A Study on the Impact of Stress on the Selection of New Products and the Intermediary Mechanism during the Process of Goal Pursuit

Abstract

Most of what consumers do involves the pursuit of goals, and consumer goals affect consumer behavior [1]. Many studies show that stress always exists in the process of goal pursuit [2]. When coping with stress, consumers change their spending habits [3]. Although the existing research has explained to some extent consumer new product choice behavior, they have neglected the impact of stress on new product choice in the process of chasing goals in everyday life. Based on the research of goal orientation, stress, this study mainly explores the influence of the stress level and on the choice of new products and the moderating effect of regulatory focus, and uses two experiments for empirical research. The first experiment tested the selection of new products by manipulating the stress level. The second experiment can influence the attention point of people by manipulating the stress level, thus verifying the mediating effect of the focus. The results show that consumers are more likely to choose a new product when they are experiencing high levels of stress during the goal pursuit process than when they feel low stress. The reason is that the consumer’s focus on the product shifts to the benefits of the product’s ability to help achieve the goal in the high levels of stress. The new products are better than the old ones, so people are more willing to choose new products.