Abstract
The rapid ageing of the population is now one of the most important issues facing the world. The vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements (VMS) market is growing rapidly as a result of the subconscious desire to postpone ageing and combat mortality. At the same time, the study of the factors that stimulate consumers to purchase VMS in the consumer market has also become an interesting topic. Early studies have begun to look at death. Many scholars have come to realize that individuals have different attitudes toward death and that various positive and negative emotions and feelings may coexist, but avoiding death seems to have been central to human existence. Much of the previous research on mortality salience has considered the association between the negative emotions associated with the phenomenon of death and consumption behavior. So, when mortality salience triggers death anxiety, what do consumers do to alleviate their anxiety about death? This leads to a series of research questions, namely: What is the relationship between mortality salience and healthy consumption behavior? What are the psychological mechanisms behind influencing this effect? This thesis focuses on the mechanisms underlying the association between fear of death and healthy consumption behavior from a psychological perspective. Used three consecutive studies to examine the impact of mortality salience on healthy consumption behavior, namely the association between death anxiety, health consciousness, mortality salience and healthy consumption behavior.
Study 1 is a field study of Chinese consumers using the author's own company as the research site. The results of the study found that mortality salience significantly enhances consumer health consumption behavior. Study 2 used a completely different experimental scenario to once again validate the relationship between mortality salience and health consumption behavior. Based on the validation of the basic effect, Study 3 will further examine the underlying mechanism behind this effect, confirming that the effect of mortality salience on the propensity to consume health products is mediated first by death anxiety and then by health consciousness.
Terror management theory states that people must control potential terror threats for psychological well-being and effective functioning, but little research has focused on: how can individuals take specific steps to control this potential terrorist threat when they become aware of the phenomenon of death? The research explains the motivation and influence mechanisms behind consumers' consumption in response to the threat and influence of death information, and further validates the relationship between death anxiety and health consciousness. Theoretically, this study addresses some of the gaps in the study of consumer behavior in the context of 'terror management theory' or TMT. Further, while most current research on consumer behavior takes the form of scales, this study was conducted using the measurement method of a field experiment, which provides ideas for more contextualized experiments in the future. From the perspective of practical application, this thesis is a better combination of practice and scholarship and can serve as an inspiration for new thinking on marketing strategies, corporate social responsibility for health, and public health policy management.