The hedonic stigma : how the consumer’s memory seeks shelter from hedonism in utilitarianism

• Autor(a) principal: Rolo, Agenor Bonito de Andrade Ranhada
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/29741
• topic: Hedonism; Utilitarianism; Memory distortion; Attributes; Gist and verbatim retrieval; Self-threat; Self-affirmation; Guilt; Need for justification; Hedonismo; Utilitarismo; Distorção de memória; Atributos; Recuperação de memória Gist e Verbatim; Auto-ameaça; Auto-afirmação; Culpa; Necessidade de justificação; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The distinction between hedonic and utilitarian consumption has been thoroughly studied from varying perspectives, each offering a clearer vision of this difference. In accordance with its cultural connotation it is relatively consensual that hedonism is associated with feelings of guilt and need for justification. Separately, the complex nature of memory along with its underlying mechanisms is subject to distortion. This happens, for example, because of the impact of gist retrieval or belief harmonization. Ultimately, people may believe in whatever they want to believe by adjusting their previously acquired beliefs and perceptions of the world. This research focuses on the linkage between memory distortion and the implications of utilitarian and hedonic consumer behavior. It is argued that negative feelings stemming from hedonic consumption will stimulate the formation of false memories that protect the self-image of the consumer. This should be more evident for people who are more prone to self-serving biases. To investigate the hypothesis a survey was conducted, in which participants were presented with a product they had theoretically acquired, using attributes with hedonic and utilitarian variations. To assess memory, participants were then faced with several manipulated attributes and asked which ones had been learned. The results showed that there is indeed an impact of hedonism in memory distortion: in the case of new attributes, utilitarian ones were more easily recorded than the hedonic. This demonstrated that people are more susceptible to adhering to new and false memories when they are less self-threatening.