title: My friends have a word for it: Event-related potentials evidence of how social risk inhibits purchase intention.
abstract: Social risk refers to the potential disapproval from significant others (especially family or friends), and it is crucial in dissuading consumers from making decisions to purchase. The current study explored the neural process underlying how social risk influenced people's purchase intention. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate the electrophysiological process when subjects evaluated their purchase intention for products with social risk factors. The behavioral data showed that the social risk condition inhibited people's purchase intention compared to the control condition. Neurophysiologically, larger anterior N2 amplitude was induced by the social risk condition in contrast with the control condition. We suggest that this anterior N2 may reflect the cognitive control or conflict monitoring. It may be that the participant has to regulate the conflict between an internal desire to purchase the item and the discordant information obtained from the social risk sentence, which would pressure the participant to not purchase the item in accord with social norms. These findings will be helpful in understanding the neural basis of social risk perception during purchase decisions.
authors.affiliation: Management School, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Neuromanagement Lab, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guanxiong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.affiliation: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China; Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement at Ningbo University, Ningbo, China. Electronic address: jinjia@nbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event-related potentials; N2; Purchase intention; Social risk