Psychological factors and consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it has unpredictably changed our whole way of life. As suggested by the analysis of economic data on sales, this dramatic scenario has also heavily impacted individuals’ spending levels. To better understand these changes, the present study focused on consumer behavior and its psychological antecedents. Previous studies found that crises differently affect people’s willingness to buy necessities products (i.e., utilitarian shopping) and non-necessities products (i.e., hedonic shopping). Therefore, in examining whether changes in spending levels were associated with changes in consumer behavior, we adopted a fine-grained approach disentangling between necessities and non-necessities. We administered an online survey to 3833 participants (age range 18–64) during the first peak period of the contagion in Italy. Consumer behavior toward necessities was predicted by anxiety and COVID-related fear, whereas consumer behavior toward non-necessities was predicted by depression. Furthermore, consumer behavior toward necessities and non-necessities was predicted by personality traits, perceived economic stability, and self-justifications for purchasing. The present study extended our understanding of consumer behavior changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results could be helpful to develop marketing strategies that consider psychological factors to meet actual consumers’ needs and feelings.

Enhancing Consumer Experience through Development of Implicit Attitudes Using Food Delivery Applications

“…The propensity to share food ordered with the help of applications designed for online distribution was found in the case of close family members or work colleagues and students who live together in dormitories [106]. At the same time, other studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that people with higher education levels tend to buy larger quantities of goods than people who have a lower level of education [11,107]. Young people are individuals with the propensity to use digital applications more and post images of food items on their social networks, a tendency that is amplified in the context of online food delivery application usage [108].…”

“…Thus, in addition to "classic" variables that define consumer behavior in a traditional way, such as product quality, satisfaction and learning, the situation caused by the pandemic puts particular pressure on consumers and producers/providers alike, with other different variables coming into light, variables capable of measuring factors that are specific to the new types of needs and consumption motivations. Among these, we can cite safety measures-elements found to be very important for retaining customers-and illicit loyaltytype behaviors [10], or variables which are part of a specific group of variables (those of a psychological nature)-fear, anxiety, stress, depression, self-justifications and personality traits [11]. Different authors try to grasp certain features and characteristics of consumers' behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Different authors try to grasp certain features and characteristics of consumers' behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. From a general perspective, we can talk about panic buying behavior, correlated with impulse buying behavior, as previous studies have shown that dramatic events that are perceived by individuals as being a direct threat to their lives and safety can motivate compensatory responses able to alleviate fear and anxiety [11][12][13].…”

The Influence of Commodity Presentation Mode on Online Shopping Decision Preference Induced by the Serial Position Effect

“…Referring to the data display grouping content in components in Ant Design Vue and existing shopping website applications, we summarized and selected views in the shopping environment as follows: (a) These selection decision biases, affected by the serial position effect, are found to be applicable to many different types of consumer experience [19]. In consumer psychologyrelated research, researchers mostly use a specific task scenario as the basis [18,20,21], combined with the psychological experimental paradigm and consumer application context, to study the influence of the serial position effect on user decision-making bias in this task context. Most of these studies were limited to the comparison of traditional shopping tasks and rarely studied the inducing effect of different forms of information visualization from the perspective of ergonomics.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health of Chinese Residents in Its Initial Stage

“…Public health emergencies may adversely affect the mental health of the public ( Di Crosta et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Cannito et al, 2021 ; Chirumbolo et al, 2021 ). This effect can manifest into different results, such as burnout, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, a recurrent mental and physical distress happening after dangerous or catastrophic, transient, or long-lasting situations), anxiety, and depressive symptoms ( Lancee et al, 2008 ; Fontalba-Navas et al, 2017 ; Probst et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Daniali and Flaten, 2021 ; Wheaton et al, 2021 ).…”