Abstract

Hyperopia is an individual-level trait that leads consumers to exhibit an aversion to indulgence and chronically resist temptations because of their excessive farsightedness. As a result, hyperopic consumers often experience regret and feelings of missing out due to their inability to partake in life’s frivolities. While past research has mostly studied hyperopia as a chronic individual difference, the first goal of this thesis is to investigate whether cues in consumers’ environment can situationally prompt hyperopic consumption tendencies, building on prior work demonstrating that personality traits can also manifest as personality states. Prior research has found various ways to help hyperopic consumers overcome their aversion to indulgence and encourage them to “live a little,” such as precommitting to indulge, manipulating the level at which the indulgence is construed, or providing a justification to “let loose,” among others. The second goal of this thesis is to investigate whether scarcity promotions could provide another means for hyperopic consumers to overcome their aversion to indulgence. Because scarcity promotions are limited in nature, they could serve as a justification mechanism for hyperopic (vs. non-hyperopic) consumers, by allowing them to justify the splurge, and consequently increase their purchase intentions and consumption of indulgences. Across six studies, this thesis tests i) whether contextual cues can prompt consumers to become hyperopic (studies 1-3) and ii) whether scarcity appeals can overcome hyperopic consumers’ aversion to indulgence (studies 4-6), and find mixed results for the proposed effects.