An Experimental Study On The Influence Of Others’ Language And Behavior On Consumption And Its Psychological Mechanism

Based on the previous studies,this study completes the previous research paradigm.To explore people are more likely to conform to others’ preferences than their actions whether products have high or low self-identity relevant and what are intrinsic psychological mechanisms in this phenomenon through three experiments.In experiment 1,I describe the basic characteristics of six kinds of products(three kinds of self-identify high related products and three kinds of self-identify low related products),using "most favorite" to represent others’ preferences and "most bought" to represent others’ actions.The differences of purchase behavior between the two product conditions were compared.Experiment 2 explores whether mental sharing and consumers’ need for uniqueness are the psychological mechanisms through the design of 2(self-identity-relevant products: high vs.low)× 2(other’s response:preference vs.action)× 2(interpersonal closeness: friend vs.stranger)× 2(unique demand: high vs.low).The third experiment explores the performance of the effect in the online shopping condition when people know others’ preference and action in the same time.The results are as following:(1)In the self-identity high and low related products,others’ preference compared to others’ action can lead more consumer conformity.(2)In the low self-identity-relevant products,the interpersonal closeness of others and consumers moderates the others’ information affecting the conformity.Namely,mental sharing is its psychological mechanism.(3)In the condition of online shopping,when people obtain the information of others’ preference and action in the same time,people are still more likely to conform to others’ preferences than their actions.In the field of consumption,other’s information has always been an important factor in the consumer reference and often lead to conform.However,this study finds that under goods’ other conditions is similar or identical,people follow others’ preference more than others’ behavior,that is,if people know that others has purchased theproduct,they will decrease conformity.The discovery of this phenomenon has important implications for the consumption of the conformity areas and business areas.Moreover,this study finds that self-identification of different goods with different degrees all have the phenomenon that people follow others’ preference more than others’ behavior.In addition,the study finds that the psychological mechanism is mental sharing in goods with less identity-relevant.