{"title":"A distant perspective on how the \"past\" affects the \"present\": the impact of early environmental unpredictability on impulsive consumption.","authors":"Shijin Sun, Zhengyang Hou, Jiahui Guo, Qian Tian","doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1578234","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>With the growing convenience of shopping and the rise of consumerism, impulsive buying has become increasingly prevalent, sometimes leading to harmful consequences. Unlike traditional research focusing on proximal product-related factors, this study investigates the distal influence of early environmental unpredictability on impulsive buying behavior, grounded in life history theory. Additionally, the moderating role of resource scarcity is examined from a broader societal perspective.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A 2×2 between-subjects factorial experimental design was employed, involving 161 participants. The independent variables were early environmental unpredictability (low vs. high) and perceived resource scarcity (scarcity vs. normal). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions to explore the relationship between early environmental factors and impulsive consumption tendencies.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The findings revealed that: (1) early environmental unpredictability significantly and positively predicts impulsive buying behavior; and (2) this predictive effect is amplified under conditions of perceived resource scarcity.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>These results highlight the lasting impact of early life environments on consumer behavior and suggest that resource scarcity can exacerbate impulsive consumption. The study offers practical insights for reducing impulsive buying in modern society and contributes to interdisciplinary understanding in psychology and behavioral economics.</p>","PeriodicalId":12525,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Psychology","volume":"16 ","pages":"1578234"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174098/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1578234","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: With the growing convenience of shopping and the rise of consumerism, impulsive buying has become increasingly prevalent, sometimes leading to harmful consequences. Unlike traditional research focusing on proximal product-related factors, this study investigates the distal influence of early environmental unpredictability on impulsive buying behavior, grounded in life history theory. Additionally, the moderating role of resource scarcity is examined from a broader societal perspective.
Methods: A 2×2 between-subjects factorial experimental design was employed, involving 161 participants. The independent variables were early environmental unpredictability (low vs. high) and perceived resource scarcity (scarcity vs. normal). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions to explore the relationship between early environmental factors and impulsive consumption tendencies.
Results: The findings revealed that: (1) early environmental unpredictability significantly and positively predicts impulsive buying behavior; and (2) this predictive effect is amplified under conditions of perceived resource scarcity.
Discussion: These results highlight the lasting impact of early life environments on consumer behavior and suggest that resource scarcity can exacerbate impulsive consumption. The study offers practical insights for reducing impulsive buying in modern society and contributes to interdisciplinary understanding in psychology and behavioral economics.
期刊介绍：
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.
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