补偿性消费行为：概念、类型与心理机制

补偿性消费行为是指为了弥补某种心理缺失或自我威胁而发生的消费行为, 是一种替代的心理需求满足工具。补偿性机制作为看待行为的重要视角, 可以解释许多看似不理性或不合常理的消费现象。自尊威胁、控制感缺失和归属感缺失是导致补偿性消费的3种动机来源。未来研究可以从以下4个方面对补偿性消费行为进行深入探讨：1)根据补偿机制的不同, 对补偿性消费的表现形式和类型进行细分; 2)评估消费行为的心理补偿效果; 3)探讨除消费外其他替代性的心理补偿方式, 以及消费补偿与其他补偿方式之间的关系; 4)挖掘中国社会文化环境下的补偿性消费行为的特点与产生机制。

Consumption as Psychological Compensation: A Review of Compensatory Consumption

Compensatory consumption refers to the consumption behavior which aims at coping with psychological deficit or threat. A core theme of consumer behavior research is that people consume product or service not only for its functionality, but also for its signaling value. As an important self concept management strategy, consumption is often used to address self threat symbolically. Compensatory mechanism can help in understanding various irrational consumer behaviors. Self esteem threat, lack of control and lack of belong are the three major motivating forces which drive compensatory consumption. Future research can further address the following questions: 1) distinguish different types of compensatory consumption behavior, 2) evaluate the effectiveness of consumption as self repair tool, 3) explore alternative compensation means other than consumption, and investigate the relation between consumption compensation and other compensations, 4) look into the characteristics and mechanism of compensatory consumption within Chinese socio-cultural context.