Influence of negative age stereotypes and anti‐aging needs on older consumers’ consumption‐coping behaviours: A qualitative study in South Korea

Abstract

The number of older people in South Korea is growing dramatically, and the socio-psychological needs of these people have begun to change from those of elderly people in the previous Confucian culture. The anti-aging industry is popular among older South Korean consumers, and the Korean mass media have begun to broadcast new images of older people. The purpose of this research was to explore older Korean people's anti-aging needs by examining their consumptionrelated thoughts and behaviours in daily life. A theoretical framework is formulated to organize the coping processes and psychological mechanisms used by older Koreans to meet their anti-aging needs. A total of 25 older Korean consumers were interviewed, and the qualitative data are analysed to determine the main causes and, attributes of, and reactions to their anti-aging needs. The analysis of the in-depth-interviews shows that the older consumers' negative age stereotypes act as a stressor and that their need for anti-aging products is a defensive reaction. It is also found that older Korean consumers change their consumption behaviours to cope with negative age stereotypes and to satisfy their anti-aging needs, and two types of coping behaviours (problemfocused and emotion-focused) are revealed. The results of this study contribute to the academic explanations of the anti-aging phenomenon among older Koreans and enhance understanding of the perspectives of older Eastern consumers by revealing the existence of their anti-aging needs.

Intergenerational Relationship Perception And Intergenerational Contact Frequency

“…In addition, there are differences between age and generational groups (Sivrikova, Moiseeva et al, 2019 (Nimrod & Berdychevsky, 2018), impact on the perception of older persons of experience with them (Bocksnick & Dyck, 2018) and special programs (Lou & Dai, 2017), impact of age on the assessment of victims and perpetrators (Chu & Grühn, 2018), impact of culture on age stereotypes (Schloegel et al, 2018). Comparison of research results will allow detecting contradictions related to age stereotypes: in society, there is an increase in real negative age stereotypes (Levy, 2017;Spangenberg et al, 2018) despite the positive representation of older people in the media (Bae et al, 2018;Oró-Piqueras & Marques, 2017); The ambivalence of age stereotypes (a higher rating of friendliness against the background of low ratings of competence in older persons, and a reverse picture in young people) (Vauclair et al, 2017). The effects of age stereotypes are studied.…”

The GNG neural network in analyzing consumer behaviour patterns: empirical research on a purchasing behaviour processes realized by the elderly consumers

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Cyberloafing As A Trait Of A New Generation: Exploring Perception Of Teenagers

“…Modern studies of age stereotypes are distinguished by the originality of research approaches and methods. Researchers analyse the content of age stereotypes in the media (Oró-Piqueras & Marques, 2017;Bae, Jo, Han, & Lee, 2018), folk proverbs and online humor (Nimrod & Berdychevsky, 2018), the influence of culture on age stereotypes (Schloegel, Stegmann, Van Dick, & Maedche, 2018). Research results point to a number of paradoxes related to age stereotypes: the paradox of reinforcing real negative age stereotypes (Spangenberg, Zenger, Glaesmer, Brähler, & Strauss, 2018;Levy, 2017) The paradox of ambivalence of age stereotypes (Vauclair, Rodrigues, Marques, Esteves, Cunha, & Gerardo, 2017).…”