Marketing

Quantum mechanics

Voltage

Engineering

Philosophy

Social psychology

Variety (cybernetics)

Computer science

Business

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Empirical research

Physics

Advertising

Psychology

Epistemology

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Sociology

Artificial intelligence

Medicine

Consumption (sociology)

Pandemic

Reactance

Disease

Electrical engineering

Pathology

Social science

Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ)

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced our daily and social lives as well as our consumption patterns. This paper focuses on the relationship between the COVID-19 threat and variety-seeking. Based on several theories, including reactance theory and terror management theory, we predict that the perceived threat of COVID-19 will increase the tendency to choose more and different options in multiple choice settings. Firstly, two empirical studies demonstrate that variety-seeking in food and stationery choices is enhanced as people's perceived threat from the disease increases. Study 3 further suggests the boundary conditions of the above pattern in that the type of decision (i.e., multiple option selections across different brands vs. within the same brand) will moderate the impact of the perceived threat on varietyseeking. Specifically, when the decision involved choice across different brands, participants showed higher variety-seeking under high (vs. low) perceived threat. However, the opposite pattern was true when the decision involved choice within the same brand. This research offers a deeper understanding of how variety-seeking can be changed by the perceived threat of COVID-19.

Impact of the Perceived Threat of COVID-19 on Variety-Seeking