Jun Pang Associate Professor
Marketing
Research direction:
The Influence of Social Factors on Consumer Behavior, Sensory Marketing, Nostalgia Marketing, Cross-Cultural Consumption Psychology and Behavior
Lecture course:
Principles of Marketing (for Undergraduates);Consumer Behavior Seminar (for Doctoral Students); Empirical Research Methods (for Doctoral Students); Experimental Design (for Doctoral Students); Marketing Classic Seminar (for Doctoral Students).
Abstract：
Prior research suggests that consumers experience psychological discomfort when they make a choice under attitudinal ambivalence. The research reported here examines systematic cross-cultural variations in psychological discomfort as a function of dialectical thinking and attitudinal ambivalence in the context of choice. It shows that compared to nondialectical (Western) consumers, dialectical (Eastern) consumers experience less psychological discomfort when they hold bivalent evaluations of the focal object, but more psychological discomfort when they hold univalent evaluations (Study 1). It also identifies “uncertainty about making the correct choice” as the underlying process that accounts for these findings (Study 2). In addition, this research explores the downstream effects of psychological discomfort on choice deferral in the context of free choice (Study 3) and preference reversal in the context of forced choice (Study 4). Contributions to and implications for research on attitudinal ambivalence, choice behavior, and dialectical thinking are discussed.
© 2016 Society for Consumer Psychology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved