Consumers' Mindfulness and Compulsive Buying

소비자의 유념성과 강박구매

Purpose - This study investigated the effect of the negative affect on compulsive buying and the interaction effect of the negative affect depending on the level of mindfulness. Compulsive buying is defined as chronic, repetitive purchasing that becomes an overlearned and automatic way to cope with negative feelings, and compulsive buyers may be particularly susceptible to cognitive narrowing when shopping. Mindfulness may be defined as a coordinative regulatory process to increase the level of attention by recognizing the present experiences non-judgmentally. Hence, mindfulness can be related with negative psychological results such as general mental distress, especially compulsive buying. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between compulsive buying and mindfulness. In another words, this study investigated the effect of the internal regulatory mechanism (that is, mindfulness) on the mental disorder resulting from negative affect in the area of consumption (that is, compulsive buying). Research design, data, and methodology - One hundred and twenty-five college students were recruited for this study. The subjects were classified into two groups according to the degree of the negative affect (High Negative Affect Group vs. Low Negative Affect Group) by the mean value of negative affect (=2.47). The subjects were classified into two other groups according to the degree of mindfulness (High Mindfulness Group vs. Low Mindfulness Group) by the mean value of mindfulness (= 3.47). To analyze the effect of negative affect on compulsive buying, the degree of compulsive buying of the High and Low Negative Affect Groups were compared. To examine the moderating effect of mindfulness by using factorial design, the interaction effect of the negative affect (High vs. Low) and the mindfulness (High vs. Low) were analyzed. Results - The degree of the compulsive buying was higher when the degree of the negative affect was higher than lower (3.06High Negative Affect Group vs. 2.87Low Negative Affect Group, p=.014). The difference in the degree of the compulsive buying was larger when the degree of the mindfulness was lower than higher. In other words, the interaction effect of the negative affect and the mindfulness on the compulsive buying could be found (F(1,124)=10.098, p<.01). Conclusions - The results of the current study showed that the compulsive buying is influenced by the negative affect and that the effect of the negative affect on the compulsive buying varies depending on the level of the mindfulness. These results can be interpreted to imply that consumers who are in a state of high mindfulness pay attention to every minute of experience and activate the coordinatory function and that, eventually, habitual and reflective responses such as compulsive buying are restricted. It is concluded that consumers' mindfulness can facilitate the self-regulatory responses and alleviate the influence of negative affect on compulsive buying. Based on these results, the theoretical and practical implications of this research were discussed and the limitations and future research areas were suggested.