关键词: 冲动购买, 自我控制, 无意识目标启动, 目标状态, 动机

Abstract: Impulse buying is always accompanied by many negative outcomes to individuals and society, yet there were few studies exploring how to reduce it. Previous studies were conducted from the perspective of enhancing self-control ability to control impulse buying, which showed limitations in its intervention method. Unconscious goal priming (UGP) refers to activating individuals’ mental representation related to goal in an unconscious way. Due to its ease of implementation and similar effects as the conscious goal priming, UGP has been used for diet controlling in obese people. However, there is no evidence about whether it can reduce impulse buying effectively. In this current study, we aimed to examine the effect of unconscious goal priming to reduce the impulse buying for individuals who have the goal of saving money and those who do not have the goal of saving money. 86 college students (43 with recent saving goal and 43 without recent saving goal) participated in this experiment. The experiment contained generally two parts: the target activation stage and the target pursuit stage. In the first stage (target activating), the goal of saving money was unconsciously activated through the priming task. All participants were randomly assigned to the priming group (the priming words flashed in the priming task was related to money-saving goal) or control group (the words flashed in the priming task was not related to money-saving goal). In the second stage (target pursuing), participants were required to complete a simulated shopping task in which they were instructed to imagine an impulsive shopping situation. The amount they would buy was recorded as a measurement of their impulse buying behavior. The main results of the present research are as follows: there was a significant interaction between “priming” (Priming Vs. Control group) and “individual’s goal state” (With Vs. Without money-saving goal), F (1,79) = 4.117, p < .05, η2 = .050. For individuals who have the goal of saving money, people in the priming group showed less impulse buying behavior than those in the non-priming group, F(1,79) = 4.688，p < .05，η2 = .056; However, for those who do not have the goal of saving money, there was no significant difference in impulse buying behavior between the priming and no-priming group, F(1,79) = 0.455，p > .05. Our results revealed that unconscious goal priming could only reduce the impulse buying behavior of individuals who have the goal of saving money, while showing no significant effect on individuals who do not have the goal of saving money. The current study confirmed that unconscious goal priming can reduce impulse buying, but the priming effect was regulated by individual’s goal state, which was in agreement with the findings of unconscious goal priming in the field of diet controlling. Importantly, this current research first attempted to reduce impulse buying from the perspective of acting on the motivation of self-control rather than directly enhancing individuals’ self-control abilities. Our findings suggested that unconscious goal priming has the prospect to become a simple and convenient intervention for reducing impulse buying behavior, especially for those with money-saving goals.

Key words: impulse buying, self-control, unconscious goal priming, goal state, motivation