The Effects Of Social Support On The Threatened Consumer Self-Confidence

General self-confidence and self-esteem have been frequently cited as important constructs for understanding consumer behaviors. And for a long time researchers regarded these two concepts as the same with consumer self-confidence in previous relevant studies. In 2001, Bearden et al. put forward a clear and structural definition of consumer self-confidence, which is the extent to which an individual feels capable and assured with respect to his or her marketplace decisions and behaviors. Further they indicated that consumer self-confidence is conceptualized as a multidimensional concept consisting initially of two higher-order factors, each made up of multiple dimensions.The current study focuses on two dimensions of consumer self-confidence related to decision-making. They are labeled personal outcomes and social outcomes, respectively. These aspects of consumer self-confidence are defined as the confidence in one’s ability to meet purchase objectives such that choices are personally satisfying and generate positive outcomes in terms of the reactions of others (including friends, family, and neighbors). As such, personal outcomes reflects individual’s belief regarding his or her ability to make sound judgments and satisfactory decisions from a personal perspective, while social outcomes from a social perspective. In order to clarify the relationship of variables, personal outcomes and social outcomes are together called consumer outcomes in this study.Previous studies regarded consumer outcomes as stable self-evaluations so that they focused on its consistence across time and situation. Few studies explored the internal psychological mechanism from a dynamic perspective. With regard to the research methods, a number of correlation studies have been done such as the correlation relationship between consumer outcomes and demographic variables, while there were limited experimental studies. The current study put consumer outcomes into threatened situations in a experimental environment to explore whether and how consumer outcomes could be influenced, and the repairing effects which social support could bring. It aims to answer the following questions:Are consumer outcomes stable self-evaluations as previous studies declared or changeable constructs? Could a threatened situation (such as a frustrated buying experience) influence one’s consumer outcomes? If yes, how can theybe effectively repaired in a relatively short time? The present research tends to find an enhancing way from the perspective of social support, in particular emotional social support and informational social support.Study 1 used open-ended questionnaire to obtain participants’ subjective feeling of their consuming abilities under threatened situations (towards personal outcomes and social outcomes respectively), and their preference towards different kinds of social supports. The results are as following:Under the threatened situation corresponding to personal outcomes, more (74.8%) participants reported their personal outcomes would not be influenced, the difference showed significance. No significant difference was found as for participants’ preference towards emotional and informational support. Under the threatened situation corresponding to social outcomes, more (66.0%) participants reported their social outcomes would not be influenced, the difference showed significance. No significant difference was found as for participants’ preference towards emotional and informational support.In order to clarify the influence which threatened situations could bring to personal outcomes and social outcomes, and the repairing effects of social support on them, study 2 was carried out. Study 2 consisted of two experiments, exploring personal outcomes and social outcomes respectively. The results are as following:both personal outcomes and social outcomes would be harmed in threatened situations, but they represented different forms. Specifically, personal outcomes significantly decreased when was threatened while social outcomes significantly rebounded. Under threatened situations, people hold similar preference for emotional social support and informational social support, however, only informational social support could enhance their threatened personal outcomes and social outcomes. It could also ease individuals’ negative emotion in threatened situation towards personal outcomes. Possible explanations and implications were discussed.