The Effect Of Future Self-continuity On The Propensity To Experience Buying

We often think about what the future will be like and who we are in the future,but do you know that seemingly ordinary views of the future can affect many decisions in our lives,such as whether to save money,what’s healthy to eat tonight,and which option would you prefer when faced with a new computer or a beach vacation,it all comes down to your vision of your future self.Experiential purchase and material purchase are relatively new classification methods in the field of consumption,as well as the types of consumption that we often encounter and experience in daily life.Our purchases can usually be divided in this way.Previous research has shown that future self-continuity has an impact on purchasing decisions.What is the impact on different types of purchases when considering the future self? Do people with high future selfcontinuity prefer experiential or material purchases? In addition,when we think about the future,it is always inevitable to think of death.In the context of COVID-19,information about death such as car accidents,air disasters,disasters,and wars continue to come into close contact with us through the Internet.So,will people with different self-continuity experience different feelings and thoughts after being exposed to the same death information,and will such thoughts caused by death have an impact on the experience buying tendency?This study uses questionnaires and experimental methods to explore the above questions through five studies.Study 1a preliminarily explored the relationship between future self-continuity and purchase intention through a questionnaire.Study 1 b let subjects reading materials to manipulate the self-continuity in the future,further confirm the relationship between them.Study 2 adopted a causal chain experimental design.Study 2a uses metacognitive manipulation of future self-continuity to examine how it affects death-thought accessibility.Study 2b manipulated death-thought accessibility by reading plane crash materials to study its relationship with purchase intention.Study 3examined the role of death-thought accessibility in future self-continuity and propensity to experience purchase using a mediating measure design.The research results are as follows:(1)Future self-continuity negatively predicts the propensity to experience buying.Consumers with low future self-continuity are more likely to make experiential purchases,while consumers with high future self-continuity are more likely to make material purchases.Consumers with low future self-continuity view their future self as a stranger,so they do not choose to make material goods that can be preserved as material wealth,but instead choose experiential purchases that are closer to themselves.(2)Future self-continuity negatively predicts death-thought accessibility.Future self-continuity performance affects death-thought accessibility when consumers see death related information.According to terror management theory,high future selfcontinuity can increase self-esteem defense and cultural worldview defense,further affecting death-thought accessibility.(3)Death-thought accessibility positively predicts experiential buying propensity.High death-thought accessibility increases consumers’ propensity to experience purchase.According to terror management theory,experiential buying is more closely related to self,and can increase social and intimate relationships,increase consumer self-esteem and intimacy defense,and reduce death related thoughts.(4)Death-thought accessibility partially mediates the relationship between future self-continuity and purchase intention.Reducing future self-continuity increases consumers’ death-thought accessibility,making consumers more inclined to choose experiential purchases.