Out of control: When and why consumers yearn for boundaries.

摘要

Instead of believing that the outcomes in our lives are randomly determined and facing the fears that would accompany such a belief, we generally prefer to believe that we have personal control over our lives. In other words, we choose to believe that we can intentionally produce desired outcomes and prevent undesired ones (Skinner, Chapman, & Baltes, 1988). But, what happens when this sense of control is shattered? How do we then combat the anxiety-inducing fear of a random world?;In what follows, I argue that individuals will seek greater order and structure in consumption when their sense of personal control is threatened. More specifically, I focus on how consumers erect and prefer boundaries that dictate a "place for everything and everything in its place" as a means of enhancing their perceptions that there is order and structure to the way things work in the world as opposed to pure randomness and chaos. Across the two essays of this dissertation, I demonstrate that such boundaries appear in a variety of forms in consumption behavior, each of which I describe as an element of "structured consumption." Essay 1 explores how boundaries in the environment serve as meaningful symbols of structure. Several experiments demonstrate that when personal control is threatened and consumers consequently have a heightened motivation for structure, they prefer logos, products and environments that are tangibly or intangibly bounded over those that are unbounded.;Essay 2 focuses on how boundaries are erected in individuals' beliefs about brands when feelings of control are threatened and the need for structure is subsequently heightened. More specifically, I demonstrate across several studies that when feelings of personal control are low, consumers seek greater structure (i.e., fit) in how brands are connected to new products (e.g., as in brand extensions). Consequently, many ideas that pass the threshold of acceptable fit when feelings of personal control are high are unable to do so when feelings of personal control are low.