Personal affect, purchasing intention, interpersonal and the effects of goal congruence on shopping behavior

Abstract

Two studies demonstrated a relationship between the three domains of shopping behavior, namely, personal affect, purchasing intention and interpersonal. It also tested the theory that goal congruence would lead to more positive mood and feelings towards other shoppers, leading to a more positive evaluation of products and subsequent increase in buying behavior. This was done in a controlled laboratory setting using a virtual reality program, manipulating the search targets and participants’ direction of movement relative to the experimental partner. Both studies support the hypothesis that the purchasing intention domain is a mediator between personal affect and interpersonal while Study 1 showed that simply moving in the same direction was not able to positively affect the participant’s evaluation of the product. Study 2 improved upon Study 1 by using a more sophisticated program and also examined more variables and the results suggested that simply searching for the same target or doing both the same target and same direction tasks were also not able to positively affect the participant’s evaluation of the product except for purchasing intention. A likely explanation for the results might be due to the debate on whether consumers use the affect-as-information theory (AIT).