Abstract
How do emotional states affect risk-taking and consumer decisions? Serial experiments were conducted to demonstrate and explain the relationships among emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions. Study 1 showed that participants whose emotional condition was negative were more likely to systematically engage in risk-taking behavior than those exhibiting positive emotions, and the emotional effects were moderated by openness to feeling (OF) as a function of individual personality. Studies 2–5 were mainly to examine the effects of emotional conditions on consumer decision. The results of studies 2–5 substantiated our prediction that participants in positive emotional states were less likely to respond to puffer advertising and sales promotion, thus increasing the share of an option that is “average” in all dimensions, and more likely to have a compromise effect than in those in a negative emotional condition. Studies 2–5 also found that the emotional effects were moderated by individuals’ openness to their own feelings. The effects are discussed in relation to the literature on emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions.
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The authors like to thank George A. Neuman as well as the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Appendix
Appendix
Hospital Parking
You have to visit a close relative in the hospital, and you manage to get away from work for an hour at a busy time. As usual, the small visitors’ car park opposite the hospital is full, and you know from experience that you will probably have to wait 15 min or so at this time for a space. You could drive into the staff car park, but this is occasionally patrolled by hospital security staff, and you know that cars have been clamped.
You wonder where you should park:
(A) Use staff car park (B) Use visitors’ car park
Pub Visit
You have been in a new job for a week and enjoy it. On the Friday, you overhear people talking about visiting a pub together at the end of work. You would like to get to know your colleagues better, but you have not received an invitation to go along with them. You are unsure whether this is just an oversight or a deliberate snub. On your way home you pass the pub where everyone is meeting and consider whether you should go straight home or call in. They may be very pleased to see you, but it may be embarrassing and make future work less enjoyable.
You wonder what you should do:
(A) Go straight home (B) Call in to the pub
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Chuang, SC., Lin, HM. The Effect of Induced Positive and Negative Emotion and Openness-to-Feeling in Student’s Consumer Decision Making. J Bus Psychol 22, 65–78 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9049-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9049-6