An Explorative Study of How Visceral States Influence the Relationship between Social Proof Heuristics and Donation Behavior When Consumers Are Using Self-Service Kiosks

Sanchit Pawar, Asle Fagerstrøm and Valdimar Sigurdsson
Additional contact information
Sanchit Pawar: Department of Technology, Kristiania University, Prinsensgate 7-9, 0152 Oslo, Norway
Asle Fagerstrøm: Department of Technology, Kristiania University, Prinsensgate 7-9, 0152 Oslo, Norway
Valdimar Sigurdsson: Department of Business Administration, Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-12

Abstract: Self-service kiosks are increasingly being used in situations where a person is out to buy food and/or drinks. Several cause-related marketing initiatives have capitalized on using self-service technology to include small donation requests at the point of purchase. In this context, it is highly likely that during such purchase situations, a person is under the influence of a visceral state like hunger or thirst. This study investigated how a simulated visceral state of thirst could influence donation behavior. More specifically, how donation social proof indicators presented on self-service kiosk screens can impact likelihood to buy. Results of a conjoint study (n = 83) demonstrate that, in a visceral state situation, only a high level of social proof related to donation has a positive impact on likelihood to buy. Any other level of social proof (medium, low and not mentioned), decrease the likelihood to buy in such situations. A scenario simulation analysis shows that cases which included a high level of social proof have relatively higher preference. Consequently, antecedent situational variables like visceral states must be taken into consideration when cause-related marketing activities such as social proof (related to donation) are used in self-service kiosks.

Keywords: visceral states; cause-related marketing; donation behavior; self-service kiosks; conjoint study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9477/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9477/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9477-:d:445062

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().