COVID-19 restrictions and consumers’ psychological reactance toward offline shopping freedom restoration

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic threats and its subsequent restrictions on people's freedom, social interaction, closures of workplaces and shopping stores have caused public psychological reactance. In response, the study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which unveils the effects of perceived choice hesitation and perceived choice confidence on consumers’ psychological reactance. It also corroborates two bipolar behavioral outcomes of consumers’ psychological reactance— choice freedom satisfaction and resistance to persuasion. We employ the moderating role of anticipated worry and trust in government in strengthening the psychological reactance and final behavioral outcomes, respectively. Data collected from the country of origin of COVID-19 pandemic indicated the positive effects of antecedents on psychological reactance, which negatively affected choice freedom satisfaction and positively to resistance to persuasion. Anticipated worry and trust in government positively moderated these relationships. Findings extend the literature on psychology, service management, and consumer behavior, and suggest to government policymakers and store managers.

摘 要

新冠肺炎大流行威胁及其对人们自由、社会交往的限制、工作场所和商店的关闭，引起了公众的心理抗拒。作为回应，本研究开发并测试了一个概念框架，揭示了感知选择犹豫和感知选择信心对消费者心理反应的影响。它还证实了消费者的心理反抗两个双极行为结果。我们发现预期担忧和信任政府分别对心理抗拒和最终行为结果起到调节作用。通过数据揭示，前置因素对心理抗拒有正向影响，对选择自由满意有负向影响，对抗拒说服起到积极的影响。这两个调节变量调节其中关系。研究结果扩展了心理学方面的成果，并为政府决策者和商店管理者提供了建议。

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• psychological reactance
• offline shopping
• trust in government

关键词:

• ：新冠肺炎
• 心理抗拒
• 线下购物
• 信任政府

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).