Health-Seeking Consumer: Cognitive Dissonance Encountered After Panic Buying

Abstract

This study aims to specify whether the "health-seeking" consumers' information overload and cyberchondria that arise as a result of the information they acquire, cause panic buying and whether this buying can later cause cognitive dissonance. The study sample, for which an online survey method was preferred, consisted of consumers aged 18 years and older who stated that they made panic buying due to health concerns. Structural equation modeling and mediation analyses were utilized to analyze the data in the study, which included 400 participants. The findings showed that seeking health information has an effect on information overload; both information and communication overload have an effect on cyberchondria; cyberchondria has an effect on panic buying and cognitive dissonance dimensions. Panic buying has an effect on cognitive dissonance dimensions and has a mediating effect between cyberchondria and cognitive dissonance dimensions. People's health concerns are continuous, which is, in turn, lead to a cycle of seeking information. With this foresight, the research investigates consumers' panic buying. However, the proposed research model does not end with panic buying. Within the scope of the research, the cognitive dissonance, as a consumer reaction that may occur after panic buying, will be discussed and interpreted. It is thought that not ending the research model with panic buying behavior and examining the cognitive dissonance that expresses consumer inconstancy after this buying will contribute to the literature.