The Direct and Indirect Influences of Human Values on Consumer Choices

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchArchive at Victoria University of Wellington The Direct and Indirect Influences of Human Values on Consumer Choices Michael W. Allen A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Victoria University of Wellington July 2008 ii Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the exceptional supervision of Professor Sik Hung Ng, who generously gave his ideas, guidance and wisdom. I also acknowledge the invaluable contribution of the supervisor of my Masters thesis in consumer/industrial psychology, Dr. Brian Blake, and my mentor in market research, Rod Antilla, both of whom prepared me for the methodological and statistical requirements of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. James Liu, Dr. Ann Weatherall, and other researchers and students in the Social Psychology Discussion group for their helpful comments and critiques over the past several years. I would also like to thank the participants in the studies who gave their time and input without compensation, and Victoria University Postgraduate and Overseas Scholarships that provided financial support without which my study in New Zealand could not have been possible. Finally, I would like to thank my friends here in New Zealand and my family back in the States, who supported me, believed in me, and persevered through periods when I hadn’t the spare time or energy to call, write or visit. iii Abstract The aim of the present thesis is to develop a conceptual framework of how consumers' choice of products may be influenced by the human values that they endorse. The framework combines a traditional model of human value influence based in expectancy-value theory (e.g., Scott and Lamont’s (1973), Gutman’s (1982) and Lindberg, Garling and Montgomery’s (1989) attribute-mediation approach), with a new approach based on product meanings, judgements and psychological functions. From the union, a product meaning approach to value influence is suggested which outlines two structures of the value-attitude-behaviour system. Firstly, when consumers are evaluating a product’s utilitarian meaning and making a piecemeal judgement, human values may influence the importance of the product’s tangible attributes that in turn influence product preference. Secondly, when consumers are evaluating a product’s symbolic meaning and making an affective judgement, human values may influence product preference directly. The meaning and judgement elements of the conceptual framework and the traditional attribute-mediation approach were examined in three studies; Study 1 found that the attribute-mediation approach could not fully account for the influence of human values on product preference (Hypothesis 1) and that the inability was greatest for products, such as red meat and overseas holiday destinations, which are likely evaluated on their intangible attributes of symbolic meanings and aesthetics (Hypothesis 2). The second and third studies tested whether the two routes of value influence uncovered in Study 1, that is, the route proposed in the attribute-mediation approach and the alternative, direct route, result from consumers evaluating different product meanings and making different types of judgements. Study 2 developed scales that measure the general publics’ product meaning and judgement preferences, and Study 3 associated the meaning and judgement preference scales with the influences of human values on automobile and sunglasses ownerships; confirming the product meaning approach hypothesis that a consumer’s preference for utilitarian meaning and for a piecemeal judgement to symbolic meaning and an affective judgement should be greater when his or her human values have an indirect influence on product preference (e.g., via the importance of the product’s tangible attributes) iv than when his or her human values have a direct influence. Besides modelling the cognitive structure through which human values operate when consumers attend to utilitarian and symbolic meanings and make piecemeal and affective judgements, several propositions were made that consumers have a cross-product tendency to prefer the same meanings, judgements and routes of value influence, and that each route of value influence serves a specific psychological function. Concerning the latter, the propositions were made that when consumers attend to symbolic meaning and directly apply their human values, the application serves an expressive psychological function (e.g., self-consistency and social approval), and hence should be associated with greater psychological identification with the product, greater importance assigned to human values in general (e.g., value relevance), and a preference for terminal values to instrumental values. Conversely, when consumers attend to utilitarian meaning and indirectly apply their human values via tangible attribute importances, the application serves an instrumental psychological function (e.g., utility maximisation and control of the environment), and hence should be associated with a weaker psychological identification with the product, weaker value relevance, and a preference for instrumental values to terminal values. Study 4 assessed these propositions by examining the results of Studies 1-3 in detail and by analysing a fourth data set. Support was found for most of the propositions. Qualifications and limitations of the product meaning approach to the influences of human values on consumer choices are discussed, as are the implications of the approach for human value theory and consumer research. v Table of Contents Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix CHAPTER I. OVERVIEW OF CONSUMER CHOICES, HUMAN VALUES AND COURSE OF THESIS 1 CONSUMER CHOICES 1 HUMAN VALUES 6 OVERVIEW OF THESIS 14 PART ONE: THE INDIRECT INFLUENCE OF HUMAN VALUES ON PRODUCT PREFERENCE 23 CHAPTER II. THE ATTRIBUTE-MEDIATION APPROACH 23 EXPECTANCY-VALUE THEORY 23 LINDBERG, GARLING AND MONTGOMERY’S MULTI-ATTRIBUTE APPROACH 26 GUTMAN’S MEANS-END CHAIN THEORY 28 SCOTT AND LAMONT’S CENTRALITY OF BELIEFS APPROACH 30 THE BASIC FORM OF THE ATTRIBUTE-MEDIATION APPROACH 31 SUMMARY, MODIFICATIONS TO PROPOSAL, AND HYPOTHESES 34 CHAPTER III. STUDY 1: EXAMINATION OF THE ATTRIBUTE-MEDIATION APPROACH HYPOTHESES 41 METHOD 41 Design 41 Automobiles 43 Overseas Holidaying 44 Meat Products 44 Respondents 46 Survey 47 Human Values 47 Tangible Attribute Importances and Product Preferences 49 Automobiles 50 Holiday Destinations 52 Meat Products 58 RESULTS 71 Rationale of Analysis 71 Results of Regression Analyses 75 DISCUSSION 81 PART TWO: THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT INFLUENCES OF HUMAN VALUES 97 CHAPTER IV. THE PRODUCT MEANING APPROACH TO THE INFLUENCES OF HUMAN VALUES ON CONSUMER CHOICES 97 A PRODUCT MEANING APPROACH 98 Types of Product Meanings and Their Psychological Functions 102 Utilitarian Meaning 103 vi Psychological Function of Utilitarian Meaning 103 Symbolic Meaning 104 Psychological Function of Symbolic Meaning 106 Meaning, Judgement, and Human Values 112 Utilitarian Meaning, Piecemeal Judgement and the Indirect Route of Value Influence 114 Symbolic Meaning, Affective Judgement and the Direct Route of Value Influence 117 Levels of Prescriptive and Evaluative Beliefs and Levels of Product Meaning 120 THE PRODUCT MEANING APPROACH HYPOTHESIS 123 OTHER PROPOSITIONS 126 Cross-product Consistency 126 Psychological Function 127 Attitude Function Theory 128 Attitude Function and Advertising Effectiveness 130 Attitude Function and Value Influence 132 A Functional Approach to the Value-Attitude-Behaviour System 135 Functional Propositions 138 SUMMARY AND PLAN OF ANALYSIS 142 CHAPTER V. STUDY 2: DEVELOPMENT OF MEASURES OF PRODUCT MEANING AND JUDGEMENT PREFERENCE 149 METHOD 149 Design 149 Respondents 153 Survey 154 Human Values 154 Meaning and Judgement Preferences 155 Utilitarian Meaning and Piecemeal Judgement 156 Symbolic Meaning and Affective Judgement 157 RESULTS 162 I. Scale Structure 162 II. Scale Sensitivity 167 DISCUSSION 173 CHAPTER VI. STUDY 3: EXAMINATION OF THE PRODUCT MEANING APPROACH HYPOTHESIS 177 METHOD 177 Design 177 Respondents 178 Survey 179 Human Values 179 Tangible Attribute Importances 180 Automobiles 180 Sunglasses 181 Product Preference 182 Automobiles 183 Sunglasses 184 Meaning and Judgement Preferences 185 RESULTS 191 I. Meaning and Judgement Preferences and the Direct and Indirect Influences of Human Values 191 Smaller Family Cars 197 Larger Family Cars 198 Sunglasses 199 vii II. Product Ownership and the Direct and Indirect Influences of Human Values 199 DISCUSSION 207 CHAPTER VII. STUDY 4: EXAMINATION OF PROPOSITIONS 210 ANALYSIS ONE: CROSS-PRODUCT CONSISTENCY 215 ANALYSIS TWO: PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION 220 Standard Method 223 Residual Method 224 ANALYSIS THREE: VALUE RELEVANCE 229 Value Relevance and Meaning and Judgement Preference 230 Value Relevance and Instrumental and Terminal Values 231 ANALYSIS FOUR: INSTRUMENTAL AND TERMINAL VALUES 234 Instrumental and Terminal Values and the Meaning and Judgement Preferences 234 Instrumental and Terminal Values and the Direct and Indirect Routes 236 Automobile Ownership 244 Overseas Holidaying 247 Meat Consumption 248 DISCUSSION 255 CHAPTER VIII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 263 CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND RESULTS OF STUDIES 1-3 263 CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND RESULTS OF STUDY 4 268 FURTHER EMPIRICAL RESEARCH AND ISSUES FOR CONCEPTUAL

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