The Influence Of Different Meanings Of Money Priming On Consumer's Comparative Decision-Making Process

With the convenience and diversification of information communication channels,consumers tend to weigh and contrast different information before making purchase decisions.In the past,the research of consumers' comparative decision-making process was mainly based on the Structural Alignment Model derived from the field of cognitive psychology.It was believed that in the process of information comparison,consumers rely more on the alignable attributes information that could be directly compared for decision-making.However,with the development of the Structural Alignment Model,some studies have proved that consumers will also increase their dependence on the nonalignable attributes information under specific conditions.Therefore,based on the different meanings of money priming,this paper explores how money affects consumers' dependence on different attributes in comparative decision-making process,and further explores the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions of consumers' attribute preferences.Based on the Structural Alignment Model and money priming theory,this paper discusses consumers' dependence on different types of attributes(nonalignable vs.alignable)under different meanings of money priming(abundance vs.lack),the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and the boundary conditions of individual's tolerance of ambiguity.Three experiments verify that: when the concept of abundant money is primed,consumers will rely more on the nonalignable attributes,when the concept of lack or less money is primed,consumers will rely more on alignable attributes(experiment 1).The cognitive flexibility plays a mediating role in the process of making comparative decisions in different meaning of money priming conditions(experiment 2).Individuals' tolerance of ambiguity moderates this effect.Specifically,for individuals with high tolerance of ambiguity,even if the concept of lack of money is primed,they will rely more on nonalignable attributes in comparison decisions.For individuals with low tolerance for ambiguity,even if the concept of abundant money is primed,they will rely more on alignable attributes in comparison decisions(experiment 3).The results of this paper further supplement the application of structural alignment model in the field of consumers' comparative decision making and enrich the research of money priming in the field of marketing.At the same time,the results of this study also have practical implications for enterprise managers and consumers.