods. Moreover, the paper develops a conceptual framework for the design of empirical tests of such self-imposed constraints on consumption in consumer goods markets. Within matched pairs of products, we distinguish relative “virtue” and “vice” goods whose preference ordering changes with whether consumers evaluate immediate or delayed consumption consequences. For example, ignoring long-term health effects, many smokers prefer regular (relative vice) to light (relative virtue) cigarettes, because they prefer the taste of the former. However, ignoring these short-term taste differences, the same smokers prefer light to regular cigarettes when they consider the long-term health effects of smoking. These preference orders can lead to dynamically inconsistent consumption choices by consumers whose tradeoffs between the immediate and delayed consequences of consumption depend on the time lag between purchase and consumption. This creates a potential self-control problem, because these consumers will be tempted to overconsume the vices they have in stock at home. Purchase quantity rationing helps them solve the self-control problem by limiting their stock and hence their consumption opportunities. Such rationing implies that, per purchase occasion, vice consumers will be less likely than virtue consumers to buy larger quantities in response to unit price reductions such as quantity discounts.
We first test this prediction in two laboratory experiments. We then examine the external validity of the results at the retail level with a field survey of quantity discounts and with a scanner data analysis of chain-wide store-level demand across a variety of different pairs of matched vice (regular) and virtue (reduced fat, calorie, or caffeine, etc.) product categories. The analyses of these experimental, field, and scanner data provide strong convergent evidence of a characteristic crossover in demand schedules for relative vices and virtues for categories as diverse as, among others, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, cream cheese, beer, soft drinks, ice cream and frozen yogurt, chewing gum, coffee, and beef and turkey bologna. Vice consumers' demand increases less in response to price reductions than virtue consumers' demand, although their preferences are not generally weaker for vices than for virtues. Constraints on vice purchases are self-imposed and strategic rather than driven by simple preferences. We suggest that rationing their vice inventories at the point of purchase allows consumers to limit subsequent consumption. As a result of purchase quantity rationing, however, vice buyers forgo savings from price reductions through quantity discounts, effectively paying price premiums for the opportunity to engage in self-control. Thus, purchase quantity rationing vice consumers are relatively price insensitive.
From a managerial and public policy perspective, our findings should offer marketing practitioners in many consumer goods industries new opportunities to increase profits through segmentation and price discrimination based on consumer self-control. They can charge premium prices for small sizes of vices, relative to the corresponding quantity discounts for virtues. Virtue consumers, on the other hand, will buy larger amounts even when quantity discounts are relatively shallow. A key conceptual contribution of this paper lies in showing how marketing researchers can investigate a whole class of strategic self-constraining consumer behaviors empirically. Moreover, this research is the first to extend previous, theoretical work on impulse control by empirically demonstrating its broader implications for marketing decision making.
This field study examined the role of procedural justice on escapist coping at work, affective outcomes, and intentions to quit. Results indicated that even after controlling for problem-solving coping, escapist coping mediated the effects of procedural justice on job satisfaction. Further, lower job satisfaction and higher strain mediated the effects of escapist coping on intentions to turnover. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are offered.
Two hundred and twenty-six females and 104 young adult males indicated the extent to which 80 comments concerning chocolate applied to them. Factor analysis indicated that three factors accounted for these data. The first factor was weighted on questions that indicated a craving for chocolate and the tendency to seek comfort from chocolate under emotionally stressful conditions: it was labelled craving. The second factor was weighted with comments that reported that negative feelings were associated with eating chocolate and dissatisfaction with weight and body image: it was labelled guilt. A third factor reflected a functional approach, for example chocolate was used to give energy when taking exercise or if a meal was missed. Craving but not guilt was associated with the eating of chocolate bars. A high guilt score was associated with a tendency to report symptoms such as bingeing and vomiting.
Self-control is a promising concept for consumer research, and self-control failure may be an important cause of impulsive purchasing. Three causes of self-control failure are described. First, conflicting goals and standards undermine control, such as when the goal of feeling better immediately conflicts with the goal of saving money. Second, failure to keep track of (monitor) one's own behavior renders control difficult. Third, self-control depends on a resource that operates like strength or energy, and depletion of this resource makes self-control less effective. Trait differences in self-control predict many behaviors. Implications for theory and research in consumer behavior are discussed.
The major patterns of self-regulatory failure are reviewed. Underregulation occurs because of deficient standards, inadequate monitoring, or inadequate strength. Misregulation occurs because of false assumptions or misdirected efforts, especially an unwarranted emphasis on emotion. The evidence supports a strength (limited resource) model of self-regulation and suggests that people often acquiesce in losing control. Loss of control of attention, failure of transcendence, and various lapse-activated causes all contribute to regulatory failure.
We examined the impact of anticipating poor economic conditions on financial risk-taking. In Experiment 1, the salience of poor future economic prospects was manipulated among young adults. Those who were reminded of their poor future economic prospects were more likely to take the opportunity to gamble with their money than those in the control condition. In Experiment 2, we once again manipulated the salience of poor economic prospects. Extending the results of Experiment 1, participants who were reminded of their poor economic prospects bet more money on a spin of a roulette wheel than those in a control condition. Importantly, we show that the relationship between poor economic prospects and gambling is mediated by belief in the necessity of taking financial risks to make money. Implications of economic downturns for gambling and other forms of risk-taking are discussed.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Mood is distinguished from emotion, and mood regulation is distinguished from coping. A model of mood regulation is presented which draws on principles of control theory, which distinguishes between maximizing pleasure and minimizing psychic pain, and which emphasizes individual differences in several component subprocesses. A preliminary taxonomy of strategies and behaviors for remediating unpleasant affect is presented. Important topics for future research are discussed, including the assessment of successfulness of mood-regulation strategies, affective specificity in strategies (e.g., what works for anger might not work so well for sadness), and person specificity in strategies (e.g., socializing or helping others may be more effective strategies for extraverts than introverts). The relationship of mood regulation to overall life satisfaction and global happiness is discussed.
Understanding how emotion regulation is similar to and different from other self-control tasks can advance the understanding of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation has many similarities to other regulatory tasks such as dieting, and abstaining from smoking, drugs, alcohol, ill-advised sexual encounters, gambling, and procrastination, but it differs in a few important respects. Emotion regulation is similar to other kinds of self-regulation in that it consists of three components: standards, monitoring, and strength. Emotion regulation involves overriding one set responses with another, incompatible set, just like with other types of self-control. And like other regulatory tasks, emotion regulation can fail either because of underregulation or because of misregulation. Although emotion regulation is similar in many respects to other regulatory tasks, it is a special case of self-regulation in that it can often undermine attempts at other kinds of self- control. Specifically, focusing on regulating moods and feeling states can lead to a failure of self-control in other areas.
Introduces the concept of self-gifts (SGs) to retailing research. 15 female consumers (aged 18–55 yrs) were intercepted at a retail site and completed a TAT-like projective test regarding their motivations and meanings for buying SGs. Personal situations related to significant life transitions, work-related matters, and disrupted interpersonal relations provoked Ss' SG behaviors, and they established a variety of motivations and symbolic meanings that pervaded the SG retail experience. Factors in the retail setting that affected the process and realization of SG behavior included the novelty or predetermination of the brand, the brand's price, and the sales person's empathy for the buyer's personal situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined whether the emergence of automated retailing systems is associated with a perceived depersonalization of the retail transaction and the consumer's evaluation of the shopping experience. The authors address the role that retailing establishments play as a source of social contact, especially for those individuals categorized as lonely. The issue of loneliness is discussed, and the role of store personnel as a preventive or mitigator resource is assessed. Questionnaires were administered to 327 adults (aged 20–91 yrs) via personal contacts. Lonely and nonlonely Ss had different perceptions and were differentially affected by automated new technologies. In view of the importance of retail contact to some consumers, retailers need to be sensitive to the possible adverse effects of automation on their clientele. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research in consumer behavior points to a relationship between self-regulation and buying behavior. This chapter addresses how three types of buying behaviors--self-gifting, impulse buying and compulsive buying--result from self-regulatory efforts or failures. Existing literature on self-gifting suggests that it can serve to reward self-control efforts as well as be an outcome of self-regulatory failure. Impulsive and compulsive buying most often result from failed efforts at self-control. Impulse buying is often the result of a single violation stemming from underregulation caused by resource depletion. Compulsive buying, conversely, is best be described as chronic inability to self-regulate resulting from misregulation due to conflicting goals and ineffective monitoring. Findings regarding compulsive buying closely match expectations derived from escape theory. This chapter suggests that future research on self-regulation and consumption can serve to further our knowledge regarding both disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We use this opportunity to respond to the issues raised by Inman (2007), and Roese, Summerville, and Fessel (2007) by addressing four broad topics that embrace the most important comments on our regret regulation theory. These topics are the feeling-is-for-doing approach on which regret regulation theory rests, the importance of emotion specificity, factors that modulate the intensity of regret, and the focus on action, inaction and choice in the elicitation of regret. Together this results in a first update, version 1.1.
In this article definitions of mood and the behavioral effects of negative moods are reviewed and scrutinized. This is an important task for two reasons. First, in prior studies, consumer researchers have treated concepts such as affect, mood, feeling, and emotion vaguely and arbitrarily. This has resulted in confusion regarding the substance of mood. In an attempt to dispel a part of this confusion, this article offers a conceptual analysis of mood. Second, a large part of prior consumer behavior- and advertising-related mood research has addressed the relation between mood and mental constructs. The relation between mood and actual consumer behaviors is a more neglected research area. The behavioral effects of negative moods are an especially interesting phenomenon, because past studies have produced mixed and contradictory results. Thus, to offer novel insights, the key conclusion of the conceptual analysis of mood is harnessed to explain the inconsistent findings regarding the negative mood–(consumer) behavior relation. Another theoretical contribution is the provision of starting points for conceptualizing mood-alleviative consumer behavior. Suggestions for future research are also briefly outlined in the concluding section of this article. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Research pertaining to the consumption impulse is sparse in the literature. To address this lacuna, the author presents and validates a detailed theoretical framework explicating the consumption impulse formation process, and examining the role played by cognitive and volitional processes in its resistance or enactment. The model makes the distinction between consonant (harmonious) impulses and dissonant (conflicting) impulses and elaborates on the role of the impulsivity trait, situational variables, and constraining factors in enactment or resistance of the consumption impulse. The results of two studies provide support to the general working of this theoretical framework. This research has the potential to inform many critical issues surrounding consumer behavior, such as regulating consumption impulses in retail and on-line shopping environments, and developing interventions for prevention of harmful consumer behaviors such as addictions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This article proposes and tests a model of regret minimization in the consumer decision-making context of sales promotions. The work examines how regret is minimized in a risk-avoiding planned purchase by conducting information search and primarily rejoicing afterwards. For risk-seeking impulse purchases, the model proposes a one-or two-pronged strategy for minimizing the regret over lost opportunities to experience immediate pleasures of an impulse purchase. The one-pronged strategy is characterized by a rapid impulse purchase without prior intent, and the two-pronged strategy involves moseying around and deliberate placement in harm's way of an impulse purchase followed by the rapid conclusion of the impulsepurchase transaction. Results from three studies indicate that regret is minimized before and after planned and impulsive purchases in different ways. The results also indicate that, consistent with the idea of defending self-image by emulating a master plan where there was none, consumers will confess to moseying around and deliberate placement in the presence of a potential impulse purchase more readily when they actually conclude the purchase as opposed to walk away from the impulsive purchase. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Self-regulatory models of personality emphasize the system of goals that make up the self, the relationships among goals at different levels of abstraction, and the processes by which people try to move toward goals and away from threats. Our view is that actions are managed by one set of feedback processes, and that feelings arise from a different set of feedback processes. Another element in this view is that when people encounter obstacles to goal attainment, their expectancies of success help determine whether they continue to try, or disengage from further effort. Disengaging can create problems for people, but giving up the unattainable is an important part of life. The view discussed here also assumes that people's aspirations tend to recalibrate over experience, such that successes tend to promote higher goals and failures tend to promote lowering of goals. Sometimes goals conflict, so that trying to attain one means suppressing another. This effort sometimes backfires, though, bringing the suppressed desire even more into awareness. Efforts to suppress also sometimes fail, producing a loss of self-control. Finally, the self-regulatory models discussed here continue to grow. One direction for growth is provided by ideas in recently emerging bodies of thought known as dynamic systems theory and connectionism.
Keywords:
attractors;
connectionism;
disengagement;
dynamic systems;
expectancies;
feedback;
goals;
self-regulation
Mental accounts are often characterized as self-control devices that consumers employ to prevent excess spending and consumption. However, under certain conditions of ambiguity, the mental accounting process is malleable; that is, consumers have flexibility in assigning expenses to different mental accounts. We demonstrate how consumers flexibly classify expenses, or construct accounts, to justify spending. An expense that can be assigned to more than one account (i.e., an ambiguous expense) is more likely to be incurred than an unambiguous expense that is constrained either by existing budgets or by previously constructed accounts. We explore the justification processes that underlie these results and their implications for mental accounts as self-control devices.
The study implemented 419 mall-intercept interviews with people who are 55 or older in large malls in three metropolitan cities in the United States. The five subdimensions of mall-shopping motivation of older consumers were identified under two dimensions: Consumption-oriented mall-shopping motivation (service consumption, value consumption, and eating) and experiential mall-shopping motivation (diversion and aesthetic appreciation). The structural model revealed significant effects of social interaction, loneliness, and mall-shopping motivations on mall spending. Outcomes suggest that a mall can be a place to reduce older consumers' loneliness and that retailers in the mall can attract and make older consumers spend more by emphasizing value consumption and service consumption. Results also provide the implication for mall developers that providing more experiential features and events in malls may attract more older consumers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Volitional behaviors can be construed as “work” (extrinsically motivated) or as “fun” (intrinsically motivated). When volitional behaviors are construed as an obligation to work, completing the behavior depletes a consumer, and subsequent self-control becomes more difficult. When volitional behaviors are construed as an opportunity to have fun, completing the behavior vitalizes a consumer, and subsequent self-control becomes easier. Six studies show how individual differences and contextual factors influence the construal of a task, the motivation for completing it, and subsequent regulatory behavior.
Across six studies, we demonstrate that consumers have beliefs pertaining to the transience of emotion, which, along with their current feelings, determine the extent to which they regulate their immediate affect. If consumers believe that emotion is fleeting, those feeling happy (vs. unhappy) engage in affect regulation because they infer that they need to take actions to maintain their positive feelings. In contrast, if consumers believe that emotion is lasting, those feeling unhappy (vs. happy) engage in affect regulation because they infer that the negative feelings will persist unless they take actions to repair them. These effects are obtained with measured and with manipulated beliefs, and they occur only when the theories pertain specifically to emotion. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.
A new task goal elicits a feeling of pride in individuals with a subjective history of success, and this achievment pride produces anticipatory goal reactions that energize and direct behavior to approach the task goal. By distinguishing between promotion pride and prevention pride, the present paper extends this classic model of achievement motivation. Regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) distinguishes between a promotion focus on hopes and accomplishments (gains) and a prevention focus on safety and responsibilities (non-losses). We propose that a subjective history of success with promotion-related eagerness (promotion pride) orients individuals toward using eagerness means to approach a new task goal, whereas a subjective history of success with prevention-related vigilance (prevention pride) orients individuals toward using vigilance means to approach a new task goal. Studies 1–3 tested this proposal by examining the relations between a new measure of participants' subjective histories of promotion success and prevention success (the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ)) and their achievement strategies in different tasks. Study 4 examined the relation between participants' RFQ responses and their reported frequency of feeling eager or vigilant in past task engagements. Study 5 used an experimental priming technique to make participants temporarily experience either a subjective history of promotion success or a subjective history of prevention success. For both chronic and situationally induced achievement pride, these studies found that when approaching task goals individuals with promotion pride use eagerness means whereas individuals with prevention pride use vigilance means. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Anew model of consumer behavior is developed using a hybrid of cognitive psychology and microeconomics. The development of the model starts with the mental coding of combinations of gains and losses using the prospect theory value function. Then the evaluation of purchases is modeled using the new concept of “transaction utility.” The household budgeting process is also incorporated to complete the characterization of mental accounting. Several implications to marketing, particularly in the area of pricing, are developed.
This article was originally published in Marketing Science, Volume 4, Issue 3, pages 199–214, in 1985.
Moods, defined as diffuse or global feeling states, may lead us to take self-regulatory action designed to maintain them (good moods) or eliminate them (bad moods). This paper first surveys theories that help explain the origin and nature of such feeling states and then goes on to review and evaluate evidence purporting to demonstrate that self-regulation of mood occurs. Some support was found for the idea that people in bad moods will engage in various self-gratifying or self-indulgent acts as therapy. Other techniques that appear to be used are alcohol consumption and self-serving cognitive processes. The evidence regarding other sorts of self-regulation is fragmentary and/or anecdotal. It is argued that research on the self-regulation of mood would profit from better theoretical development, and some ideas along these lines are offered.
Why do consumers sometimes act against their own better judgment, engaging in behavior that is often regretted after the fact and that would have been rejected with adequate forethought? More generally, how do consumers attempt to maintain self-control in the face of time-inconsistent preferences? This article addresses consumer impatience by developing a decision-theoretic model based on reference points. The model explains how and why consumers experience sudden increases in desire for a product, increases that can result in the temporary overriding of long-term preferences. Tactics that consumers use to control their own behavior are also discussed. Consumer self-control is framed as a struggle between two psychological forces, desire and willpower. Finally, two general classes of self-control strategies are described: those that directly reduce desire, and those that overcome desire through willpower. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.
The proposed model integrates two streams of research on affect by specifying how evaluative and regulatory mechanisms interact to guide behavior. Two experiments demonstrate that when no mood changes are expected, the affective evaluation mechanism guides behavior, leading to a monotonic increase in behavioral intentions as affect conditions shift from negative to positive. When participants expect the behavioral activity to change their current affective states, a combination of affect regulation and affective evaluation produces a U-shape pattern when a mood-lifting cue is present (experiment 1) and an inverted U-shape pattern when a mood-threatening cue is present (experiment 2). (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
The experience of a mood consists of more than emotional states such as happiness, anger, sadness, or fear. It also includes mood management processes that can facilitate or inhibit the experience of the mood reaction. A multidomain framework is described for organizing such experience, and 2 studies are reported that analyzed separately emotion-related and emotion-management-related mood experiences. In both studies, emotion-related experience, including physical, emotional, and cognitive subdomains, could be characterized by Pleasant-Unpleasant and Arousal-Calm dimensions. Also, both studies yielded evidence for the emotion-management dimensions of Plans of Action, Suppression, and Denial. These broader dimensions of mood experience predicted criterion variables such as empathy better than Pleasant-Unpleasant and Arousal-Calm dimensions alone.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented.
Mood experience is comprised of at least two elements: the direct experience of the mood and a meta-level of experience that consists of thoughts and feelings about the mood. In Study 1, a two-dimensional structure for the direct experience of mood (Watson & Tellegen, 1985) was tested for its fit to the responses of 1,572 subjects who each completed one of three different mood scales, including a brief scale developed to assist future research. The Watson and Tellegen structure was supported across all three scales. In Study 2, meta-mood experience was conceptualized as the product of a mood regulatory process that monitors, evaluates, and at times changes mood. A scale to measure meta-mood experience was administered to 160 participants along with the brief mood scale. People's levels on the meta-mood dimensions were found to differ across moods. Meta-mood experiences may also constitute an important part of the phenomenology of the personal experience of mood.
For researchers studying how people cope with job stress, a major empirical concern is the development of coping measures. This article presents construct validity evidence for three measures of coping behavior related to job stress: control, escape, and symptom management. The psychometric properties of the scales as well as preliminary evidence for construct validity support further use and evaluation of these coping scales. Measurement issues are identified, particularly the time-dependent nature of coping and the dilemma of multimethod assessment. Suggestions are offered for future coping scale development.
Four studies evaluated the success of behaviors and strategies used to self-regulate bad moods, raise energy, and reduce tension. Study 1 (N = 102) used an open-ended questionnaire to identify behavioral categories. Studies 2 and 4 surveyed a representative sample (N = 308) with a fixed-response questionnaire to quantify behaviors, general strategies, and individual differences. Study 3 used psychotherapist (N = 26) judgments of the likely success of the strategies. Therapist and self-rating converged on success of strategies and gender differences. These studies clarify and confirm previous research findings, particularly gender differences in controlling depression. Exercise appears to be the most effective mood-regulating behavior, and the best general strategy to change a bad mood is a combination of relaxation, stress management, cognitive, and exercise techniques. Results support a 2-dimensional biopsychological model of mood.