The Role Of Temporal Distance And Social Distance In The Consumer Decision-Making: Evidence From Eye Movements

Temporal Distance is refers to perceive the distance of events happen for people in present time as a benchmark, such as the near future(after a week) and the far future(a year later). Social Distance is refers to perceive the degree of relationship for people with themselves as a benchmark, such as yourself and other one, people will change their interpretation as different psychological distance, affecting people’s reactions, judgment and decision-making.In real life, consumers have to choice between those long-term utility is high but in the short term effect of lower products(virtue products)and those long term effectiveness of low or even negative products such as harmful to the human body(vice products).This study use the experimental methods. The results of our study showed that:(1) Under conditions of product name with picture presented,when consumers make choices for themselves, compared to now, more inclined to choose the virtue product in the future; when consumers make choices for others, compared to now, more inclined to choose the virtue product in the future; when consumers make choices for the future, compared to choose for themselves, more inclined to choose virtue products for others; when consumers make choices for now, compared to choose for themselves, more inclined to choose virtue products for others. Analysis of fixation length and fixation count for AOI1,theres was a significant main effect of temporal distance and a significant main effect of social distance,but interaction between temporal distance and social distance was not significant. Analysis of fixation length and fixation count for AOI2, theres was a significant main effect of temporal distance and a significant main effect of social distance, there was significant interaction between temporal distance and social distance.(2) Under conditions of virtue products name with short-term utility/hedonic attribute description and vice products name with long-term utility/function attribute description presented, when consumers make choices now or a week later, either for themselves or for others, there is no significant differences. Analysis of fixation length and fixation count for AOI3 and AOI4, theres was a significant main effect of temporal distance and a significant main effect of social distance, there was significant interaction between temporal distance and social distance.(3) Under conditions of products name with short-term utility/hedonic attribute description and long-term utility/function attribute description presented,when consumers make choices now or a week later, either for themselves or for others,there is no significant differences. Analysis of fixation length and fixation count for AOI5, theres was a significant main effect of temporal distance, there was significant interaction between temporal distance and social distance. Analysis of fixation length and fixation count for AOI6, theres was a significant main effect of temporal distance and a significant main effect of social distance, but interaction between temporal distance and social distance was not significant.