The effect of personal relative deprivation on food choice: An experimental approach

The impact of social exclusion on impulsive buying behaviour of consumers on online platforms: Samples from China

Social exclusion is a common phenomenon in modern social life that has significant negative effects on those who were excluded. The excluded may adopt strategic impulsive consumption behaviors in order to gain a sense of belonging and repair social relations, and the rapid development of online shopping platforms has intensified the occurrence of impulsive purchasing behaviors. Therefore, the internal mechanism between the two needs to be clarified. This study utilised SPSS 26.0, Mplus8.0 and HLM6.08 to analyse the data from 417 questionnaires, focused on exploring the internal mechanism between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour, and yielded the following conclusions. (1) Social exclusion is positively correlated with impulsive purchasing behaviour. (2) Relative deprivation plays a mediating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (3) The need to belong plays an intermediary role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. (4) Self-control plays a moderating role between social exclusion and impulsive buying behaviour. These conclusions could provide a basis for enterprises to formulate rational marketing strategies and create consumer demand.

Perceived inequality in society may not motivate increased food intake in the absence of personal socioeconomic disadvantage

BACKGROUND

Greater levels of socioeconomic inequality across societies have been associated with higher rates of obesity and cardiometabolic disease. While these relationships could be attributed to poorer quality of health services and lower access to healthier lifestyles among disadvantaged groups in societies with greater economic inequality, this explanation does not account for those who experience relative economic security in such unequal societies (e.g., the middle and upper classes). Here, we tested whether perceptions of greater disparities between social classes in one's society (i.e., perceived societal inequality) may promote eating behaviors that risk excess energy intake.

METHODS

In two studies, participants completed an experimental manipulation that situated them as middle class within a hypothetical society that was presented to have either large disparities in socioeconomic resources between classes (high inequality condition) or low disparities (low inequality condition), while keeping the participants' objective socioeconomic standing constant across conditions. In Study 1 (pre-registered), participants (n = 167) completed the perceived societal inequality manipulation before a computerized food portion selection task to measure desired portion sizes for a variety of foods. Study 2 (n = 154) involved a similar design as Study 1, but with inclusion of a neutral control condition (no awareness of class disparities) followed by ad libitum consumption of potato chips.

RESULTS

While the high inequality condition successfully elicited perceptions of one's society as having greater socioeconomic inequalities between classes, it did not generate consistent feelings of personal socioeconomic disadvantage. Across both studies, we observed no differences between conditions in average selected portion sizes or actual energy intake.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together with prior research on the effects of subjective socioeconomic disadvantage on increased energy intake, these findings suggest that perceptions of inequality in one's society may be insufficient to stimulate heightened energy intake in the absence of personal socioeconomic disadvantage or inadequacy.