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The worldwide phenomenon of population aging has generated increasing interest among consumer researchers in understanding the complicated influence of aging on consumer mental processes and behavior. This article reviews significant changes due to aging in sensory functioning, cognition, and affect and motivation on consumer decision‐making. Whereas some age‐related changes have negative effects on the quality of decision processes and outcomes, others have positive effects. The current review demonstrates the importance of using different approaches to address the needs and well‐being of older consumers versus younger consumers.

We propose that individual differences in the value placed on the principle of moderation exist and influence many aspects of consumer decision-making. The idea that moderation is an important guiding norm of human behavior is prevalent throughout history and an explicit theme in many philosophies, religions, and cultures. Yet, moderation has not been studied as an individual-level determinant of consumer behavior. We develop a scale that measures the degree to which individuals have a Preference for Moderation (PFM). The PFM scale predicts consequential behavior in many decision contexts. We first report on scale development, including the generation and selection of items. We then report analyses that show PFM is distinct from several popular individual-difference variables. Related to cultural background, PFM reliably predicts the use of compromise (study 1) and balancing (vs. highlighting) strategies (study 2), as well as various decision-making behaviors, including reliance on the representativeness heuristic (study 3), self-reported financial habits and outcomes (studies 4-5), real-world online reviewing behavior (study 6), and split-ticket voting behavior in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections (study 7).

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Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) maintains that when futures loom large, as they typically do in youth, people are motivated to explore. When future time is perceived as more limited, as is typical in old age, people are motivated to pursue emotionally meaningful goals. Because the COVID-19 pandemic primed mortality across the age spectrum, it provided an opportunity to examine whether age differences in social motivation typically observed were also present during the pandemic. We measured social motivation, as operationalized by social preferences, in two studies during peak of the pandemic in 2020. Once vaccines were introduced in 2021, we conducted two additional studies using the same experimental paradigm. As hypothesized, at the peak of the pandemic, social preferences favored emotionally meaningful partners regardless of age. Social preferences differed by age (as reliably observed in research conducted before the pandemic) when vaccines were available. Findings suggest that widely documented age differences in social motivation reflect time horizons more than chronological age.

This paper develops a simple linear formulation of cost-sharing procurement contracts into which reciprocal behavior is embedded. The comparative static analysis shows that the reciprocal behavior is negatively associated with the incentive. Both the cost uncertainty and the supplier's risk aversion have a positive influence on the reciprocal behavior and cooperation between buyers and suppliers. Compared to the second-best solution in the existing principalagent literature under asymmetric information, this paper finds that the presented model is a Pareto improvement under modest restriction even if cost-reducing effort is unverifiable. The reciprocal model has the properties of first-best optimal social surplus.

The intelligent innovation of child safety seats has brought new impacts and challenges to the Chinese market. Researchers in the car seat industry have been focusing on industry regulations and the abuse of car seats, but there is a lack of consumer-centered research. This study is the first to combine two theories of consumer subject-specific innovation (DSI) and the theory of consumption value (TCV). This study explores how consumer innovations influence consumers’ purchase of innovative child safety seats through perceived value. The proposed research model was evaluated using a partial least squares structural equation model, and data analysis revealed that the model had good model fit, reliability, and validity. Consumer product innovation has a significantly better impact on willingness to buy than consumer information innovation. In this study, in the relationship between consumers of information innovation and purchase intention in the automobile seat industry, a new kind of parallel multi-mediating relationship between the social value, hedonic value, and novelty value of perceived products was proposed. The study’s results address the need for more consumer research in the intelligent seating industry, as well as how to give researchers and marketing firms solutions and suggestions based on facts.