A Hierarchical Personality Approach Toward a Fuller Understanding of Onychophagia and Compulsive Buying.

PURPOSE: Employing a hierarchical model of personality, prior research suggests that cardinal traits such as conscientiousness and agreeability predict central traits such as materialism and need for arousal that in turn impact surface traits such as onychophagia and compulsive buying. More research is needed to explore additional central traits and their effect on onychophagia and compulsive buying. Thus, the goal of the current research is to examine how another central trait-negative perfectionism-impacts onychophagia and compulsive buying. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A survey was administered both online and face-to-face resulting in a sample of 634 subjects of which 391 were individuals with onychophagia. Through a multi-group analysis, a causal model was tested to identify personality traits and their relationship with compulsive buying. RESULTS: Results showed that onychophagia was affected by other obsessive-compulsive disorders-particularly trichotillomania, and excoriation disorder, which significantly increased the likelihood that the participant was a compulsive buyer.

Active ageing of elderly consumers: insights and opportunities for future business strategies.

Recent studies have focused on the emerging scenario of 'active ageing' as a series of positive actions aimed at fostering elderly adaptability by supporting emotionally close relationships and removing age-related structural barriers. Active ageing may be stimulated not only by leveraging technological and scientific innovations but also by implementing new business strategies that reflect a better comprehension of elderly new roles and behaviours. To aid in that effort, through a literature review of marketing and management contributions across a five-decade period (1970-2020), this paper investigates elderly consumers' new roles and related implications for business strategies, from a consumer behaviour perspective. Results present a structured classification of the most prominent streams of research by highlighting five promising changes (5Cs): changes in elderly consumers' roles in markets and societies; changes in self-care resulting in fashion purchases and cosmetic surgery; changes in elderly consumers' expenditures on specifically designed products and services; changes in the perception of risks resulting in preferences for either extremely prudent or hazardous behaviours; and changes in general elderly characteristics due to the so-called 'ageless society'. We highlight the heterogeneity of elderly consumers' new values and lifestyles, and the importance of incorporating their needs into innovative business strategies, by describing for each section the main findings of extant research and practical implications.

Health choices and risk perception in elderly consumers: a systematic review.

This paper provides a review of the marketing literature on elderly consumers' health choices and risk perceptions, in order to summarize the state of the art and provide a comparison term for future studies. The research was carried out on scientific articles published from 1970 up to 2019, in a selection of 100 thematic journals. The results confirmed the significance of health choices and risk perceptions as two essential points of marketing research concerning older consumers, and demonstrated that the growing needs and purchasing power of older consumers are accompanied by psychological, biological and relational conditions that can impact decision-making.

The interplay between health claim type and individual regulatory focus in determining consumers' intentions toward extra-virgin olive oil.

Although extra-virgin olive oil is a primary component of the Mediterranean diet, there is a limited understanding about whether consumers might purchase this product out of its health properties. Furthermore, prior literature on the impact of health claims (i.e., statements about a food product's positive effects on consumers' health) on consumer behavior revealed mixed and contradictory results, thus casting doubt on their proper use and actual effectiveness. To contribute to this area of research, the present study focuses on extra-virgin olive oil and examines consumers' different reactions, in terms of word-of-mouth and purchase intentions, to functional claims (i.e., those that revolve around the role of a nutrient in the development and preservation of human physiological functions) and risk-related claims (i.e., those that focus on a nutrient's ability to reduce disease risks), by analyzing how health regulatory focus (i.e., individuals' tendency to adopt either an "avoidance" or "approach" self-regulatory strategy for their health) moderates such reactions. An experimental study with a sample of 200 consumers tests two research hypotheses through two moderated mediation analyses. The results show that, compared to functional claims, risk-related claims significantly increase the perceived healthiness of extra-virgin olive oil. This effect is qualified by an interaction between claim type and health regulatory focus, which indicates that risk-related claims are more effective than functional claims only among prevention-focused individuals. Perceived product healthiness, in turn, increase the intention to both spread positive word of mouth and purchase the product. The study sheds light on how consumers might react to different health claims, thus providing insights for food companies and policymakers who want to develop marketing campaigns using claims that are effective at promoting extra-virgin olive oil.

Quantity Distortion Effect in Consumers' Perception of Different Volumes and Weights of Money: A Pilot Study.

Consumers tend to misunderstand the physical value of cash money by adopting improper anchors for their judgments (e.g., banknote size and shape, currency denominations, etc.). In a pilot study carried out on a sample of 242 participants (n = 116 men; M age = 29.6 year, SD = 10.8), a quantity distortion effect was demonstrated by evaluating consumers' misperceptions of different monetary quantities, either in terms of volume or weight, using banknotes of the same denomination (€50). A threshold value was found, for both volume (€876,324) and weight (€371,779), above (below) which consumers tend to overrate (underrate) monetary amounts. The theoretical and operative implications are discussed.

Consumer hypnotic-like suggestibility: possible mechanism in compulsive purchasing.

The authors hypothesize a concept, Consumer Hypnotic-Like Suggestibility (CHLS), defined as an altered state of consciousness, as a state causing a tendency to respond positively to messages aimed at inducing consumers to make unplanned purchases. This study aims to investigate the associations of CHLS with interpersonal variables and compulsive purchasing--a frequent and uncontrollable preoccupation with buying or impulses to buy. A study was conducted on a sample of 232 subjects (n = 111 men; M age = 41 yr.), through the administration of a questionnaire, which measured: CHLS, compulsive purchasing, consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (the necessity to enhance one's image in the opinion of others through the consumption of products), and consumer atmospherics, i.e., environmental stimuli known to influence purchasing decisions. Modeling and mediation analyses suggested that internal and external drivers--Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence and atmospherics--are positively related to CHLS which affects compulsive purchasing.

Brand emotional credibility: effects of mixed emotions about branded products with varying credibility.

This research investigates the effects of mixed emotions on the positioning and on the intention to purchase different categories of branded products (i.e., Attractiveness-products, Expertise-products, and Trustworthiness-products), in relation to their main component of credibility (Ohanian, 1990). On the basis of a focus group (n = 12) aimed to identify the three branded products used as stimuli and a pre-test (n = 240) directed to discover emotions elicited by them, two studies (n = 630; n = 240) were carried out. Positioning and multiple regression analyses showed that positive and negative emotions are positively related with the positioning and the purchase intention of Attractiveness-products, and, respectively, positively and negatively related with those of Trustworthiness-products; whereas negative emotions are negatively associated with those of Expertise-products. Brand Emotional Credibility--i.e., the emotional believability of the brand positioning signals--may help to identify unconscious elements and the simultaneous importance of mixed emotions associated with different products to match consumers' desires and expectations.

Influence of brand personality-marker attributes on purchasing intention: the role of emotionality.

Marketing researchers employ the Five-Factor Model to describe branded products using attributes of human personality. "Marker attributes" used to elicit these brand personality attributes may be related to consumers' intention to purchase. Two connected studies, carried out on two samples of 91 and 557 participants, respectively, indicated that brand personality-marker attributes predict intention to purchase, but only to the extent that such attributes are "vivid" and, in particular, when they elicit emotional responses (i.e., when they are emotionally interesting). These findings have several implications for people involved in developing strategies for advertising.

Abstractness and emotionality values for 398 English words.

This study is aimed to replicate Vikis-Freibergs' classic study (1976) on the values of vividness for French words. Vividness resulted from the concreteness and the emotionality values of words, here defined, respectively, as referring to something that can be experienced through senses and that can arouse pleasant or unpleasant emotions. 398 English words were rated on two different scales, Abstractness and Emotionality, by a group of English native speakers and also by a group of Italian subjects who used English as a second language. Results show a low correlation between the concreteness and emotionality ratings in line with Vikis-Freibergs' previous study of French words (1976). A negative correlation between Abstractness and Emotionality was observed for British data but a slightly positive correlation for the Italian data.