ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理科学进展 ›› 2023, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (6): 1078-1093.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2023.01078

• 研究前沿 • 上一篇    下一篇

孤独感对消费行为的影响及其理论解释

李婷, 孔祥博, 王风华()   

  1. 上海市脑机协同信息行为重点实验室; 上海外国语大学国际工商管理学院, 上海 200083
  • 收稿日期:2022-09-03 出版日期:2023-06-15 发布日期:2023-03-07
  • 通讯作者: 王风华 E-mail:wangfenghua@shisu.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(71772124);上海外国语大学导师学术引领计划项目(2022113011)

The influence of loneliness on consumption behavior and its theoretical explanations

LI Ting, KONG Xiangbo, WANG Fenghua()   

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior; School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083, China
  • Received:2022-09-03 Online:2023-06-15 Published:2023-03-07
  • Contact: WANG Fenghua E-mail:wangfenghua@shisu.edu.cn

摘要:

孤独感已成为一种日益普遍的社会现象。近年来, 孤独感影响消费行为的研究成果为消费者行为领域做出了重要贡献。个体的孤独感会对补偿性消费行为、回避性消费行为、非理性消费行为及独特性消费行为产生影响。同时, 这些影响会受到消费者亲密关系状态、营销策略、产品属性及消费情境等因素的影响。社交替代理论、控制感理论、补偿性消费行为理论、自我调节理论和人格特质理论可用来解释孤独感对消费行为的影响。未来研究应当关注孤独感对利他型消费行为的影响、孤独感类型和程度对消费行为的影响、孤独感影响消费行为的调节因素、孤独感影响消费行为的内在机制、消费行为对孤独感的反向影响等方向。

关键词: 孤独感, 消费行为, 补偿性消费行为理论, 自我调节理论, 人格特质理论

Abstract:

Loneliness has become an increasingly common social phenomenon that is widespread at all ages and has an impact on people's daily lives in modern societies. Loneliness is a painful emotional experience that individuals subjectively perceive when the quality of intimate or social relationships does not meet ideal expectations or when they cannot satisfy their need to belong. Recent research findings regarding the impact of loneliness on consumption behavior have contributed greatly to the field of consumer behavior. However, the results of existing research are inconsistent and it is still unclear how loneliness affects consumption behavior. As a consequence, the field of consumer behavior is rather constrained in terms of research development and marketing strategy. In light of the importance of loneliness in the field of consumer behavior, this article systematically reviews the research findings of the influence of loneliness on consumption behavior in order to solve the above problems.
First of all, this article summarizes and generalizes the widely used manipulation methods (including the feedback-evoked method, recall-evoked method, imagination-evoked method, and cue-evoked method) and measurement tools (i.e., the UCLA loneliness scale) for loneliness. Secondly, this article summarizes the effects of loneliness on consumption behavior from four aspects, including compensatory consumption behavior, avoidance consumption behavior, irrational consumption behavior, and uniqueness consumption behavior, respectively. Thirdly, this article analyzes and sorts out the triggering mechanisms and situational factors of loneliness-induced consumption behaviors, respectively. According to the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness, this article contends that, the psychological needs (e.g., seeking social connection, restoring a sense of control, and seeking a sense of meaning in life) activated by transiently lonely consumers, who are influenced by the approach motive for restoring self-difference, will induce compensatory consumption behaviors. The social avoidance tendency activated by chronically lonely consumers, who are influenced by the avoidance motive for self-preservation in the short term, will induce avoidance consumption behaviors. At the same time, constant vigilance for social threats and the negative emotions it produces (e.g., anxiety) due to social avoidance may deplete lonely consumers’ self-regulatory resources, which will induce irrational consumption behaviors. The need for uniqueness activated by chronically lonely consumers, who are influenced by the avoidance motive for self-preservation in the long term, will induce uniqueness consumption behavior. In addition, loneliness motivates consumers to induce these above consumption behaviors will be influenced by factors such as consumers' intimacy status, marketing strategies, product attributes, and consumption contexts. Finally, the article explains the influence mechanisms of loneliness on various types of consumption behaviors based on different perspectives such as social surrogacy theory, sense of control theory, compensatory consumption behavior theory, self-regulation theory, and personality trait theory.
Although many valuable results have been obtained from existing research on the effects of loneliness on consumer behavior, there are still some key issues that need to be addressed by future research. This article proposes that future research shall pay more attention to the impact of loneliness on altruistic consumption behavior (e.g., examining the effects of loneliness on pro-social consumption behavior or sustainable consumption behavior), the differential effects of type and degree of loneliness on consumption behavior (e.g., examining the differential effects of transient and chronic loneliness on consumption behavior), the potential moderators of loneliness-induced consumption behavior (e.g., exploring the boundary variables of loneliness-induced consumption behavior in terms of consumers' physiological activities, personality traits, and social characteristics), the internal mechanisms of loneliness-induced consumption behavior (e.g., attempting to explore the internal mechanisms of loneliness-induced consumption behavior from the cognitive-emotional dual processing path), as well as the reverse impact of consumption behavior on loneliness (e.g., clarifying the differential effects of consumption behavior on individual loneliness in the short and long term).

Key words: loneliness, consumption behavior, compensatory consumption behavior theory, self-regulation theory, personality trait theory

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