Consumer Psychology Review最新文献

Repeat consumption refers to re-experiencing an enjoyable stimulus in order to enjoy it again. We rewatch the same shows, reread the same stories, and revisit the same cities; we play our favorite songs on loop and stick to our secret spots in town. When and why do people engage in repeat consumption, and what actually happens in our psychological experience (e.g., attention, enjoyment) upon doing so? This article reviews burgeoning research shedding light on these questions. First, I establish repeat consumption as a distinct construct. Second, I highlight an emerging perspective: Repeat consumption is not so repetitive after all. Not only does repetition reveal new things within the stimulus—dubbed stimulus-level novelty (e.g., upon rewatching a movie, we notice missed details and new connections)—but we also learn new things about ourselves in the process—dubbed self-level novelty (e.g., “I must really be committed!”). This model qualifies traditionally grim understandings of hedonic adaptation and exposure effects; people derive greater utility from the old and familiar than assumed. Third, I highlight future research directions, including the need for a clearer taxonomy of repeat value and implications for maximizing utility. Exciting discoveries lie ahead if we return to where we have already been.

If platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the engines of social media use, what is the gasoline? The answer can be found in the psychological dynamics behind consumer habit formation and performance. In fact, the financial success of different social media sites is closely tied to the daily-use habits they create among users. We explain how the rewards of social media sites motivate user habit formation, how social media design provides cues that automatically activate habits and nudge continued use, and how strong habits hinder quitting social media. Demonstrating that use habits are tied to cues, we report a novel test of a 2008 change in Facebook design, showing that it impeded posting only of frequent, habitual users, suggesting that the change disrupted habit automaticity. Finally, we offer predictions about the future of social media sites, highlighting the features most likely to promote user habits.

Intentions are one of the most widely used constructs in consumer research. We review over 50 years of research that has helped us understand what intentions are, their antecedents and consequences, and how best to measure and use them as a proxy for or predictor of behavior. We define intentions and differentiate them from other closely relatedly psychological constructs. We review several psychological theories where intentions play a central role and highlight what is known about the strength of the intention–behavior relationship, and factors that moderate the strength of that relationship. We also review more methodological research and discuss what is known about how to best measure intentions and use them to predict behavior. Finally, we suggest opportunities for continued research on intentions and discuss their continued relevance in a world of big data.

Wherever consumers envision faraway locations, remember the past, predict the future, consider the perspective of others, or entertain remote possibilities, their minds extrapolate beyond what lies in front of them to something psychologically distant. Conjuring and considering that which is psychologically distant thus lies at the heart of how most people spend a substantial portion of their lives. As integrated here, seeing something as psychologically distant causes people to think about and act on it in systematically different ways than the same thing seen as psychologically close. Recent advances in these consequences suggest that the effects of psychological distance on consumer decision-making continue to grow increasingly nuanced. Consumer outcomes thus at times benefit from seeing things as near and, at other times, benefit from seeing things as far. Accordingly, this review thereafter summarizes the antecedents that lead people to see things as psychologically distant or psychologically close. It closes in considering how future considerations might expand the conceptualization and application of psychological distance.

People routinely encounter situations in which they have to decide between following their long-term interests and seeking short-term pleasure. An act of self-control occurs when people follow their long-term interests (e.g., eat healthy food, save money), whereas an act of indulgence occurs when people seek short-term pleasure (e.g., eat tasty but unhealthy food, spend a lot of money). Avoiding the temptation of short-term pleasures is often difficult, and sometimes indulgence can lead to harmful outcomes. For this reason, research has understandably focused on uncovering the many factors that can facilitate or undermine self-control. However, making sense of this voluminous output is difficult without an organizing framework. This article provides such a framework, which organizes previous findings around three psychological processes: information activation and inhibition, priority setting, and responses to resource availability. The article concludes with a discussion of research ideas in areas that will be especially relevant moving forward.

This review synthesizes the social presence literature that has been conducted in consumer psychology over the past decade. It provides a framework for understanding the impact of other buyers and salespeople on a consumer's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The review is structured around three types of social influence: utilitarian, value-expressive, and informational. Examples of how recent research has explored each type of influence are provided. In addition to integrating the work that has previously been conducted, this review also highlights future research directions for advancing the field's understanding of the role and impact of a social presence on consumers.

Implicit theories are the beliefs that individuals hold regarding the nature of human and nonhuman attributes, as well as more global phenomena. Over the past three decades, social and consumer psychologists have garnered a rich set of findings from investigating the processing and judgmental impact of implicit theories on various facets of people's day-to-day lives. This review begins with a brief summary of the history of implicit theory research before explicating its current state in consumer psychology. The review categorizes the current, and rather fragmented, landscape of the consumer psychology of implicit theories into three broad areas: brands, persuasion, and consumption behaviors. We conclude our review by contributing to an expanding dialogue regarding the future of consumer research pertaining to implicit theories.

Online word-of-mouth (WOM) can impact consumers’ product evaluations, purchase intentions, and choices—but when does it do so? How do those receiving WOM know whether to rely on a particular message? This article suggests that the multiple players involved in online WOM (receivers, senders, sellers, platforms, and other consumers) each have their own interests, which are often in conflict. Thus, receivers of WOM are faced with a judgment task in deciding what information to rely on: They must make inferences about the product in question and about the players who provide or present WOM. To do so, they use signals embedded in various components of WOM, such as average star ratings, message content, or sender characteristics. The product and player information provided by these signals shapes the impact of WOM by allowing receivers to make inferences about (a) their likelihood of product satisfaction, and (b) the trustworthiness of WOM players, and therefore the trustworthiness of their content. This article summarizes how each player changes the impact of online WOM, providing a lens for understanding the current literature in online WOM, offering insights for theory in this context, and opening up pathways for future research.

Anthropomorphism, or imbuing nonhuman entities with human traits, is widely prevalent in the marketplace. The last decade of consumer research demonstrates that when imbued with human characteristics, anthropomorphized brands and products become active participants in the consumption experience and are viewed and treated fundamentally differently than those viewed simply as objects. We identify three dimensions around how consumers relate to anthropomorphized entities: connection, comprehension, and competition. The first two C's highlight how anthropomorphized brands and products benefit consumers by fulfilling belongingness needs (connection) and helping consumers understand unfamiliar situations and products (comprehension). In contrast, the competition dimension highlights how anthropomorphized brands and products are perceived as adversaries or potential threats to consumers’ individual goals. By identifying competition as the third C, we illuminate self-protection as an additional motivation that shapes consumers’ responses to anthropomorphized entities—a motivation that has not been directly accounted for in previous theorizing.

More than 15 years ago, Van Boven and Gilovich (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 2003, 1193) presented evidence that experiential purchases make people happier than material purchases once consumers have covered their basic needs. This experiential advantage has attracted significant attention from researchers in the fields of social and consumer psychology. In this article, we review the literature on this subject. We first define the constructs of experiential and material purchases, and contrast them with previous, related constructs. We then identify and review the different mechanisms that appear to underlie the experiential advantage. Finally, we examine evidence of systematic differences in how people make decisions about material and experiential purchases, focusing on differences in how consumers process information and evaluate options prior to making a purchase.