How high-intensity sensory consumption fills up resource scarcity: The boundary condition of self-acceptance

PLOS ONE · 8 authors, 5 centres

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.

AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

“

TL;DR

Four experiments with human participants found that individuals experiencing resource scarcity prefer high-intensity sensory consumption in auditory, visual, and tactile domains, and this effect is mediated by self-worth and moderated by self-acceptance.

Full summary

888 CHARS

This research comprised four experiments conducted with human adult participants, including university students and online volunteers, to investigate the psychological effects of perceived resource scarcity on consumer preferences. The studies manipulated resource scarcity and measured preferences for high-intensity sensory consumption across auditory, visual, and tactile domains. Key findings indicate that scarcity leads to a preference for more intense sensory stimuli, regardless of whether the stimulus is positively or negatively valenced. The studies primarily employed laboratory and online experiments using analysis of variance, regression, and mediation/moderation analyses. A limitation is that the research tested sensory domains in a controlled, hypothetical context and suggests future work in more naturalistic settings and other sensory modalities like taste or smell.

STUDY TYPE

other

SPECIALTY

psychiatry

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10218729

How high-intensity sensory consumption fills up resource scarcity: The boundary condition of self-acceptance

PLOS ONE

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Abstract Objective Everyone in life will experience resource scarcity, which causes self-discrepancy. It is widely known that individuals participate in reactive consumption to solve the problems of self-discrepancy and resources scarcity. This kind of consumption may be symbolically related to the essence of the resource scarcity or may occur in an unrelated domain. This study proposes a theory for "filling up" one’s resource scarcity through high-intensity sensory consumption (HISC). Methods We used different methods, including one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), linear regression, mediating effect, and moderating effect, to test the four hypotheses. Four experiments in the study were conducted from May 2022 and August 2022 and involved undergraduates from a university and volunteers recruited online. All participants are adults and verbally agree to participate voluntarily. Study 1a (N = 96 (male 47, female 49), participants from a business school in China) measured resource scarcity in the laboratory experiments and verified the effect of resource scarcity on consumer HISC preference by using linear regression (H1). Study 1b (N = 191 (male 98, female 93), students and teachers from a university in China) measured resource scarcity in the laboratory experiments and manipulated positively and negatively valenced experiences. Using the PROCESS SPSS Mode l, we verified that negatively valenced stimuli also lead to higher levels of arousal, which in turn restores the self-discrepancy caused by resource scarcity (H2). Study 2 (an online experiment, N = 182 (male 91, female 91), participants from China) manipulated the resource scarcity in a color sensory stimulant context, replicating the preliminary effect and examined the mediating effect of the self-worth by using the PROCESS SPSS Mode 4 (H3). Study 3 (an online experiment, N = 251 (male 125, female 126), participants from China) manipulated resource scarcity and self-acceptance in the tactile sensory experience, and tested the moderating effect of self-acceptance by using the PROCESS SPSS Mode 8 (H4). Results Four studies suggest that not only do individuals facing resources scarcity prefer HISC but also that this consumption is mediated and moderated by self-worth and self-acceptance, respectively. This preference for HISC is negated when individuals have high self-acceptance traits. The findings are tested in the auditory domain (as evidenced by a propensity for louder volume), the visual domain (as evidenced by a propensity for more intense colors), and the tactile domain (as evidenced by a propensity for more intense need for touch). The findings also demonstrate that individual preferences for HISC is shown to operate regardless of the valence (positive valence vs. negative valence) of the sensory consumption. Conclusions Across four experiments, we find that individuals who are subjected to resource scarcity show a preference for high-intensity sensory consumption in the auditory, visual, and tactile domains. We also find that both negatively and positively valenced sensory stimuli have the same impact on resource-scarce individuals’ preference for HISC. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the sense of self-worth significantly mediates the effect of resource scarcity on HISC. Finally, we reveal that self-acceptance moderates the effect of resource scarcity on HISC preference.

CITATION EXPORT

Liangjun Peng, Yuxin Peng, Haiyan Luo et al.. How high-intensity sensory consumption fills up resource scarcity: The boundary condition of self-acceptance. PLOS ONE. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285853

AUTHORS

8 · 5 CENTRES

Liangjun Peng, Yuxin Peng, Haiyan Luo, Yeying Deng, Abdullah Al Mamun, Abdullah Al Mamun, Abdullah Al Mamun, Abdullah Al Mamun

1School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, China
2College of Life Sciences, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan, China
3School of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
4Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
5Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, MALAYSIA