Tan Yuxuan, Huang Rong, Chen Zhuo
School of Business, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Institute of Green Development of Hunan Province, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2025 Apr 9;18:901-915. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S496339. eCollection 2025.
Health crises and disease outbreaks can trigger public fear, leading to behaviors such as panic buying. It's crucial to learn from past outbreaks and identify factors that can curb panic buying, enabling more effective management of this phenomenon. Although mindfulness has been shown to influence individual consumption behavior, no research to date has explored its association with panic buying. This research utilizes terror management theory to investigate the influence of mindfulness, as a personality trait, on panic buying during a health crisis, and to explore the sequential mediating roles of social alienation and death anxiety.
A two-wave survey was administered to 342 Chinese college students during the COVID-19 outbreak. Initially, students provided their mindfulness levels and demographic information. A week later, participants who had completed the first wave reported their panic buying intentions, social alienation, and death anxiety.
Structural Equation Modeling analysis revealed a negative relationship between mindfulness and panic buying, with social alienation and death anxiety acting as both parallel and serial mediators in this relationship.
Our research deepens the understanding of mindfulness from a consumer behavior perspective, fills a gap in the study of mindfulness and panic buying, and uncovers the "black box" of this relationship. The findings highlight the potential of mindfulness in mitigating panic buying during crises, offering practical implications for managing pandemic-related challenges and providing valuable insights for future research on mindful consumption.
健康危机和疾病爆发会引发公众恐慌，导致诸如抢购等行为。从过去的疫情中吸取教训并找出能够抑制抢购行为的因素，对于更有效地管理这一现象至关重要。尽管正念已被证明会影响个人消费行为，但迄今为止尚无研究探讨其与抢购行为的关联。本研究运用恐惧管理理论，考察作为一种人格特质的正念在健康危机期间对抢购行为的影响，并探究社会疏离感和死亡焦虑的序列中介作用。
在新冠疫情爆发期间，对342名中国大学生进行了两阶段调查。最初，学生们报告了他们的正念水平和人口统计学信息。一周后，完成第一阶段调查的参与者报告了他们的抢购意愿、社会疏离感和死亡焦虑。
结构方程模型分析显示，正念与抢购行为之间存在负相关关系，社会疏离感和死亡焦虑在这一关系中既充当平行中介又充当序列中介。
我们的研究从消费者行为角度加深了对正念的理解，填补了正念与抢购行为研究的空白，并揭示了这种关系的“黑匣子”。研究结果凸显了正念在缓解危机期间抢购行为方面的潜力，为应对疫情相关挑战提供了实际启示，并为未来的正念消费研究提供了有价值的见解。
