The Effect Of Mortality Salience On Consumers’ Choice Preference Of Experiential Purchase And Its Mechanism

Consumers will inevitably receive some information about death in their daily life.For example,they see news reports on social media about traffic accidents,air crashes,terrorist attacks,wars,major disasters（earthquakes,floods,tsunamis,etc.）,and sudden death,which contain death information.Another example is knowing or experiencing the unfortunate news that friends,relatives and strangers passed away due to disease or accident in their lives.This is especially true in the context of the current COVID-19 epidemic,where the number of COVID-19 deaths continues to rise globally and consumers are exposed to the threat of death,either passively or actively.According to previous studies,under the influence of death threat information,consumers may have stronger desire to consume and make consumption in response to death threat.So,when consumers think about the possibility of death or are exposed to mortality salience,will they be more willing to engage in experiential consumption or material consumption? Do mortality salience have an impact on consumers’ preference for experiential products?What are the mechanisms and boundary conditions?In this study,three experiments were carried out to explore this phenomenon and problem.In experiment 1,participants were asked two classic death questions to conduct death reminders,and then the effect of mortality salience on the number of experiential products consumers chose was tested.In experiment 2,the effect of mortality salience on consumers’ preference for experiential product selection was repeatedly verified by reading traffic accident news reports.The mediating role of meaning in life between mortality salience and consumers’ choice preference of experiential products was explored.Experiment 3 was based on the background of the current COVID-19 epidemic,and mortality salience was activated by asking the subjects to read reports about COVID-19 deaths.Moreover,the boundary conditions of the effect of mortality salience on consumers’ choice preference of experiential purchases were further explored from the intervention level by manipulating the level of social support in experiment 3.The main results of the study are as follows:（1）Mortality salience will improve consumers’ preference of experiential purchase and increase the number of experiential products to choose.（2）Meaning in life played a mediating role in the relationship between mortality salience and the preference of experiential purchase.（3）Social support moderated the effect of mortality salience on meaning in life.When social support was low,mortality salience was negatively correlated with meaning in life.When social support was high,there was no significant correlation between mortality salience and meaning in life.（4）Social support moderated the mediating effect of meaning in life on mortality salience and consumer preference of experiential purchase.When social support was low,the mediating effect was established.When social support was high,the mediating effect did not hold.