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ABSTRACT

Consumer guilt is a feeling which results from one's recognition of having failed to achieve or violated internalized personal or social moral standards in the context of consumption. The present study aims to contribute to current knowledge of consumer guilt by offering a comprehensive structural model of consumer guilt, its antecedents and consequences. The findings reveal that regret due to action, regret due to inaction, transgression of norms, self-control failures and indulgence in hedonic desires are the antecedents that significantly explain consumer guilt. Among coping responses studied in literature, only the ones that relate to reparative action, psychological repair work and justification significantly loaded to coping responses factor. Comparison of respondents with high and low guilt scores revealed significant differences.

Keywords: Consumer guilt, regret, transgressions, self-control failures, indulgence, coping responses.

ÖZET

Tüketicilerde suçluluk duygusu bireyin, tüketim baglaminda, içsellesmis kisisel ya da sosyal ahlaki standartlari ihlal ettigini ya da bu standartlara erisemedigini fark etmesi sonucunda olusmaktadir. Bu çalismanin amaci, tüketicilerdeki suçluluk duygusu, öncül degiskenleri ve sonuçlari üzerine genis kapsamli yapisal bir model ile ilgili literature katkida bulunmaktir. Bulgular eylem veya eylemsizlik nedeniyle pismanlik, normlarin asilmasi, kendini kontrol hatalari ve hedonik arzulara olan düskünlügün tüketicilerde suçluluk duygularini anlamli bir sekilde açikladigini ortaya koymaktadir. Literatürde incelenen basa çikma tepkileri arasinda sadece düzeltici eylem, psikolojik olarak kendini rahatlatma ve mazeret bulma gözlemlenmistir. Yüksek ve düsük suçluluk skorlarina sahip katilimcilar anlamli olarak farklilik göstermektedirler.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Tüketicilerde suçluluk duygusu, pismanlik, normlarin asilmasi, kendini kontrol hatalari, düskünlük, basa çikma tepkileri.

1. INTRODUCTION

Guilt, a negative self-conscious emotion, has been frequently employed by marketing practitioners, especially advertisers, to influence consumer behavior (Cotte and Ritchie 2005; Hibbert et al. 2007; Soscia et al. 2008). Consumer guilt has been researched along with its antecedents, such as impulsive and compulsive consumption (Hassay and Smith 1996; Miao 2011; O'Guinn and Faber 1989; Puri 1996; Rook 1987; Sengupta and Zhou 2007), hedonism, desire and indulgences (Belk et al. 2003; Kivetz and Simonson 2002; Ramanathan and Williams 2007; Sela, Berger and Liu 2008; Okada 2005; Xu and Schwarz 2009). Some other studies focused on types and consequences of consumer guilt (Bagozzi et al. 2000; Cooke, Meyvis and Schwartz 2001; Meyvis and Cooke 2007; Tsiros and Mittal 2000) and consumers' coping responses (Dahl et al. 2005;...

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