Research On The Dual Path Effect Of Mortality Salience To Consumer Product Choice

Consumers are going to receive some information about death inevitably in our daily life.For example,there are always some news on the TV about some regions suffered natural disasters such as flood and earthquake,left millions of people homeless and dead.Countries are suffering from war,leaving corpses in the battlefield and people's life miserable.In our lives,our relatives and friends may be deprived of their precious life due to illness,accident,etc.Under the threat of death,consumers may have a stronger desire to consume.For instance,after the 9/11 attacks,there was a distinct increase in American's consumption.After the "5·12" Wenchuan earthquake,people's materialism trend did not weaken,but grew substantially.Many scholars have found that in the context of death threats,some consumers may be more interested in luxury goods,some may tend to buy domestic products,some may consume more food,others may increase the choices of diversified consumption and so on.According to Terror Management Theory,death is a unique kind of self threat,threatening the continuation of human life in the most fundamental way.The inevitability and uncertainty of death often triggers people to produce a variety of negative emotional reactions,including fear,anxiety,depression and so on instinctively and unconsciously,which leads to form psychological mechanism to alleviate this anxiety.From previous studies,there are three main mechanisms,cultural worldview,self-esteem and group affiliation,to cope with this pyschological problem.Later scholars have found that the defensive mechanism of group affiliation is more likely to take precedence over cultural worldview defense and even substitute for the defensive role of cultural worldview.Facing death threat,consumers might choose various products to purchase based on different psychology mechanisms.For one thing,death treat will trigger consumers to bolster and enhance self-esteem,and increase Conspicuous consumption,which represents self value.For another,death treat also affects consumers' sense of social connection,then promote pro-social consumption in order to maintain group affiliation.From the view of phenomena,one is good for the individual' self-esteem,another is conducive to society and community.What kind of factors regulate these two purchase tendencies,which seem quite different,even completely opposite? What are the boundary conditions that affect the choice of consumer purchase? Delving into the connection between the death threats and the consumer product choices,not only can give reference for the marketing strategies for the enterprise,but also provide good policy suggestions for the government on how to guide public consumer behaviors under the background of major disaster.From a thorough review and summary of past researchs,this article finds that although foreign scholars have already linked terror management theory to consumer behavior,however few scholars in china have made this connection.Based on this research gap,first of all,this article selects the characterization of the individual consumers as the basis of distinguishing to explore the behavior tendency of consumers with different types of self-construal after receiving death threat,and also the impact mechanism behind the behavior.Based on predecessor's research results,under death threat situation,individuals with different type of self-construal might produce an assortment of coping strategies,resulting in various product behaviors.Therefore,we design two interpretation paths based on the different types of consumer self-construal.For the individual with independent self-construal,in the context of death threats may generate a consumption path of "death threats-self-esteem needs-conspicuous products preference".However,for the individual with interdependent self-construal,in the context of death threats may generate a consumption path of "death threats--belonging needs--pro-social products preference".Secondly,from the view of how to intervene consumer purchase tendency under death threats,this article selects the social support as the basis of distinguishing to explore how to improve the pro-social consumption under death threat situation.The results show that higher social support can increase the pro-social behavior of consumers under the threat of death,thus improving consumers' willingness to purchase pro-social products.On the contrary,lower social support will enhance its willingness to buy conspicuous products because of the increase of consumer materialism.Based on the results we found,this paper constructed a consumer products preference model under the influence of death threat.The framework has connected the death threats,esteem needs,belonging needs with products choices tendency,and further discusses the regulating effect of self-construal and social support.This study designed five laboratory experiments and carried out rigorous experimental design and systematic statistical analysis to validate the hypothesis above.The following are conclusions we drawn.First and foremost,when consumers are under threat of death,they are likely to choose the self-esteem defense mechanism to enhance their preference for conspicuous products in order to improve their self-esteem.Second,when consumers are under threat of death,they are also likely to choose the group affiliation defense mechanism to enhance their preference for pro-social products to promote their sense of belonging.Third,self-construal plays a regulatory role in the impact of death threats on consumer choice of products.Consumers with different types of self-construal are likely to have different purchase preferences in the face of death threats.Independent self-construal individuals are more focused on their independence and individuality,and eager to achieve their own "alienation goals",which are more likely to choose conspicuous consumption of goods under the threat of death.Interdependent self-construal individuals are more committed to the integration of social needs,tend to comply with group norms and increase the sense of belonging,thus under the death threats are more inclined to choose pro-social commodity consumption.Fourth,the self-esteem needs of independent self-construal individuals are higher than the interdependent self-construal individual,and thus enhance their willingness to purchase conspicuous goods.Individuals with independent self-construal pay more attention to protect their self value and develop more self-esteem needs in a death threat situation,thus will be more inclined to choose conspicuous goods which can be showed as their social status and self value.Fifth,the belonging needs of interdependent self-construal individuals are considerably higher than that of the independent self-construal individuals,and thus increase their willingness to purchase pro-social products.Individuals with interdependent self-construal are more likely to pay more attention on the assimilation goal,and more willing to connect with others,therefore increase the demand for group connection in a death threat situation and prefer pro-social goods when they consume products.Sixth,social support plays a regulatory role in the impact of death threats on consumer choice trends.When consumers in a death threat situation,improve individuals' social support can prevent or alleviate the negative emotion brought by the threat events,which can make them feel good about belonging to a certain group and help their peers,therefore,consume more pro-social goods in order to help the community they belong.On the contrary,when people lack of social support in the face of death threat,they tend to decrease the motive of pro-social,and develop a intense materialistic preference,and then consume conspicuous goods more often.To sum up,this paper constructs a research framework for consumer product choice under the threat of consumer death.In theory,this paper makes up the domestic research blank of connecting terror management theory with consumer behavior,explains consumers selection preference of conspicuous goods or pro-social goods,as well as the psychological motivation and mechanism behind it.In practice,the research conclusions of this paper can help enterprises make marketing decision in a death threat situation better,especially when the closely watched group death or catastrophic event occurs.Companies can change their marketing strategy more wisely and effectively,in order to obtain the support of their consumers.Meanwhile,this study also aids the government to guide the public changing their consumption habits and maintain social harmony and stability,in order to improve the overall welfare of society.