‘죽어도 못 버리는 사람의 심리’ : 저장강박행동의 심리적 기제 (‘Psychology of the People Who Can't Throw Away’: Psychological Mechanisms of Compulsive Hoarding Behavior)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅학회
· 수록지 정보 : 마케팅연구 / 28권 / 6호 / 109 ~ 136페이지
· 저자명 : 전중옥, 이은경

초록

본 연구는 보편적인 소비자의 저장강박을 이끄는 심리적 원인을 파악하는 데 주안점을 두고, 저장강박에 영향을 미치는 요인으로 매몰비용과 예상된 후회, 그리고 개인적 성향의 역할을 규명하였다.
연구모형에 따른 가설검증을 위해 매몰비용이 예상된 후회를 통해 저장강박행동을 유발한다는 기본 메커니즘을 토대로 4개의 실험을 수행하였다.
연구 1에서는 매몰비용이 저장강박에 미치는 효과와 매몰비용이 예상된 후회에 미치는 효과를 증명하기 위해 신발 시나리오와 마일리지 쿠폰 시나리오를 이용하여 각각에 대한 실험을 수행하였다. 분석 결과, 매몰비용이 저장강박과 예상된 후회에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 연구 2와 연구 3에서는 매몰비용이 저장강박행동에 미치는 영향이 소비자의 소유물애착과 일관성선호경향의 정도에 따라 그 영향력의 차이가 있을 것이라는 가설을 증명하기 위해 각 연구에서 실험제품을 달리하여 개인적 성향 변인들의 조절효과를 검증하였다. 분석 결과, 일관성선호경향의 조절효과만이 유의한 것으로 나타났다. 연구 4에서는 예상된 후회가 매몰비용과 저장강박의 관계에 있어 매개역할을 할 것이라는 가설을 증명하기 위해 부트스트랩 기법을 이용하여 예상된 후회의 매개효과를 검증하였다. 분석 결과, 매몰비용이 저장강박에 미치는 영향에 있어 예상된 후회가 완전매개역할을 하는 것으로 나타났다.
이와 같이 본 연구를 통해 저장강박을 이끄는 심리적 요인들 간의 인과관계를 밝힘으로써, 소비자들이 사용하지 않는 제품을 버리지 않고 보유하는 이유에 대한 포괄적인 설명을 제공하고 있으며, 이를 통해 향후 소비자들의 보유 및 처분을 포함한 구매의사결정을 이해하고 전략에 반영하는 데에 도움을 줄 수 있을 것이다.

영어초록

Compulsive hoarding has been defined as collecting and being unable to discard excessive quantities of goods and objects that are of limited or no value(Frost and Hartl 1996). Existing studies on compulsive hoarding are mainly about the people who show serious cases of compulsive hoarding, focusing on the symptom itself, and few dealt with the causes of compulsive hoarding. There are limits in deriving the causes of compulsive hoarding from existing studies since most research concentrated on people who manifest serious cases of compulsive hoarding as normal consumers have experienced and felt sympathy with the idea of keeping particular items they do not use instead of discarding them although such customers do not show serious symptoms of compulsive hoarding.
Therefore, this study focused on identifying the psychological causes which lead to compulsive hoarding of normal consumers and investigated sunk cost, anticipated regret, and the effect of personal propensity as the factors that influence compulsive hoarding.
This study conducted 4 experiments based on the basic mechanism; sunk cost causes compulsive hoarding through anticipated regret, in order to verify the hypotheses.
In study one, experiments were conducted with the shoes scenario and mileage coupon scenario to verify the effect of sunk cost on compulsive hoarding and the effect of sunk cost on anticipated regret. As a result, consumers with high sunk cost showed higher compulsive hoarding compared with consumers with low sunk cost. Also, consumers with high sunk cost showed higher anticipated regret comparing consumers with low sunk cost. That is, it was confirmed that sunk cost influenced compulsive hoarding and anticipated regret respectively.
In study two, an experiment was conducted with the shoes scenario to verify the moderating role of personal propensity variables in order to prove the hypothesis that the influence of sunk cost on compulsive hoarding would vary depending on the degree of possession attachment and preference for consistency. As a result, the moderating effect of preference for consistency was significant while possession attachment was not.
In line with study two, study three was performed to verify the hypothesis that the influence of sunk cost on compulsive hoarding would vary depending on the degree of possession attachment and preference for consistency by varying the products tested in order to increase the validity of the study. As a result, consistent with the result of study two, the moderating effect of preference for consistency was only significant.
Study four, applying bootstrap technique, was performed to verify the mediating role of anticipated regret in order to prove the hypothesis that anticipated regret would play the mediating role in the relationship between sunk cost and compulsive hoarding. As a result, anticipated regret played the mediating role regarding the effect of sunk cost on compulsive hoarding completely. In other words, sunk cost has a direct effect on compulsive hoarding and also has an indirect effect on compulsive hoarding through anticipated regret. Therefore, it is proved that anticipated regret can play the role as the variable which adds plausible explanations regarding the causal relationship between sunk cost and compulsive hoarding.
As shown above, this study suggests a comprehensive explanation about the reason why consumers feel hard to discard but keep unused products by examining post-acquisition phases that had been neglected in previous studies and clarifying psychological factors which lead to compulsive hoarding, and it would be able to guide consumers to make rational decisions henceforth.

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