The closer I am, the safer I feel: The "distance proximity effect" of COVID-19 pandemic on individuals' risk assessment and irrational consumption.
Psychol Mark
; 38(11): 2006-2018, 2021 Nov.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1323899
ABSTRACT
The unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 posed severe negative consequences for consumers, marketers, and society at large. By investigating the effect of individuals' distance from the COVID-19 epicenter (i.e., the geographical area in which COVID-19 pandemic is currently most severe) on consumers' risk perception and subsequent behaviors, this research provides novel empirical findings that can offer practical insights for marketers. While intuitively, people expect individuals closer to the COVID-19 epicenter to generate a greater risk perception of the pandemic, empirical evidence from four studies provides consistent results for the opposite effect. We find that a closer (vs. farther) distance to the epicenter associates with lower (vs. higher) perceived risk of the pandemic, leading to less (vs. more) irrational consumption behaviors. We refer to this phenomenon as the "distance proximity effect," which holds for both physical and psychological distances. We further demonstrated that this effect is mediated by consumers' perception of uncertainty and moderated by individuals' risk aversion tendency. The current research contributes to the literature of consumers' risk perception and irrational consumption by highlighting a novel factor of distance proximity. It also offers some timely insights into managing and intervening COVID-19 related issues inside and outside an epicenter.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Psychol Mark
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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