How Resource Scarcity Influences the Preference for Counterhedonic Consumption[On the Consumption of Negative Feelings]

Eight studies show that resource scarcity can influence consumers’ preference for counterhedonic consumption and that the sense of control is an underlying driver of this effect. Using a large-scale field dataset covering 82 countries over a 10-year period, study 1 showed that individuals from countries with greater resources consumed horror movies to a greater extent, but this pattern was not found for other movie genres such as romance or documentary. The remaining studies used diverse experimental approaches and counterhedonic consumption contexts (e.g., movie, novel, haunted house attraction, game) to provide causal and process evidence. Specifically, inducing perceived resource scarcity lowered participants’ preference for counterhedonic consumption (studies 2A–2C). Consistent with the sense-of-control-based mechanism, experimentally lowering participants’ sense of control or boosting it moderated the effect of perceived resource scarcity on their preference for counterhedonic consumption (studies 3A and 3B). The degradation of the sense of control due to perceived resource scarcity mediated the effect (studies 4 and 5). These results add to the literature on conterhedonic consumption as well as resource scarcity and have important managerial implications.