ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH
Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802
Approach-Avoidance Conflicts in Consumer Behavior: Towards a Conceptual Framework
Margaret K. Hogg, Lancaster University, Management School, UK
Elfriede Penz, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria
Approach-avoidance conflicts have attracted significant attention in psychology but rather less in consumer behavior research,
apart from the environmental issues associated with retail settings. Our aim was to identify the key features of the products (as
well as the influential characteristics of the retail situations) which led consumers to identify their experiences as uncomfortable,
and which thus stimulated ‘approach-avoidance’ conflicts. Our starting point was a small-scale empirical study, using stories to
elicit consumers’ experiences of approach-avoidance behaviors. We also investigated the different ways which consumers reacted
when faced with approach-avoidance. From here we conceptualized the main components of approach-avoidance conflicts.
[to cite]:
Margaret K. Hogg and Elfriede Penz (2006) ,"Approach-Avoidance Conflicts in Consumer Behavior: Towards a Conceptual
Framework", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Margaret Craig Lees, Teresa Davis, and
Gary Gregory, Sydney, Australia : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 5-6.
[url]:
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/13040/volumes/ap07/AP-07
[copyright notice]:
This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in
part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/.
APPROACH-AVOIDANCE CONFLICTS IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR:
TOWARDS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Margaret K Hogg, Lancaster University
Elfriede Penz, Wirtschaftsuniversitaet, Vienna
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Approach-avoidance
conflicts
have
attracted
significant attention in psychology but rather less interest in
consumer behavior, except for some studies in retail
environments. Very little attention has been paid to how the
combination of personal, environmental and product
features generate approach-avoidance conflicts for
consumers. This is the gap which we seek to address.
Literature Review Consumers’ decisions can have
both positive and negative consequences. This means that
purchase decisions often involve a psychological conflict
(Miller, 1944, 1964) caused by a ‘competition between
incompatible responses’ within an individual (Miller, 1944,
p. 431). Donovan and Rossiter (1982, p. 37) used
Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) model to distinguish four
aspects of approach or avoidance (AP-AV) in a retail
environment. Whilst considerable research has been
undertaken using the M-R model to understand approachavoidance behaviors in response to environmental factors,
rather less attention has been paid to the interactions
between the nature of the product or service or the
consumer’s disposition.
respondents); and predominantly around ‘technical’
products; gifts and fashion or clothing (women
respondents).
Consumer dispositions: Emotions amongst the online
customers showed a mixture of positive and negative
reactions, with some differences between men and women.
The online stories reported more excitement and arousal in
general, compared with the offline stories. Offline
customers overwhelmingly described negative feelings
when writing about the emotions that they experienced in
relation to the potential approach-avoidance conflicts. Some
offline customers reported positive feelings as well, such as
trust.
Perceived risk: varied between offline and online
situations, both in terms of different types of risk, and the
stages within the purchase cycle at which perceived risk
was experienced. In online stories perceived risk was
usually strongest towards the end of the purchase cycle just
before the goods were received. Amongst the offline stories
perceived risk varied across the consumption cycle. Psychosocial risk was one of the most important characteristics of
offline purchases, especially for men. For women, offline
issues were linked either to technological risk; or psychosocial and monetary risk (e.g. purchasing gifts and
services).
Consumers were regularly confronted with ‘fight or
flight’ pressures (roughly equivalent to approach versus
avoidance behaviors). Consumers were motivated to
purchase for either personal (e.g. buy a product or service
for personal use and consumption) or social reasons (buy a
product or service for someone else, often, but not always,
as a gift). Where there was an important social context for
the purchase then consumers were more likely to stay and
complete the purchase (approach behaviors) rather than
succumb to the often overwhelming personal desire to flee
(avoidance behaviors).
Approach-avoidance conflicts: Approach-avoidance
conflicts included, firstly, the desire to please someone else;
secondly, the desire to stay and complete a purchase on
someone else’s behalf; thirdly, the desire to complete the
purchase (because of personal need for the goods).
Our participants’ stories illustrate the interaction
between product, environment and consumer disposition
and the difficulties of separating these into independent
constructs. The experience of Carl, for example,
demonstrates the importance of combining these when
investigating behavior in approach-avoidance conflicts.
Carl felt uncomfortable because of the nature of the product
(he was very unfamiliar with lingerie; was embarrassed that
there were so many bras and knickers on display; felt that
his product choice would communicate his taste (or lack of
it)). He was also uncomfortable with the shopping
environment, notably the atmospherics (e.g. shop was very
busy); fairly bright lights (he would have preferred a darker
room); and lots of lingerie on display. He had mixed
feelings about his fellow customers (he was pleased to see
so many men, but felt that they were all expert shoppers);
and he was very uncomfortable with the sales staff. Finally,
Methodology
We applied theoretical sampling (Miles and
Huberman 1994, p. 28) to achieve cross-national
comparability and homogeneous samples to examine young
adult consumer behavior (18+) in Austria and the U.K. We
collected written stories (Hopkinson and Hogg, 2007),
employing the critical incident technique (Flanagan, 1954;
Hopkinson & Hogarth-Scott, 2001). A series of questions
were used to evoke associations with regard to past online
and offline purchase situations. 41 offline stories (20 U.K.
and 21 Austrian) and 37 online stories (17 U.K. and 20
Austrian) were collected. All the stories were content
analysed to establish aspects behaviors in approachavoidance conflicts.
Findings
We begin by drawing some direct comparisons
between the different sources of approach-avoidance
conflicts generated by the online and offline retailing
channels. From here we describe an example of approachavoidance conflict, illustrating the interactions amongst the
environment; the product; and consumer’s disposition.
Sources of potential approach-avoidance conflict
Environment: In the online environment all respondents
mentioned the importance of clear interfaces and easy
navigation. The offline shopping environments evoked
uncertainty and approach-avoidance conflicts which were
characterised by the atmosphere (e.g. over-bright lights)
and the social situation (represented by friends, fellow
customers or the service personnel).
Nature of product or service: The online purchases
which provoked uncertainty and discomfort usually
involved buying subscriptions or tickets, accommodation or
travel packages. The offline purchases which provoked
discomfort revolved around mainly ‘adult’ products (male
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Carl’s story illustrates the importance of the psycho-social
risks which were perceived to be attached to this type of
purchase.
Hopkinson, G. C. and M. K. Hogg (2007), “Stories: how
they are used and produced in market(ing) research,”
in Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in
Marketing, ed. Russell W. Belk, Edward Elgar,
Northampton, USA January in press.
Kenhove, P. V. and P. Desrumaux (1997), “The
relationship between emotional states and approach or
avoidance responses in a retail environment,” The
International Review of Retail, Distribution and
Consumer Research, 7 (4), 351-368.
Mehrabian, A. and J. A. Russell (1974), An approach to
environmental psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Miller, N. E. (1944), “Experimental studies of conflict,” In
Hunt, J. McV., editor, Personality and the behavior
disorders.
Miller, N. E. (1964), “On the functions of theory,” in
Sanford, Fillmore Hargrave, editor, Research in
perception, learning, and conflict. Belmont:
Wadsworth.
Mitchell, V. W. and P. Boustani (1994), “A preliminary
investigation into pre- and post-purchase risk
perception and reduction,” European Journal of
Marketing, 28(1), 56-71.
Discussion and Conclusion
Our study examined behavior in approach-avoidance
conflicts in relation to the product, the situation and the
individual and their complex interaction. Results also
indicated a multi-dimensionality of behavior in approachavoidance conflicts, supporting Babin et al.’s argument
(1998), and revealed different drivers of these conflicts.
Based on these results we propose a conceptualization
which captures the multi-dimensional aspects of approachavoidance conflicts.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Babin, B. J., Darden W. R. and Babin (1998), “Negative
emotions in marketing research: affect or artefact?”
Journal of Business Research, 42, 271-285.
Donovan, R. J., and J. R. Rossiter (1982), “Store
Atmosphere:
An
Environmental
Psychology
Approach,” Journal of Retailing, 58 (1) Spring, 3457.
Donovan, R. J, J. R. Rossiter, G. Marcoolyn and A. Nesdale
(1994), “Store Atmosphere and Purchasing
Behavior,” Journal of Retailing, 70 (3), 283-294.
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