Inspiring awe in consumers: Relevance, triggers, and consequences

Abstract

Six methodologically diverse studies addressed three fundamental questions about awe in consumers. First, to what extent is awe a relevant emotion in consumer experiences of products? A pilot study examined contents of tweets containing “awe” and showed that it was frequently used in people's voluntary expressions. Study 1 showed that products could elicit awe among a significant portion of consumers. Second, what kind of product triggers awe in consumers? Study 2 determined that descriptions of awe‐inspiring products typically featured four dimensions: timelessness, accommodation, beauty, and vastness. Studies 3 and 4 showed that only timelessness and accommodation could differentiate awe from admiration (Study 3) and love (Study 4) whereas beauty and vastness were not as important. The third question relates to the consequences produced by awe‐inspiring products. Study 3 showed that awe comprised a blend of positive and negative emotions. Studies 3 to 5 showed that awe not only made products more memorable but also enhanced consumers’ intentions to spread positive word‐of‐mouth publicity and to purchase the product. These findings shed light on the folk understanding and expression of this emotion and establish key landmarks in the hitherto uncharted consumer research domain of awe.

The Impact of Awe Induced by COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Consumption Behavior in China

“…Previous studies have examined the enormous potential of awe in explaining a variety of behaviors, such as prosocial behavior [ 19 ], word of mouth [ 12 ], collective action engagement [ 17 ], and negative job feedback [ 28 ]. Therefore, awe has become an emerging subject with much attention in the field of individual behavior.…”

“…According to the WebMD [ 29 ], the COVID-19 pandemic has made us rethink how we plan to protect our environment, and how that in turn will protect the health of our loved ones. Furthermore, Guo, et al [ 12 ] and White, et al [ 13 ] called to advance research on awe in green consumption behavior, given its untapped potential in explaining altruistic and pro-environmental behavior.…”

“…Recent research has shown that, based on valence, awe is roughly classified into two categories: positive awe and negative awe [ 11 ]. Subsequently, Guo, et al [ 12 ] and White, et al [ 13 ] called for further investigations to provide strong evidence by exploring the specific patterns of consumption behavior triggered by different variants of awe. However, research into the awe of COVID-19 is still in its infancy, and only a few studies have focused solely on the negative valence, such as fear, anxiety, and helplessness [ 14 ].…”

How does future focus promote study engagement? A moderated mediation model of self‐esteem and dispositional awe

“…Psychological research has included several explorations of dispositional awe and produced considerable behavioral and psychological results, for example, finding its direct impact on prosocial motivation (Piff et al, 2015), time perception (Rudd et al, 2012), and subjective well‐being (Zhao et al, 2019). However, empirical studies on the indirect role of awe in Chinese college students' behavior remain scarce, and most of them have been limited to adult, consumer and tourism research (Guo et al, 2018; Picard, 2016 Zhao et al, 2019). As mentioned before, dispositional awe can encourage college students to strengthen their executive power when they already have a future perspective.…”

The psychological model and cognitive neural mechanism of awe

“…。敬畏 是个体对任何比自我更强大、更复杂、更难以理 解的事物最原始和最直接的心理反应 (Halstead & Halstead, 2004;Reinerman-Jones et al, 2013), 是 由巨大且超越当前参考系的事物所带来的惊讶感 (Yang et al, 2016), 产生于个体认知适应或图式 形成过程中 (Shiota et al, 2003;Valdesolo et al, 2017)。同时, 敬畏本身是一种充满浩大的自我体 验 , 这 种 体 验 可 由 自 我 回 忆 、 实 物 刺 激 所 引 发 (Weger & Wagemann, 2018), 也可来自知觉或概 念 (Yaden et al, 2016) 、 浩 瀚 文 字 或 比 喻 感 知 (Chirico & Yaden, 2018), 用于理解那些比自身更 具伟大意义或价值的事物 (安希孟, 2007)。 敬畏的早期定义更强调"畏", 敬畏甚至被直 接定义为恐惧 (Hall, 1897), 但"敬"也不容忽视(王 影 等 , 2020)。 敬 畏 包 含 积 极 与 服 从(董 蕊 等 , 2013), 其本身就是一种积极情绪 (Schurtz et al, 2012;Shiota et al, 2007) 或 积 极 情 绪 的 一 部 分 (Yaden et al, 2016)。但从更多研究中我们发现, 敬畏是复杂的 (Pilgrim et al, 2017), 在归属于快 乐的同时也包含恐惧 (Keltner & Haidt, 2003) (Gordon et al, 2017;Guo et al, 2018 (Stellar et al, 2017;van Cappellen & Saroglou, 2012), 且这种自我超越性具有使人摆 脱世俗欲望并拥有更高精神境界的神奇力量 (Hu et al, 2018;Jiang et al, 2018)。敬畏也是一种认知 概 念 情 感 (Price et al, 2019), 涉 及 自 我 概 念 (Quesnel & Riecke, 2018)、世界理解方式的转变 (Chirico & Yaden, 2018), 有益于学习 (Valdesolo et al, 2017)与思维发展 (Gottlieb et al, 2018;Price et al, 2019) (Pilgrim et al, 2017), Krumhansl, 1997;Salimpoor et al, 2011…”