IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i5p4589-d1088084.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Distancing and Shopping Behaviour: The Role of Anxiety, Attention, and Awareness on Safety Preferences while Queuing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • George Horne

    (School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK)

  • Adrian Furnham

    (Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, BI Norwegian Business School, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic increased global anxiety, and many people shopped less frequently. This study quantifies customer preferences in where to shop while following social distancing regulations, specifically focusing on customers’ anxiety. Collecting data online from 450 UK participants, we measured trait anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, queue awareness, and queue safety preferences. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to develop novel queue awareness and queue safety preference variables from new items. Path analyses tested the hypothesised relationships between them. Queue awareness and COVID-19 anxiety were positive predictors of queue safety preference, with queue awareness partially mediating the effect of COVID-19 anxiety. These results suggest that customers’ preferences for shopping at one business and not another may depend on safe queueing and waiting conditions, especially in those more anxious about COVID-19 transmission. Interventions that target highly aware customers are suggested. Limitations are acknowledged and areas for future development are outlined.

Suggested Citation

  • George Horne & Adrian Furnham, 2023. "Social Distancing and Shopping Behaviour: The Role of Anxiety, Attention, and Awareness on Safety Preferences while Queuing during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4589-:d:1088084
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4589/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4589/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leclerc, France & Schmitt, Bernd H & Dube, Laurette, 1995. "Waiting Time and Decision Making: Is Time like Money?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(1), pages 110-119, June.
    2. Cameron, Michaelle Ann & Baker, Julie & Peterson, Mark & Braunsberger, Karin, 2003. "The effects of music, wait-length evaluation, and mood on a low-cost wait experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 421-430, June.
    3. Yalch, Richard F. & Spangenberg, Eric R., 2000. "The Effects of Music in a Retail Setting on Real and Perceived Shopping Times," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 139-147, August.
    4. Yezheng Li & Pinyi Yao & Syuhaily Osman & Norzalina Zainudin & Mohamad Fazli Sabri, 2022. "A Thematic Review on Using Food Delivery Services during the Pandemic: Insights for the Post-COVID-19 Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Hanyeong Kim & Yun Shin Lee & Kun Soo Park, 2018. "The Psychology of Queuing for Self-Service: Reciprocity and Social Pressure," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-15, November.
    6. Yinan Lin & Rob Kim Marjerison & Jeonghwan Choi & Chungil Chae, 2022. "Supply Chain Sustainability during COVID-19: Last Mile Food Delivery in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-27, January.
    7. El Hedhli, Kamel & Chebat, Jean-Charles & Sirgy, M. Joseph, 2013. "Shopping well-being at the mall: Construct, antecedents, and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 856-863.
    8. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    9. Dold, Malte & Khadjavi, Menusch, 2017. "Jumping the queue: An experiment on procedural preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 127-137.
    10. Palan, Stefan & Schitter, Christian, 2018. "Prolific.ac—A subject pool for online experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 22-27.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meda Roxana Burghelea & Ioan Plaias & Jaafar El-Murad, 2015. "The Effects of Music as an Atmospheric Variable on Consumer Behaviour in the Context of Retailing and Service Environments," International Conference on Marketing and Business Development Journal, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 377-392, July.
    2. Borges, Adilson & Herter, Márcia Maurer & Chebat, Jean-Charles, 2015. "“It was not that long!†: The effects of the in-store TV screen content and consumers emotions on consumer waiting perception," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 96-106.
    3. Elmashhara, Maher Georges & Soares, Ana Maria, 2022. "Linking atmospherics to shopping outcomes: The role of the desire to stay," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Wei, Yujie & Donthu, Naveen & Bernhardt, Kenneth L., 2013. "Effects of cognitive age, dispositional time perceptions, and time view manipulations on product attribute evaluations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2171-2177.
    5. Alberto Mattiacci & Riccardo Resciniti, 2015. "A ciascuno la sua musica. l?effetto della notoriet? della musica di sottofondo sul comportamento d?acquisto nei punti vendita," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 15-34.
    6. Sonia Nawrocka & Hans De Witte & Margherita Pasini & Margherita Brondino, 2023. "A Person-Centered Approach to Job Insecurity: Is There a Reciprocal Relationship between the Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Job Insecurity?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-27, March.
    7. F. Xavier Medina & Francesc Fusté-Forné & Nela Filimon, 2023. "Public Awareness of Food Products, Preferences and Practices: Old Challenges and New Insights," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-3, May.
    8. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Ni, Dan & Jiwen Song, Lynda & Zheng, Xiaoming & Zhu, Jinlong & Zhang, Mengyi & Xu, Lingxiao, 2022. "Extending a helping hand: How receiving gratitude makes a difference in employee performance during a crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 967-982.
    10. Masashi Soga & Kevin J. Gaston & Yuichi Yamaura & Kiyo Kurisu & Keisuke Hanaki, 2016. "Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, May.
    11. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Julie Bayle-Cordier & Loïc Berger & Rayan Elatmani & Massimo Tavoni, 2023. "Breath, Love, Walk? The Impact of Mindfulness Interventions on Climate Policy Support and Environmental Attitudes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-29, July.
    13. Nathaniel Oliver Iotti & Damiano Menin & Tomas Jungert, 2022. "Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-9, July.
    14. AJ Golio, 2024. "Whose Neighborhood Now? Gentrification and Community Life in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods," Working Papers 24-29, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    15. Peter Tavel & Bibiana Jozefiakova & Peter Telicak & Jana Furstova & Michal Puza & Natalia Kascakova, 2022. "Psychometric Analysis of the Shortened Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale on the Slovak Population (SWBS-Sk)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, January.
    16. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    17. Christoph Dworschak, 2024. "Bias mitigation in empirical peace and conflict studies: A short primer on posttreatment variables," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 462-476, May.
    18. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.
    19. Slupphaug, KJell & Mehmetoglu, Mehmet & Mittner, Matthias, 2024. "modsem: An R package for estimating latent interactions and quadratic effects," OSF Preprints h3rpw, Center for Open Science.
    20. Carlos Alós-Ferrer & Georg D. Granic, 2023. "Does choice change preferences? An incentivized test of the mere choice effect," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(3), pages 499-521, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4589-:d:1088084. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.