How psychological distance shapes hedonic consumption: The moderating role of the need to justify

Mohamed Didi Alaoui (), Pierre Valette-Florence () and Véronique Cova ()
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Mohamed Didi Alaoui: UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, IAE Nice - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nice - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, GRM - Groupe de Recherche en Management - EA 4711 - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur
Pierre Valette-Florence: UGA INP IAE - Grenoble Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes
Véronique Cova: AMU IAE - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Aix-en-Provence - AMU - Aix Marseille Université

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Abstract: Psychological distance is pervasive in consumers' minds and affects their hedonic consumption patterns. However, the literature regarding the effects of psychological distance on hedonic consumption is inconsistent. Three experiments demonstrate that the need to justify is an important moderator. Experiments 1 and 2 show that when the need to justify is not salient, psychological distance negatively impacts hedonic consumption. However, when the need to justify is salient, the effect of psychological distance disappears statistically. Experiment 3 shows that when the need to justify is not salient, the effect of psychological distance on hedonic consumption is explained by two conflicting mechanisms (i.e., positive emotional intensity and the difficulty in justifying) which respectively represent the indirect negative and positive effect. Nevertheless, when the need to justify is salient, the effect of psychological distance can only be explained by the difficulty in justifying the hedonic option, resulting in an indirect positive effect.

Keywords: psychological distance; construal level theory; cognitive-experiential self-theory; hedonic consumption; need to justify (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03627681v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of Business Research, 2022, 146, pp.57-69. ⟨10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.046⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03627681

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.046

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