The Influence Of Other’s Presence And Self-Control Behavior On Consumer’s Self-Control

Because self-control is an important part of buyer behavior, the majority of research in self-control concentrates on intrapersonal antecedents. However, little research has studied interpersonal triggers, especially the influence of others’presence and self-control behavior. This paper focuses on the two areas, the influence of others’presence and the influence of other’s self-control behavior on consumer’s self-control.As far as the influence of others’presence is concerned, most research in this area, based on reference group theory, focus on the influence of friends’ or family members’ presence. Friends or family members influence consumer’s self-control mainly by two ways. Firstly, the presence of others is likely to have a normative influence on a consumer’s decision. Secondly, a consumer interacts directly or indirectly with others at presence. Therefore, the presence of other people has informative influence on the consumer. However, the two types of influence don’t exist for strangers. The reasons are as follow. First, a consumer is not sure which reference group strangers belong to, so normative influence doesn’t exist. Next, there isn’t any form of interaction between a consumer and strangers around, which is non-interactive situation, so informative influence is removed. Therefore, the question how strangers’presence influences consumer’s self-control is unsolved, and this paper will try to answer the questions above mentioned on the basis of impression management theory, with experiments.Research finding are as follow. Firstly, comparing to situations with no one around, a consumer is more likely to fail in self-control when a stranger (or strangers) is present, even if there’s no interaction between them. And the more strangers there are, the more likely consumer’s self-control is going to fail. Secondly, "Stranger presence effect" is mediated by consumers’impression management inclination. With the number of strangers at presence increasing, people are more inclined to manage impression, and inclined to pay more for certain product to build an image of prestige or status, in another word, more inclined to fail in self-control. Thirdly, the mediation effect of impression management inclination is further moderated by product type. Comparing with necessities, consumers more tend to manage impression and fail in self-control, when confronting luxuries, because lucxuries are more likely to be used to convey images of prestige and status than necessities. And comparing with virtue products, consumers more tend to manage impression and succeed in self-control, when confronting vice products, because consuming vice products is equal to create self-images opposite to what they want to create. At last, "Stranger presence effect" is mediated by consumers’negative mood. The others’ presence makes a consumer feeling that his or her personal place is invaded, which causes the consumer’s negative mood. And negative mood will lead to self-control failure, for consumers tend to improve their mood by consuming. Therefore, with the number of strangers at presence increasing, consumers will experience more negative mood, and more likely to fail in self-control.On the other hand, little research has focused on the influence of others’self-control or indulgence behavior on consumer’s self-control. Moreover, research in this area mainly studies the influence of strangers’self-control or indulgence behavior on consumer’s self-control on the basis of goal contagion theory, and pays no attention to the influence of friends or family members’self-control or indulgence behavior, not mention to distinguish the difference between the influence of friends’or family members’and the influence of strangers’. This paper takes goal contagion theory and mood contagion theory to explain how friends’or family members’self-control or indulgence behavior influences consumer’s self-control, and comparing the theoretical mechanism of different actors’ self-control or indulgence behavior, so as to fill up the blank above mentioned.This paper investigates the influence of others’self-control or indulgence behavior, and finds that the influence of others’self-control or indulgence behavior depends on social distance. Firstly, when the social distance between a consumer and an actor is far, mood contagion is not probable. As a result, consumer’s self-control decision is mainly influenced by actor’s goal, although the consumer may judge the desirability of the goal by actor’s mood associated with the goal. Therefore, when the social distance between a consumer and an actor is far, the consumer will pursue the same goal, due to goal contagion. Secondly, when the social distance between a consumer and an actor is proximal, both goal contagion and mood contagion happen. Goal contagion leads to activation of the goal construct. However, whether the activated goal is pursued depends on the contagion mood. Because positive mood can improve desirability of a goal, the consumer is more likely to adopt a goal when perceiving positive mood toward the goal. On the other hand, because negative mood can lower desirability of a goal, the consumer is less likely to adopt the goal when perceiving negative mood toward the goal. And when perceiving negative mood toward the goal, the consumer may even turn to pursue the opposite goal.