Consumer Behavior

Coping With the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis by Self-Gifting: An Empirical Investigation

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which COVID-induced negative affective states, such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness, influence consumers' therapeutic self-gifting behavior. An online survey was conducted to collect data via Amazon MTurk. Survey questions were adopted from existing self-gifting scales. The SEM results indicated that perceived threat of COVID-pandemic had a strong direct effect on therapeutic self-gifting behavior and also triggered anxiety, which, in turn, served as an antecedent to both depression and loneliness. Depression was found to influence therapeutic self-gifting behavior. Loneliness, in turn, strongly influenced depression; however, the direct impact of loneliness on therapeutic self-gifting behavior was not significant. Results provide empirical evidence of the ways that consumers' affective states have been influenced by the perceived threat of COVID-19, including the extent to which it plays a role in their self-gifting behaviors.

Keywords: COVID-pandemic, Therapeutic Self-Gifting behavior, Stimuli-Organism-Response, Coping Strategy, Consumer psychology

How to Cite:

Seo, S., Hodges, N. J. & Su, J., (2022) “Coping With the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis by Self-Gifting: An Empirical Investigation”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 79(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.15802