Although close relationships are often characterized by openness and disclosure, in the present research, we propose that there are times when individuals choose not to tell close others about their consumer behavior, keeping it a secret. For example, one partner may eat a candy bar on the way home from work, hide a package that was delivered to the house, or hire a cleaning service and not tell the other partner. We theorize that this type of consumer behavior is both common and mundane. That is, the consumption itself is minor—and has likely been done with the partner's knowledge in the past—but is being intentionally kept from the partner. We further investigate whether such behavior has downstream effects on the relationship, despite its mundaneness. Five studies support our conceptualization of secret consumer behaviors in close relationships and illustrate one consequence: guilt from secret consumption leads to greater relationship investment. This research explores a common, yet understudied, area of consumer behavior and highlights areas for future research. Thus, we contribute to the literature by being the first work to examine emotional, behavioral, and relational aspects of secret consumer behavior.
Social relationships permeate consumers' interactions with both the marketplace and consumption more broadly. Imagine a consumer, Sam, walking through a department store. Sam hopes to buy a birthday present for their best friend, pick up socks for their spouse, find a microwave that will be more accessible for their aging parents, pick up a bedding set for themselves and their spouse, and find something to wear at an upcoming wedding. Any individual consumer, on any given trip, may be shopping for themselves (such as the wedding outfit) or for both themselves and someone else (such as the bedding set), but they also might be buying solely for someone else for a number of reasons, including gifting, providing favors, and caretaking (P. J. Liu et al., 2019). Now imagine that Sam is not alone in the store but brought along their spouse, Joe, and called their sister, Carmen, while picking a microwave for their parents as they are splitting the cost. In this situation, the purchase decisions become joint decisions, which can further shape the decision-making process and the decisions made. Joe might be more price sensitive than Sam and expand Sam' s consideration set by price-checking the products online. Or Joe might feel impatient with clothes shopping and rush Sam through picking a wedding outfit. On the other hand, Carmen might prioritize their parents' preferences and push for Sam to buy the higher quality, but more This chapter is based on the first author' s dissertation.
Despite the ubiquity of celebrations in everyday life, very little is known about how they may contribute to consumer well-being. In the current work, the authors propose that celebrations promote perceived social support, which prior work has conceptualized as the belief that others will be there for you in future, negative life events. The authors further theorize that celebrations require three key characteristics which, in combination, are necessary for increasing perceived social support. Specifically, celebrations must 1) mark an individual’s separate positive event and 2) involve consumption 3) with others (i.e., social). They test this theory across eight studies and demonstrate a process mechanism for this effect—these characteristics lead to increases in enacted support and perceived responsiveness, which in turn, lead to increases in more general perceived social support. They then extend these findings by investigating virtually held celebrations, the individual’s role at the celebration, and a downstream pro-social outcome. By doing so, this work highlights the broader benefits of celebrations beyond the focal individual and the immediate experience. Finally, specific policy implications and suggestions for enhancing consumer well-being are provided.
From time, to money, to energy, many consumers are feeling more constrained than ever before. One potential solution to the pervasive feeling of constraint is self-gifting, which is the process of invoking a hedonic consumption experience with the a priori intention of boosting one’s emotional well-being. But despite being a potentially powerful tool for mood repair, are consumers effectively coping with constraint by engaging in self-gifting? And if not, what is stopping them? A correlational pilot and six studies examine the relationship between the feeling of constraint and self-gifting consumption. When consumers feel constrained, they are less (rather than more) interested in self-gifting, and this is driven by a belief that feeling constrained will hamper their ability to derive the emotional well-being benefits of self-gifting. Importantly, though, this belief is miscalibrated: Resource-constrained consumers can derive substantial well-being benefits from self-gifting, relative to those feeling less constrained. The effects generalize across several sources of constraint, do not occur for non-self-gifts, and cannot be explained by feelings of deservingness or justifiability. This research advances understanding of self-gifting, affective forecasting, and consumer decision-making, yields practical recommendations to marketers of self-gifting consumption, and has important consumer implications for people seeking to boost their well-being.
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