Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-08-21
Abstract： Voluntary simplicity is a lifestyle in which individuals attain inner abundance and fulfillment in the process of simplifying their external lives, as to give up the possession and satisfaction of physical materials. Instead of living under stress, growing numbers of young people value life quality more and turn to a voluntary simplicity that allows a better qualitative life. Particularly during the covid-19 epidemic, consumers' lifestyles and consumption patterns have shifted, with increased acceptance of online purchases and reduced material needs in response to the risk of outings. Voluntary simplicity has emerged as an important lifestyle, and to explore the definition, influences and consequences of this lifestyle, this review is arranged as follows： First, the definition of voluntary simplicity was clarified in two aspects of personal behavioral patterns and values, then this lifestyle was distinguished with similar concepts. (1) The main difference between voluntary simplicity and green consumption lies in the quantity of consumption, where avoiding excessive consumption is one of the goals of voluntary simplifiers, rather than green consumers; (2) The difference between voluntary simplicity and minimalism centralized on the nature of consumption, compared with minimalists, voluntary simplifiers attach greater importance to the conservation of environment and stronger ecological consciousness. Second, the influencing factors of voluntary simplicity were profiled from both macro-environmental and micro-individual perspectives. At the macro-environmental perspective, culture exerts a significant influence on consumers' purchasing behavior, with studies showing that consumers in collectivist cultures exhibit more pro-environmental behavior. In addition, the outbreak of Covid-19 epidemic has somewhat reduced individuals’ consumption desire, which provides a specific time context for the emergence of voluntary simplicity. At the micro-individual perspective, individuals may choose voluntary simplicity to satisfy different psychological needs, which can be theoretically supported in reference to need theory and self-determination theory; also, consumers may be motivated by different personal values to shift their lifestyles, such as altruism and green consumption values. However, the current study overlooked personality which is a more reliable predictor; future studies should consider exploring the motivations of voluntary simplicity from the perspective of personality traits and conducting research in different cultural contexts to verify whether the mechanism is cross-culturally consistent. Finally, the effects of voluntary simplicity on the environment and individuals were also compiled. Voluntary simplifiers highly value the ecological consequences of their purchases, and emphasize on self-sufficiency and moderate consumption, which have a positive impact on environmental sustainability. The higher the degree of voluntary simplicity consumers have, the less ecological consequences of their consumption behavior and the more friendly to environmental sustainability. The higher the degree of voluntary simplicity consumers have, the less ecological consequences of their consumption behavior and the more friendly to environmental sustainability. Researches have shown that controlling consumption desires and satisfying psychological needs are important factors in explaining the relationship between voluntary simplicity and life satisfaction, yet the mechanisms underlying this positive effect of voluntary simplicity remain inconclusive. Future research should be conducted to investigate empirically the multiple effects of voluntary simplicity and further explore potential mechanisms between voluntary simplicity and its positive or negative effects.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： China has already entered an important stage of both the consumer demand sustained growth and consumption structure upgraded being speeded up, thus the question of how to make the happy consumption or how to “buy” happiness has caused wide concern in public and government. Psychologist found that people derive more happiness from experiential consumption than from material consumption. And money priming would activate “value maximization mindset”; time priming would activate “emotional mindset” on the other hand, then to influence consumer’s decision-making. Based on these findings, this project started from the perspective of dual-process theory, using both the method of behavioral science and cognitive neuroscience, to reveal essence of the phenomenon of dual cognitive processing in consumer decision, and to clarify the relationship between money, time, consumer and happiness.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-06-27
Abstract：
Inevitably, consumers will be exposed to death-related information in their daily lives. For example, they are informed about deaths and injuries caused by accidents, terrorism and disasters on social media. They may also encounter the experiences of deceased friends and relatives or the news of unfortunate strangers. Especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are more frequently exposed to death cues. Researches have shown that consumers' decision-makings and purchasing behaviors shift when dealing with death threats. Compared to material consumption, experiential consumption delivers greater and persistent well-being and it is emerging as an extremely important consumption pattern. It is unclear, however, whether these mortality cues will exert positive or negative effects on consumers’ preference for experiential purchases. Based on the meaning maintenance model, 4 studies were conducted to examine how mortality salience influences consumers' preference for experiential purchases.
In Study 1a and Study 1b, we experimentally manipulated mortality salience and examined its effect on consumers’ preference for experiential purchases. Study 1a (N = 140) was a single factor (mortality salience) between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to different groups to imagine about death or dental surgery. Participants in Study 1b (N = 252) were instructed to write about death or dental pain. Study 2 (N =219) was designed to test the mediating role of meaning in life. Participants were required to read a news report concerning traffic accident or dental surgery, and then finish the Meaning in Life Questionnaire. Study 3 (N = 166) was a 2 (mortality salience vs. control condition) ×2 (social support: high level vs. low level) between-subjects design. Participants were provided a news report pertaining to the global fatalities under the COVID-19 pandemic in mortality salience condition, and pertaining to global tourism during the pandemic period in the control condition. Social support was manipulated by writing in detail a difficult situation "in which your family or friends accompanied you", or "in which you had to face all by yourself". Additionally, we used a single-paper meta-analysis (SPM) to document a robust effect across all studies.
The main results of this study are as follows: (1) Exposed to mortality salience will lead to stronger preference for experiential purchases. (2) The effects seem to be driven by meaning in life, whereby exposure to mortality salience undermines consumers' meaning in life, and consumers will gravitate towards experiential consumption to enhance their impaired meaning. (3) Social support moderates the effect of mortality salience on meaning in life. Only when consumers received low level of social support, will mortality salience reduce their meaning in life. (4) Social support moderates the mediating effect of meaning in life on mortality salience and preference for experiential purchases. Specifically, meaning in life mediates the effect of mortality salience on preference for experiential purchases only when consumers received low social support. To enhance the overall validity, we performed a single-paper meta-analysis (SPM) on the four studies. The SPM showed that consumers had greater preference of experiential purchase when exposed to mortality salience (Estimate β = 0.30, SE = 0.07, z = 4.178, p < 0.001), which strengthened the robustness of our general conclusion.
This research yields practical implications by demonstrating that mortality salience exerts positive effect on consumers' preference for experiential purchases, which enables us to identify the changes in consumption patterns and mindset under the pandemic, providing references for marketing and promotion strategies.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2021-09-26
Abstract： It is usual for individual to feel socially excluded. As an unpleasant experience, social exclusion results in adverse effect on individual’s cognitive, physical and psychological functions. Social exclusion refers to a feeling of being ignored, rejected or isolated by other individuals or social groups. Previous studies have shown that individuals generally resort to consumption to alleviate the negative effects of social exclusion, for example, they have a preference for unique products and anthropomorphic products after being socially excluded. van Boven & Gilovich (2003) classified purchases into two types: experiential purchase and material purchase. Experiential purchase refers to those made with the main purpose of obtaining life experience such as watching a movie and going to a concert while material purchase refers to those made with the main purpose of obtaining a tangible good such as buying accessories and clothes. However, so far there are few studies attempting to examine the effect of social exclusion on experiential purchase and material purchase. The current research aims to explore the effect of social exclusion on experiential purchase and material purchase. Meanwhile, this research also interested in investigating the factors that might moderates the effects of social exclusion on experiential purchase and material purchase and factors that might mediate the moderating effects. Study 1a and 1b respectively used a single-factor (social exclusion vs. social inclusion) between-subject design to explore the effect of social exclusion on consumer purchase. Participants were asked to take times to imagine that they were the protagonist of the story and reported which consumption activity (experiential purchase or material purchase) to get involved after reading the story. In study 2, a two-factor (social exclusion vs. social inclusion; nostalgia vs. control) between-subject design were employed to investigate the moderating role of nostalgia and mediating role of social connectedness. Participants were randomly assigned to the socially included group or the socially excluded group. Social exclusion and inclusion were manipulated in the same way as study 1. Right after the exclusion or inclusion manipulation there was another task requiring participants to recall a nostalgic event or an ordinary event in order to manipulate nostalgia. Participants were also randomly assigned to nostalgic group and control group. Then they were required to report their feelings of social connectedness and decide which purchase (experiential purchase or material purchase) to have. Our findings are as follows：(1) Compared with those who are socially included, socially excluded individuals are more likely to have experiential purchase over material purchase. (2) Nostalgia moderates the effect of social exclusion on purchase. Specifically, after being socially excluded, there is a significant difference on the purchase decision between nostalgic individuals and control ones. Participants in the control group prefer to choose experiential purchase more than nostalgic individuals. However, for those who are socially included, there is no significant difference on purchase decision between nostalgic group and control one. (3) Social connectedness mediates this moderation effect. Taken together, these findings indicate that socially excluded consumers have a tendency towards experiential purchase, which enriches the researches of the antecedent of experiential purchase and the consequence of social exclusion. Furthermore, it reveals an important underlying mechanism to cope with the negative influence of social exclusion.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2021-09-26
Abstract： Consumers will inevitably receive some information about death in their daily life. For example, they see news reports on social media about traffic accidents, air crashes, terrorist attacks, wars, major disasters (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, etc.), and sudden death, which contain death information. Another example is knowing or experiencing the unfortunate news that friends, relatives and strangers passed away due to disease or accident in their lives. This is especially true in the context of the current COVID-19 epidemic, where the number of COVID-19 deaths continues to rise globally and consumers are exposed to the threat of death, either passively or actively. According to previous studies, under the influence of death threat information, consumers may have stronger desire to consume and make consumption in response to death threat. So, when consumers think about the possibility of death or are exposed to mortality salience, will they be more willing to engage in experiential consumption or material consumption? Do mortality salience have an impact on consumers' preference for experiential products? What are the mechanisms and boundary conditions? In experiment 1, participants were asked two classic death questions to conduct death reminders, and then the effect of mortality salience on the number of experiential products consumers chose was tested. In experiment 2, the effect of mortality salience on consumers' preference for experiential product selection was repeatedly verified by reading traffic accident news reports. The mediating role of meaning in life between mortality salience and consumers' choice preference of experiential products was explored. Experiment 3 was based on the background of the current COVID-19 epidemic, and mortality salience was activated by asking the subjects to read reports about COVID-19 deaths. Moreover, the boundary conditions of the effect of mortality salience on consumers' choice preference of experiential purchases were further explored from the intervention level by manipulating the level of social support in experiment 3. The main results of the study are as follows: (1) Mortality salience will improve consumers' preference of experiential purchase and increase the number of experiential products to choose. (2) Meaning in life played a mediating role in the relationship between mortality salience and the preference of experiential purchase. (3) Social support moderated the effect of mortality salience on meaning in life. When social support was low, mortality salience was negatively correlated with meaning in life. When social support was high, there was no significant correlation between mortality salience and meaning in life. (4) Social support moderated the mediating effect of meaning in life on mortality salience and consumer preference of experiential purchase . When social support was low, the mediating effect was established. When social support was high, the mediating effect did not hold. The findings suggest that death mortality salience is an antecedent variable that influencing consumers' direct choice between experiential and material consumption, enriching and expanding relevant research in the field of consumer preferences, while providing reference implications for maintaining individual physical and mental health and restoring socioeconomic development in the post-epidemic period.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2021-09-26
Abstract： Time and money are two important resources which could affect consumer decision-making differently. When consumers making purchase decisions, they are ususally influenced by the information of time or money which implied in the merchant’s slogan and the shopping environment. And these affect would be differential in consumers’ purchase decision process such as pre-purchase stage, purchasing stage, and post purchase stage. From the perspective of dual-process theory, the psychological mechanism may be due to different cognitive processing mindsets that primed by time and money. Future research should further explore the following issues: (1) Elaborating the different effects of priming time and money on purchase decisions. (2) Considering the impact from the trade-off between time and money on purchase decisions. (3) Further exploring the different influences of priming time and money on the pre-purchase decision. (4) Exploring the neural mechanisms underlying the different effects of time and money on purchase decisions. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2021-02-04
Abstract： Prosocial spending refers to spending money on others in the form of gifts or charitable donations. Prosocial spending not only benefits the recipient but also exerts a positive effect on the giver’s subjective well-being. This effect depends on the type of recipient (individual vs. organization or society at large), and the universality and the persistence of the effect have been extensively investigated. Both internal and external factors have been shown to contribute to the boundary conditions facilitating the effect. Several theories, such as self-determination theory, social norm theory, evolution theory and social exchange theory, could be used to elucidate the mechanism underlying the effect of prosocial spending on subjective well-being. Future studies should focus on examining the boundary conditions of the effect, exploring the long-term positive effects of prosocial spending, and improving the ecological validity of research on prosocial spending.
Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2018-11-04
Abstract： Cause-related marketing is an important strategy to combine the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility with the improvement of brand image. If a company engage in cause-related activities, the consumers of the company will have the opportunities to participate in philanthropic events when consumption. Base on the current state of knowledge regarding the domain of cause-related marketing, we found that attribution theory, stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, self-signaling theory, and balance theory can be used to explain the effects and mechanisms of cause-related marketing on consumer attitude. Future research should further explore new independent variables from the perspective of cause-related marketing that affects consumer attitude, the effect of cause-related marketing from consumer perspective, and even new mechanisms that underlying cause-related marketing effect on consumers' attitude."
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