사적연금제도의 개인의 삶에 대한 통제감 제고 역할에 대한 연구 (The Role of Individual Retirement Savings in Enhancing a Sense of Control over Life)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 28권 / 6호 / 1 ~ 22페이지
· 저자명 : 이경미, 김진우, 김진명

초록

사적연금은 공적연금을 보완하는 은퇴세대의 주요 소득원으로서 기능할 수 있고 그 중요성이 더욱 커지고 있다(강성호 2011). 하지만, 아직 선진국에 비하여 사적연금 가입률은 미미하고 소비자 인식도 미흡하여 소비자들에게 효과적으로 그 중요성을 인식시키는 것이 매우 중요한 실정이다(KDI 2014). 이에 본 연구는 개인의 삶에 대한 통제감이 외부대상을 통해 효과적으로 보완될 수 있다는 보완적 통제 이론(Compensatory Control Theory; Kay, Gaucher, Napier, Callan, & Laurin, 2008)을 바탕으로, 은퇴 후 삶에 경제적 자족을 도와주는 사적연금 제도가 소비자들의 삶에 대한 통제감을 부여하는 심리적 기능이 있다고 제안한다. 구체적으로, 첫 번째 실험에서는 삶에 대한 통제감을 획득하는 동기가 활성화 된 경우 그렇지 않은 경우에 비하여 사적연금에 가입하는 것을 더욱 긍정적으로 평가하는 것을 발견하였다. 두 번째 실험에서는 사적연금이 삶에 대한 통제감을 부여한다는 본 연구의 가설을 삶에 대한 통제감 획득이 시급한 개인들 (즉, 자아존중감이 낮은 소비자들)이 그렇지 않은 소비자들보다 사적연금 가입을 더욱 긍정적으로 평가하는 조절효과를 통해 검증하였다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 사적연금이 소비자들에게 의미하는 것을 심도있게 이해하고, 사적연금 가입을 효과적으로 장려할 수 있는 방안을 모색하였다.

영어초록

Retirement is often perceived as a turning point in a life, which limits one’s control over his or her life and environment, primarily due to biological changes in old age, coupled with changes in social connections after retirement. This perception regarding retirement seems to be fueled by recent public attention toward the emerging era of centenarians, forcing people into longer periods of retirement. In this respect, the question of whether “things are under control” over the course of life becomes particularly relevant to many people today.
The importance of individual retirement savings has grown in recent years (Kang 2011). However, many consumers still do not recognize this importance and have not set up their individual retirement accounts (IRA), making it a critical task for the government to encourage more people to set up their IRAs and save more for retirement.
We had one main objective in this research: to investigate the relationship between retirement savings and sense of control. Specifically, we examined whether sense of control can be a motivating factor for saving for retirement. Would motivation to maintain the overarching sense of control induce individuals to save for retirement? In other words, can retirement savings also provide substantial psychological benefits that are pertinent to today’s individuals – that is, a sense of control over people’s lives? Drawing on compensatory control theory (Kay, Gaucher, Napier, Callan, & Laurin, 2008), in this paper, we propose that retirement savings may serve as one of the external sources of control upon which people can draw in the face of chaos within their environment and personal lives. Previous research has suggested that external systems, ranging from the government to a controlling God, serve as the resource to compensate for one’s reduced state of control over the environment (Kay et al, 2008; Kay, Shepherd, Blatz, Chua, & Galinsky, 2010). By identifying the link between a desire for control and retirement savings, we can understand the psychological underpinnings with respect to perceptions about retirement savings; moreover, we can further suggest that highlighting this psychological function may be an effective way to encourage people to save more for retirement.
Specifically, the first study finds that people evaluate individual retirement savings more favorably when they want to restore their sense of control over life (vs. when they do not have such desires). The second study further tests the proposition that individual retirement savings enhances people’s sense of control over life by investigating self-esteem as a moderator: it demonstrates that people with greater need for sense of control over life (e.g., people with low self-esteem) evaluate saving for retirement more favorably when their desire to restore their sense of control is activated, while this effect attenuates among people with less need for sense of control over life (people with high self-esteem). Based on these findings, this research seeks to improve our understanding of what individual retirement savings means to consumers and offers novel approaches to encourage consumers to save more for retirement.

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