Marketing Department, Grenoble École de Management, Grenoble, France.
Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 25;19(3):e0294497. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294497. eCollection 2024.
Previous research has shown that perceived existential threat experienced during or shortly after the first wave of the global COVID-19 pandemic, engendered anticipated scarcity and stockpiling behavior. However, the relationship between anticipated scarcity and stockpiling may not hold unambiguously for everyone. Across two studies and one preregistered replication (N = 644), we show that perceived threat of COVID-19 is associated with stockpiling tendencies by increasing the anticipation of product scarcity-a resource threat. The association between anticipated product scarcity and stockpiling depends, however, on childhood socio-economic status (SES) and materialism. For individuals with low childhood SES, the anticipation of product scarcity was only associated with stockpiling among those who valued materialism. Individuals with high childhood SES, by contrast, stockpiled in response to anticipated scarcity regardless of their level of materialism. Our findings qualify previous literature on the association between perceived threat of COVID-19, anticipated scarcity and stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic and help reconcile contradictory predictions about the role of childhood SES in individuals' consumption behavior in response to adversity.
先前的研究表明，在全球 COVID-19 大流行的第一波期间或之后不久所经历的感知到的生存威胁，引发了预期的稀缺和囤积行为。然而，对于每个人来说，预期的稀缺和囤积之间的关系并不一定明确。通过两项研究和一项预先注册的复制（N = 644），我们表明，对 COVID-19 的感知威胁通过增加对产品稀缺性（资源威胁）的预期，与囤积倾向有关。然而，预期产品稀缺性与囤积之间的关联取决于童年社会经济地位（SES）和物质主义。对于童年 SES 较低的个体，只有在那些重视物质主义的个体中，对产品稀缺性的预期才与囤积有关。相比之下，童年 SES 较高的个体无论其物质主义程度如何，都会因预期的稀缺而囤积。我们的发现限定了先前关于 COVID-19 感知威胁、COVID-19 大流行期间预期的稀缺性和囤积之间的关联的文献，并有助于调和关于童年 SES 在个体对逆境的消费行为中的作用的矛盾预测。
