Self Construct Effects On Information Processing In The Buying Decision

Purchasing decision was an important finding in the research areas ofdecision-making over the past forty years. It refers that the consumers evaluatecarefully the properties of a product, service, or brand, and make a rational choice.That is the process that the consumers buy the specific products to meet their needwith the least cost (Dell Hawkins, 2001). Decision-making affect all aspects ofconsumer’s buying behavior, so the purchasing decision research becomes the focusof attention by researchers. Researchers focus on the various individual factors,environmental factors and task characteristics on the purchasing decision.Self-construal--the concept that produces in the context of the culture ofindividualism and collectivism, will affect the consumer purchasing decisions. This isbecause cultural factors have been affecting consumer purchase. In this case, we canstudy the individual self-construal by the method of culture-primed in a culturalcontext. Consumers are facing the very heterogeneous purchase information,including a variety of types of goods and product characteristics, but their buying timeis limited. Svenson think that time is one of the dependent resources of individualdecision-making and selection process. The performance of individualdecision-making will be affected by time pressure. In this study, we study in thedifferent levels of time pressure how self-construals affect the information processingof purchasing decision.The experiments design is 2×3 between subjects. Independent variables wereself-construal (independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal) and timepressure (no time pressure, low time pressure, high time pressure). In study 1, wediscussed how self-construal that was primed through differences method and timepressure affected the information processing of purchasing decision. In study 2, wediscussed how self-construal that was primed through words method and timepressure affected the information processing of purchasing decision. The dependent variables of the two experiments were the average number of clicks, the averageprocessing time, the average search mode and the selectivity of informationprocessing.The results showed that:(1)Different self-construals affect the information processing of purchasingdecision by the methods of differences prime and words prime. With differencesprimed method interdependent self-construal participants in the average number ofclicks is significantly greater than the independent self-construal participants. Withwords primed method, interdependent self-construal participants in the averagenumber of clicks and the average processing time are significantly greater than theindependent self-construal participants.(2) Different degrees of time pressure affect the information processing ofpurchasing decision significantly. No matter in differences method or words method,no time pressure group’s average decision time and the average number of clicks aregreater than the low time pressure group and high time pressure group. The low timepressure group’s average decision time and the average number of clicks are greaterthan high time pressure groups. The interdependent self-construal group’s searchmode is based on the attribute within the high time pressure. Other groups’searchmode are based on options.(3) Self-construal and time pressure have a significant interaction. On theaverage decision time and the average number of clicks, interdependent self-construalparticipants are significantly greater than the independent self-construal participantswhen the time pressure is free.