The Effect Of Social Exclusion On Compensatory Consumption Of Individuals With Different Temperaments: The Mediating Effect Of Loneliness

Compensatory consumption refers to the consumption behavior which is not out of specific consumption demand but to make up for some psychological deficiency or selfthreat.One important reason for compensatory consumption is the lack of belonging,because people have a strong desire to belong to a social group as social beings.Social exclusion refers to the phenomenon in which individuals are rejected by a social group or others,and their needs for belonging are hindered.The loss of belonging caused by social exclusion can be released and made up through consumption.Besides,the influence of social exclusion on consumption behavior is influenced by emotions.Social exclusion makes people feel ignored or rejected,resulting in dissatisfaction with the current social status.When there is a significant difference between the expected social relationship connection and the actual status,the feeling of loneliness would occur,and different temperaments will play a role in predicting the type of loneliness.Finally,out of the need to regain the sense of belonging,loneliness encourages people to be more active in joining social relationships and consumption is one way to achieve this.Based on previous studies,this paper designed three experiments to explore the influences of social exclusion,temperament and loneliness to compensatory consumption.Study 1 is a 2(social exclusion/non-exclusion)×2(social temperament/emotional temperament)between-subject design.The purpose of study 1 is to investigate the effects of social exclusion and temperament on purchase intention of compensatory products.Considering the effect of individual differences on the study,a 2(social exclusion/nonexclusion)×2(social temperament/emotional temperament)experiment was designed in study 2 and this experiment is a within-subject design.Based on the results and conclusion of study 1 and study 2,this paper speculated that people with different temperaments would feel different kinds of loneliness when they are rejected by social groups or others,which could result in different choices on compensating products.Therefore study 3 constructed a model with social exclusion as independent variable,temperament as moderator variable,loneliness as Mediator variable and compensatory consumption as the dependent variable to explore the mediating effect of loneliness.The results of study 1 show that people with social temperament will be more inclined to the compensatory consumption of social relationship after being rejected,and people of emotional temperament will increase their compensatory consumption of intimate relationship after being rejected.The results of study 2 show that:for people with social temperament,being rejected can significantly improve their preference on compensatory consumption products of social relationship,while their preference on compensatory consumption products of intimate relationship decreases.For people with emotional temperament,being rejected can significantly improve their preference on the compensatory consumption products of intimate relationship,while the preference on compensatory consumption-products of social relationship will decrease.The results of study 3 show that:for individuals of social temperament,being rejected can arouse the sense of social loneliness,so they will choose to consume products with compensatory symbols of social relationship.For individuals of emotional temperament,their emotional loneliness is aroused when they are rejected,so they will choose compensatory products that express intimacy.In conclusion:(1)Social exclusion can significantly increase people's willingness to purchase products that belong to compensatory consumption.(2)When rejected,people with social temperament are more inclined to consume products with compensatory symbols of social relationship;People with emotional temperament who are rejected by social groups or others are more inclined to engage in the compensatory consumption expresses intimate relationship.(3)Social loneliness has a mediating effect between social exclusion and the purchase of products with compensatory symbols of social relationship;Emotional loneliness has a mediating effect between social exclusion and compensatory consumption of intimate relationship,and the mediating effect is regulated by temperament.