Consumer Action: Automaticity, Purposiveness, and Self-Regulation

Richard P. BagozziUniversity of Michigan

Internal imagination or physiological stimulation

External stimulation

Reflective or deliberative processes

Automatic processes

Consumer action

Impulsive action

Reasoned action

Outline of Proposed Dual Process Model of Consumer Action

The Information Processing Legacy

Market-related

information

Cognitive processes

Mental states

“Cognitive Processes”

Attention

Perception

Memory

Information search

Categorization

Cognitive schemas

Judgment and evaluation

Inference drawing

Choice

What is Consumer Action?

Received viewBodily movementsoutcomes

A new directionVolitional and intentional processesLinkages between volition/intention and

(1) antecedent mental states and events and(2) consequent goal-directed behaviors

Consumer Action

Action is “what an agent does, as opposed to what happens to an agent (or what happens inside an agent’s head)”.

Blackburn (1994, p.5)

The Concept of Agency

An agent is “one who acts. The central problem of agency is to understand the difference between events happening in me or to me, and my taking control of events, or doing things”.

Blackburn (1994, p.9)

Action deals with what a person does in a self-regulative or willful way.

“How well have I enacted my plans?”“Am I making progress toward my goal?”“Are there adjustments that need to be made?”“Is the goal still important to me?”

Feedback reactions

Goalsetting

Formationof a goal intention

Action planning

Action initiation

and control

Goal attainment/

failure

“How do I feel about achieving/not achieving my goal?”

“What are the goals I can pursue andwhy do Iwant topursue them?”

“What is itfor which I strive?

“How can I achieve my goal?”(“When, where, how, and how long should I act?”)

“To what degree have I achieved/ failed to achieve my goal?”

Bagozzi (1992, Social Psychology Quarterly) Bagozzi & Dholakia (1999, Journal of Marketing)

Goal Setting and Goal Pursuit

“…to understand people one needs to understand what leads them to act as they do, and to understand what leads them to act as they do one needs to know their goals, and to understand their goals one must understand their overall interpretive system, part of which constitutes and interrelates these goals, and to understand their interpretive system—their schemas—one must understand something about the hierarchical relations among these schemas.”

D’Andrade (1992, p. 31)

The Three-tiered Goal Hierarchy

Superordinate goals

Focalgoal

Subordinate goals

General Representation of Goal Hierarchy

Example of Goal Hierarchy (abbreviated)

Live longer

Look and feel good

Boost self-

confidence

Goal: lose weight

Exercising Dieting

“Why do I want to achieve that for which I strive?”

“What is it for which I strive?”

“How can I achieve that for which I strive?”

Enjoy life

Live longer

Health

Feel good

Energy Achieve-

ment

Self- esteem

Social acceptance

Happiness

Look good

Save money

Fit in Clothes

Hierarchical Goal Structure for Reasons for Losing or Maintaining Body Weight

Bagozzi, Bergami, & Leone (2003, Journal of Applied Psychology) Bagozzi & Edwards (1998, Psychology and Health)

Moral and self-evaluative

standards (second-order desires)

Goal desire

Goal intention

Behavioral desire

Subjective norms

Attitude toward

act

Perceived behavioral control

Group norms

Feedback to select cognitive and

emotional processes

Negative anticipated emotions

Positive anticipatory emotions

Affect towards means

Social andself-conscious

emotions

Behavioral

intention

Planning

Trying

Goal attainment/failure

Social identity

Cognitive

Affective

Evaluative

Summary of Key Variables and Processes in Consumer Action as a Deliberative and Reflective Endeavor (note: the effects of habit, past behavior, and automatic processes are omitted for simplicity

Caring, love, empathy

Affect from appraisals of

rate of progress

Negative anticipatory emotions

Positive anticipated emotions

Bagozzi (2005, Review of Marketing Research)

Trying to Consume

Acts of consumption are engaged in as either ends in and of themselves (e.g., dancing for its aesthetic and kinesthetic pleasures) or means to other ends (e.g., exercising and dieting for the purpose of losing weight). In either case, consumers initiate acts by attempting or trying to act.

Bagozzi and Warshaw (1990, Journal of Consumer Research)

Acting Intentionally

“When I raise my arm, my arm goes up. And the problem arises: what is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?”

Wittgenstein (1997, p. 161e)

Try to Act

Bagozzi and Warshaw (1990, JCR) answered this question by stating that “trying to act” is the residual.

Trying to Act

Singular subjective state summarizing the extent to which a person believes that they have tried or will try to act (Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1990, JCR).

Intention to try

TryingGoal

attainment

Attitude toward process

Expectations of failure

Attitude toward failure

Expectation of success

Attitude toward success

Evolution of the Concept of Trying

Trying encompasses psychological and physical processes engaged in after forming an intention to act in order to implement the intention (Bagozzi, 1992, SPQ). Following a decision to act, some subset of the following constitute trying: planning, monitoring of progress toward a goal, self-guidance and self-control activities, commitment to a goal or intention or action, and effort put forth.

Research on Trying

Body weight loss/maintenance (Bagozzi & Edwards, 1998, P&H): trying was operationalized as maintenance of willpower and self-discipline, devotion of time for planning with respect to instrumental acts, and expenditure of physical energy in goal pursuit (see also Bagozzi, Baumgartner, & Pieters, 1998, C&E).

Self-regulation of hypertension (Taylor, Bagozzi, & Gaither, 2001, JBM). Four aspects of trying: devotion of time for planning, expenditure of mental/physical energy, maintenance of willpower, and sustaining of self-discipline.

Implementation of goal intentions (Bagozzi & Edwards, 2000, P&H).

Bagozzi & Edwards (2000, Psychology and Health)

Bagozzi, Baumgartner, & Yi (1992, Psychology & Marketing)

Moral and self-evaluative

standards (second-order desires)

Goal desire

Goal intention

Behavioral desire

Subjective norms

Attitude toward

act

Perceived behavioral control

Group norms

Feedback to select cognitive and

emotional processes

Negative anticipated emotions

Positive anticipatory emotions

Affect towards means

Social andself-conscious

emotions

Behavioral

intention

Planning

Trying

Goal attainment/failure

Social identity

Cognitive

Affective

Evaluative

Summary of Key Variables and Processes in Consumer Action as a Deliberative and Reflective Endeavor (note: the effects of habit, past behavior, and automatic processes are omitted for simplicity

Caring, love, empathy

Affect from appraisals of

rate of progress

Negative anticipatory emotions

Positive anticipated emotions

Intentions

Ajzen and Fishbein (1980, p. 41) term an intention as “the immediate determinant of behavior”.

Allport (1947, p. 186): “Let us define intention simply as what the individual is trying to do”.

Heider (1958, pp. 83, 108).

BehaviorIntention to act

Subjective norms

Perceived behavioral

control

Attitude toward the act

The Theory of Reasoned Action and The Theory of Planned Behavior

Ajzen (1991Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes)

A Broad Definition and Narrow MeasurementIntentions “are indicators of how hard people are willing to

try, of much of an effort they are planning to exert” (Ajzen, 1991, OBHDP, p. 181).

Ajzen (1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) measures intentions as self-predictions or expectations that one will act and uses “very unlikely” and “very likely” bipolar items.

The Concept of Personal Intentions(I-intentions)A personal intention is a person’s decision or plan to

perform an individual act (or achieve a goal) by himself or herself alone.

“I intend to finish reading ‘Fast Food Nation’ this evening”.

“I intend to lose weight”.

Goal versus Implementation Intentions

A goal intention is a self-commitment to realize a desired end state and might be expressed linguistically in the form, “I intend to pursue X” (Gollwitzer, 1993, p. 50).

“I intend to acquire an HDTV”.

An implementation intention is a self-commitment to perform a particular action and might be expressed linguistically in the form, “I intend to initiate behavior X whenever the situational conditions Y are met” (Gollwitzer, 1993, p. 50).

“I intend to exercise tomorrow afternoon if my sore calf muscle has healed sufficiently”.

Implementation Intentions Mediate the Effects of Goal Intentions on ActionImplementation intentions serve two functions (Gollwitzer &

Brandstätter, 1997).

Cognitively, implementation intentions provide mental representations of the opportunities implied by the intentions. It is believed that these would attract attention, be easily remembered, and effectively recognized in a relevant situation occurring at a future point in time when the intention is to be fulfilled.

Volitionally, implementation intentions create strong mental links between intended situations and behaviors. And in the presence of the critical situation, the intended behavior will be elicited automatically.

A person in a relationship might speak of “our intention to see Tchaikowski’s Swan Lake”.

A football player may mention “the team’s plan to implement a new offensive scheme”.

A corporate executive might announce “the firm’s hostile intention to take over another firm”.

President Bush mentioned last week that the American People intend to win the war against terrorism.

Social Intentions

The Concept of Social Intentions(Bagozzi, 2000, Journal of Consumer Research; Bagozzi & Lee, 2002, Social Psychology Quarterly)

An intention to perform a group act.

1. An I-intention to do something with a group of people or to contribute to, or do one’s part of, a group activity.

“I intend to practice with my rock music group on Saturday afternoon”.

“I intend to help collect signatures for referendum X with my compatriots in the local chapter of the Democratic party”.

An I-intention, as a social intention, is a person’s decision to act autonomously as part of a group activity.

2. A “we-intention” is a social intention rooted in a person’s self-conception as a member of a particular group or social category, and action is conceived as either the group acting or the person acting as an agent of, or with, the group.

a. A shared we-intention.

“I intend that our group/we act”.

“I intend that our family visit Disneyland Resort, Paris, next August.

b. A collective we-intention

“We (i.e., I and the group to which I belong) intend to act”.

“We intend to implement a doctoral program in management”.

Studies Investigating Collective IntentionsSmall face-to-face friendship groups (Bagozzi & Lee, 2002, SPQ;

Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006).

Virtual communities (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2002, JIM; Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Pearo, 2006, MP; Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004, IJRM; Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Mookerjee, 2006, MP).

Collaborative browsing groups (Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Mookerjee, 2006, MP).

Face-to-face tutorial groups (Bagozzi & Christian, 2006).

Linux user groups (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006, Management Science)

Moral and self-evaluative

standards (second-order desires)

Goal desire

Goal intention

Behavioral desire

Subjective norms

Attitude toward

act

Perceived behavioral control

Group norms

Feedback to select cognitive and

emotional processes

Negative anticipated emotions

Positive anticipatory emotions

Affect towards means

Social andself-conscious

emotions

Behavioral

intention

Planning

Trying

Goal attainment/failure

Social identity

Cognitive

Affective

Evaluative

Summary of Key Variables and Processes in Consumer Action as a Deliberative and Reflective Endeavor (note: the effects of habit, past behavior, and automatic processes are omitted for simplicity

Caring, love, empathy

Affect from appraisals of

rate of progress

Negative anticipatory emotions

Positive anticipated emotions

The Role of Anticipated (“Prefactual”) Emotions in Goal Striving (Bagozzi, Baumgartner, & Pieters, 1998, Cognition & Emotion)

Anticipated emotions

Volitional processes

Implementation processes

Goal outcomes

Outcome emotions

Relevantgoal situation

The Role of Anticipated (“Prefactual”) Emotions in Goal Striving (adapted from Bagozzi et al., 1998, Cognition & Emotion)

Anticipated emotions

Volitional processes

Implementation processes

Goal outcomes

Imagined goal

success

Prefactual appraisals of success

Positive anticipated emotions

+

Outcome emotions

Behavioral intentions

Amount of physical and mental energy willing to expend in

goal pursuit

Planning

Prefactual appraisals of failure

Negative anticipated emotions

+

Activation of instrumental

behaviors

Monitoring of progress

Guidance and control of goal

striving

Goal attainment

/failure

Positive and

negative emotions

+/-

Imagined goal failure

Relevantgoal situation

Bagozzi et al. (1998, Cognition & Emotion)

positive anticipated emotions

negative anticipated emotions

.50(4.8)

Growing Body of Research Investigating Anticipated EmotionsBagozzi, Baumgartner, and Pieters (1998, C&E)

Brown, Cron, and Slocum (1997, JM)

Perugini and Conner (2000, EJSP)

Perugini and Bagozzi (2001, BJSP)

Bagozzi and Dholakia (2002, JIM)

Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Basuroy (2003, JBDM)

Dholakia, Bagozzi, and Klein (2004, IJRM)

Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Pearo (2006, MP)

Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Mookerjee (2006, MP)

Taylor, Bagozzi, and Gaither (2005, BJHP)

Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006, IJRM; 2006. Management Sci.)

Differences and Similarities Between Attitudes and Anticipated Emotions1. Target. Attitudes under the TPB refer to actions, while active attitudes (As and Af)

and AEs address goals, Ap concerns action.

2. Dimensionality. Aact is unidimensional, active attitudes are three dimensional (As, Af, Ap), and AEs are two dimensional (PAE and NAE).

3. Reasons for action. Aact is a passive reaction retrieved from memory. Active attitudes and AEs are dynamic in the sense of arising from thinking and appraisal processes at the time of decision making and concern forward looking judgments and feelings; they change as the contingencies and values of goals and their attainment change.

4. Evaluative vs. affect. Aact and active attitudes are evaluations; AEs are affective processes.

5. Measurement. Aact and active attitudes are measured as bipolar semantic differential items, while AEs are measured on unipolar items (see Bagozzi, Wong, & Yi, 1999, C&E).

6. Intentions. Aact leads to intentions to act, where the behavior is not specified in relations to a goal under the TPB. Active attitudes and AEs specifically apply to the case where a goal intention has been formed, and where the attitudes and emotions function to activate an implementation intention in order to fulfill the goal intention.

Outline of Emerging Decision Making Models

Goal desire

Goalintention

Behavioral desire

Implementation intention

Anticipated positive

emotions

Anticipated negative emotions

Instrumental behaviors

Goal achievement

Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Basuroy (2003, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making)

Desires to Act

How do attitudes influence decisions?

It has been argued that desires are necessary for converting reasons for action into intentions to act. (Bagozzi, 1992, SPQ)

Goal desires and behavioral desires.

Volitive and Appetitive Desires

A volitive desire is “synonymous with want, wish, and would like, and appears as a transitive verb in sentences like ‘I desire to…’ and ‘I desire…’”. (Davis, 1997, p. 136).

“John would like to exercise”; “Mary wants intellectual stimulation”.

An appetitive desire has “the near synonyms appetite, hungering, craving, yearning, longing, and urge, and appears as a noun in sentences like ‘I have a desire to…’ and ‘I have a desire for…’ [and]…objects of appetitive desire appealing, things we view with pleasure”. (Davis, 1997, p. 136).

“Silvia has a longing to visit her birthplace”; “Paul has a craving for sushi”.

Volitive and appetitive desires are logically independent and can empirically exist in distinct ways:

“We often want to eat, for social or nutritional reasons, when we have no appetite and view the prospect of eating without pleasure. We desire to eat, but have no desire to. On the other hand, we may have a ravenous appetite and find the prospect terribly appealing and yet not want to eat because we are on a diet”. (Davis, 1997, p. 136).

Three Functions of Desires

Automatic, unconscious processes

Damasio’s (1994, 1994) somatic marker hypothesis

Bechara et al. (1997)

Integrate or resolve multiple reasons for action

Incites goal intentions, evoke implementation intentions

(Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001, British Journal of Social Psychology)

(Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001, British Journal of Social Psychology)

Studies Investigating DesiresBagozzi and Kimmel (1995, British Journal of Social Psychology)Bagozzi and Edwards (1998, Psychology and Health)Perigini and Bagozzi (2001, British Journal of Social Psychology)Taylor, Bagozzi, and Gaither (2001, Journal of Behavioral Medicine)Bagozzi and Dholakia (2002, Journal of Interactive Marketing)Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Basuroy (2003, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making)Dholakia, Bagozzi, and Pearo (2004, International Journal of Research in

Marketing)Perigini and Bagozzi (2004, European Journal of Social Psychology)Taylor, Bagozzi, and Gaither (2005, British Journal of Health Psychology)Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Pearo (2006, Media Psychology)Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006 International Journal of Research in Marketing)Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006, Management Science)

Outline of Emerging Decision Making Models

Goal desire

Goalintention

Behavioral desire

Implementation intention

Anticipated positive

emotions

Anticipated negative emotions

Instrumental behaviors

Goal achievement

Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Basuroy (2003, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making)

Kelman’s Typology of Social InfluenceCompliance

Adoption of a decision in accordance with a request or command and based upon the need for approval.

Similar to normative influence and reward and coercive power.

Internalization

Adoption of a decision based on the congruence of one’s values with the values of another person.

Similar to the effect of group norms.

Identification

Adoption of a decision in order to maintain a positive self-defining relationship with another person.

Similar to normative and informational influence and referent power.

Social identity

Emotional component (affective

commitment)

Evaluative component

(collective self-esteem

Cognitive component

(self-awareness of group

membership)

Bergami & Bagozzi (2000, British Journal of Social Psychology) Bagozzi & Lee (2002, Social Psychology Quarterly)

Group Norms

Path coefficients and R2-values for the extended Model of Goal-directed Behavior (factor loadings, error variances, and correlations among exogenous variables omitted for ease of interpretation)

Attitudes

PositiveAnticipatedEmotions

NegativeAnticipatedEmotions

SubjectiveNorm

DesireR2 = .77

We-IntentionsR2 = .69

Past Behavior

PerceivedBehavioral

Control

Social Identity

Self-Categorization

AffectiveCommitment

Group-basedSelf-Esteem

.02a (.13)b

.33 (.04**)

.10 (.02)

.09 (.07)

.37 (.42***)

.02 (.02)

.11 (.18)

.03 (.08)

.81 (.63***)

.02 (.00) .06 (.01)

-.02 (.02)

.12 (.13)

aStandardized parameterbunstandardized parameter*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001

Bagozzi & Dholakia (2002, Journal of Interactive Marketing)

Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo (2004, IJRM)

Attitudes

PositiveAnticipated

Emotions

NegativeAnticipated

Emotions

SubjectiveNorms

GroupNorms

ParticipationDesires

PerceivedBehavioral

Control

ParticipationWe-Intentions Participation

Behavior

Offline interactionswith family

Offline interactionswith friends

TelephoneConversations

Engagement inNeighborhood

Activities

Engagement inHobby Groups

TelevisionUse

RadioUse

Print MediaUse

Readingof Books

+++

+

+

+

+

-

- -

-

-

-

--+

+

+

Social identity

+

Affective identity

Cognitive identity

Evaluative identity

Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Pearo (2005, MP)

Bagozzi and Dholakia (2006, IJRM)

Where Does Self-Regulation Occur in Consumer Decision Making?

Second-order moral values and self-evaluative

standards

Goal desire

Goal intention

Behavioral desire

Implementation intention

Social/self-conscious emotions

Social identity

Cognitive Affective

Evaluative

Moral and self-evaluative

standards (second-order desires)

Goal desire

Goal intention

Behavioral desire

Subjective norms

Attitude toward

act

Perceived behavioral control

Group norms

Feedback to select cognitive and

emotional processes

Negative anticipated emotions

Positive anticipatory emotions

Affect towards means

Social andself-conscious

emotions

Behavioral

intention

Planning

Trying

Goal attainment/failure

Social identity

Cognitive

Affective

Evaluative

Summary of Key Variables and Processes in Consumer Action as a Deliberative and Reflective Endeavor (note: the effects of habit, past behavior, and automatic processes are omitted for simplicity

Caring, love, empathy

Affect from appraisals of

rate of progress

Negative anticipatory emotions

Positive anticipated emotions

Conclusions

Much important work has been done in information processing to date.

The study of consumer action has been neglected, however.

Consumer action is often goal-directed.

Goal setting and goal striving are two key processes in goal-directed consumer action.

In addition to classic attitudinal variables, we need to incorporate anticipated emotions, desires, and social processes in our models.

The social processes encompass compliance, identification, and internalization processes.

Inquiry should include collective intentions.

Social or self-conscious emotions are additional areas for investigation.

Self-regulation also is in need of examination.

Need for Studying Group Behavior with Multiple People from Each Group

“Socializing Marketing”

(Bagozzi, 2000, Journal of Consumer Research)

(Bagozzi, 2005, Marketing – Journal of Management Research)