Data_Sheet_2_The Influence of Social Crowding on Consumers’ Preference for Green Products.xls

With the increasingly crowded shopping environment, social crowding has become an important factor that affects consumers’ psychology and behavior. However, the impact of social crowding on consumers’ preference for green products hasn’t been focused on. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of social crowding on consumers’ preference for green products. With four studies, the present research examines how social crowding influences consumers’ preferences and uncovers the underlying psychological mechanism. The research shows that consumers prefer green products more under the condition of high social crowding than low, and safety needs mediate the impact of social crowding on green products preference. However, the impact of social crowding on the preference for products is only significant in green products. It also demonstrates the moderating effect of introversion-extraversion personality traits between social crowding and green products preference. For extraverted consumers, social crowding won’t affect their preference for green products, while for introverted consumers, social crowding is more likely to increase their preference for green products. This study contributes to marketing research by proposing and testing a new mechanism that underlies social crowding.

随着购物环境日益拥挤，社会拥挤（social crowding）已成为影响消费者心理与行为的重要因素。然而，现有研究尚未关注社会拥挤对消费者绿色产品（green products）偏好的影响。故此，本研究旨在实证探究社会拥挤对消费者绿色产品偏好的影响。本研究通过四项实验，考察社会拥挤对消费者偏好的作用路径，并揭示其内在的心理机制。研究结果表明，相较于低社会拥挤情境，消费者在高社会拥挤情境下对绿色产品的偏好程度更高；安全需求在社会拥挤对绿色产品偏好的影响中起中介作用。且社会拥挤对产品偏好的影响仅在绿色产品品类中显著。本研究同时证实了内外向人格特质在社会拥挤与绿色产品偏好之间的调节作用。具体而言，外向型消费者的绿色产品偏好不受社会拥挤的影响，而内向型消费者的绿色产品偏好则更易因社会拥挤而提升。本研究提出并验证了社会拥挤效应背后的全新心理机制，为营销研究领域作出了学术贡献。