The Impact Of Self-uncertainty On Consumer Preference For Emotional Product Attribute

Self-uncertainty,which is induced by confusion of important regarding one’s psychological characteristics,is defined as a feeling of inconsistency and discontinuity,when contradictionsor conflicts arise among one’s cognitions,experiences,and behaviors.Uncertainty-identity theory argues that feeling uncertain about oneself and one’s perceptions,attitudes and values,is an uncomfortable drive-state that people are motivated to reduce.Focusing the reduce self-uncertainty onto the people’s initiative angle,according to uncertainty-identity theory feeling uncertain about oneself and one’s perceptions,attitudes and values,is an uncomfortable drive-state that people are motivated to reduce.Some researchers show that self-uncertainty enhances proneness to a materialistic self and compulsive buying is a behavior developed in order to alleviate the stress,anxiety,and discomfort that arises from a demanding thought or obsession.The main research area of the fundamental dimensions of social cognition is the cognition of groups and individual.In the field of consumer behavior,the application research of stereotype content model has just started.According to the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework,people relate to brands in many ways similarly to how they relate to people,which can be divided into two dimensions: competent perception and warmth perception.People perceptions of product attributes are influenced by self-state.Recent studies have found that uncertainty plays an important role in product attribute perception.Uncertainty will increase emotional dependence,which is manifested in the fact that uncertainty will increase the relative preference off an emotionally superior but less functional product relative to a product that is superior in function but less emotional.Therefore,this study explores the effect of self-uncertainty on product attribute perception through three experiments.Based on the individual cognitive style,the study1 adopted the dot probe paradigm to explore whether there is attention bias in the words describing the emotional and functional attributes of products for individuals under the state of self-uncertainty.The experiment is two-factor mixed experimental design.Self-uncertainty is an inter-group variable with two levels,which are dividedinto self-certainty and self-uncertainty.Product attribute is intra-group variable with three levels,which are divided into emotional words,functional words,and neutral words.The dependent variable is the response time of the subject in the dot probe paradigm.From the reaction time index,the results showed: compared with the self-certainty,the individuals in the self-uncertainty are more sensitive to the emotional words describing the product attributes,showing stronger attention bias and consistency promoting effects on the emotional words;seeing from the response indicators,individuals in the uncertain state would pay more attention to the information of product emotional attributes.It shows that from the level of attention,self-uncertainty affects the individual’s preference for the emotional attributes of the product.Study2 divides self-uncertainty into competent and emotional self-uncertainty,and explores the conditions of emotional attribute preference of product attributes from self-uncertainty.The experiment istwo-factor mixed experimental design.Self-uncertainty is an inter-group variable with two levels,which are divided into competent self-uncertainty,emotional self-uncertainty.Product attribute is intra-group variable with three levels,which are divided into emotional words,functional words,and neutral words.The dependent variable is the response time and correct rate of the subject in the dot probe paradigm.It is found that in the state of emotional self-uncertainty,there is attention avoidance for the product’s emotional attribute vocabulary.In the state of self-uncertainty of competent,and attention bias exists for product emotional attribute words under the condition of competent self-uncertainty.It shows that self-uncertainty affects the preference for product emotional attributes only when the competent self-uncertainty.A two-factor mixed experiment design was adopted in study 3,participants were randomly assigned to a 2*4 two-factor mixed experiment design.Using the paradigm of product selection comparison,this study explores whether self-uncertainty perception of product emotional and functional attributes reflects preference for emotional attributes.Self-uncertainty is an inter-group variable with two levels,which are divided into self-certainty and self-uncertainty.Product attributes are intra-group variables with four levels,which are divided into high emotional high function,high emotional low function,low emotional high function and low emotional low functions.The dependent variable: purchase intention,product attitude.The results show that when the individual is in a state of self-uncertainty,the products with high emotional low function and high functional low emotion are not significantly different in purchasing behavior;in product attitude,the products with high emotional low function are more preferred and more attractive to consumers.It shows that self-uncertainty affects the preference for product emotional attributes.In sum,the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between self-uncertainty and consumer preference for product attribute,which provides a new way to explore people’sconsumption psychology from the perspective of self,and further proves the applicability of the fundamental dimensions of social cognition in the field of consumption.