Not worth the risk? Applying life history theory to understand rejection of the experiential recommendation

ABSTRACT

Despite mounting support documenting the long-term benefits of consuming experiences versus material possessions, some consumers appear to reject the ‘experiential recommendation.’ Applying a life history theory perspective, we conducted seven studies to examine how unpredictability and harshness during childhood may translate into a decreased propensity to consume novel experiences in adulthood. Adults who experienced unpredictable and harsh childhood environments tended to devalue experiential options (studies 1A and 1B). A perceived lack of control over one’s life outcomes that translates into greater difficulty in evaluating experiential opportunities mediated the relationship between childhood background and devaluing experiential options (studies 3, 4A–C). Furthermore, prior or incidental experience with novel experiential options moderated the link between perceived lack of control over life outcomes and difficulty evaluating experiential purchase options (study 4B).

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential consumption
• experiential recommendation
• life history theory
• materialism
• well-being

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mario Pandelaere, Caroline Roux and Joseph Sirgy; two anonymous reviewers; and the special issue Editors, for their insightful comments on this manuscript. We appreciate the time spent and the diligence of our excellent coders, Brian Peters, Ryan Horn and Rebecca Rabino. During the dissertation phase, Kristina Durante, Dengfeng Yan and David Silvera contributed many helpful remarks and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. According to Nicolao et al. (2009), post-purchase happiness decays over time following a power law. Accordingly, we examined our growth model using log-transformed versions of the happiness variables, as this transformation renders power-law functions into linear functions. The results of this analysis were nearly identical to the untransformed analysis reported here, and no parameters changed in their level of significance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Mittal

Sarah Mittal ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of marketing at the Armstrong Mabee School of Business Administration and Professional Programs, Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, Texas 76105, USA.

Jill Sundie

Jill Sundie ([email protected]) is a visiting assistant professor of marketing at the Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.