IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v199y2025ics0148296325003297.html

When suffering hurts more: suffering for material products reduces intrinsic motivation, well-being, and repurchase intention compared to experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Errmann, Amy
  • Arango, Luis

Abstract

Suffering (significant effort with negative valence) is increasingly present in consumption, yet little is known about when it undermines motivation or well-being. This paper examines how suffering affects intrinsic motivation, well-being, and repurchase intention, moderated by material and experiential product types. Across four studies, we test whether suffering (vs. control) has differential effects on consumer outcomes. Study 1 (N = 300) shows that suffering reduces well-being in material but not experiential purchases. Studies 2a (N = 429) and 2b (N = 394) replicate this across scenarios, showing that suffering in material contexts lowers well-being and repurchase intention, effects not observed for experiential purchases. Study 3 (N = 487) shows that in material contexts, suffering reduces intrinsic motivation and well-being, thereby decreasing repurchase intention. These findings demonstrate that suffering undermines outcomes in material consumption, while experiential consumption appears insulated. We extend self-determination theory by showing how suffering impacts motivation across consumption types.

Suggested Citation

  • Errmann, Amy & Arango, Luis, 2025. "When suffering hurts more: suffering for material products reduces intrinsic motivation, well-being, and repurchase intention compared to experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325003297
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296325003297
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115506?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anat Keinan & Ran Kivetz, 2011. "Productivity Orientation and the Consumption of Collectable Experiences," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(6), pages 935-950.
    2. Bernard Cova, 2021. "The new frontier of consumer experiences: escape through pain," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 60-69, June.
    3. Rebecca Scott & Julien Cayla & Bernard Cova, 2017. "Selling Pain to the Saturated Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(1), pages 22-43.
    4. Ximena Garcia-Rada & Mary Steffel & Elanor F Williams & Michael I Norton, 2022. "Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others [Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the Structure of Interpersonal Closeness]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 48(6), pages 970-990.
    5. Wilson Bastos & Merrie Brucks, 2017. "How and Why Conversational Value Leads to Happiness for Experiential and Material Purchases," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 598-612.
    6. George Loewenstein, 1999. "Because It Is There: The Challenge of Mountaineering… for Utility Theory," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 315-343, August.
    7. Bastos, Wilson & Moore, Sarah G., 2021. "Making word-of-mouth impactful: Why consumers react more to WOM about experiential than material purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 110-123.
    8. Leonardo Nicolao & Julie R. Irwin & Joseph K. Goodman, 2009. "Happiness for Sale: Do Experiential Purchases Make Consumers Happier than Material Purchases?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 188-198.
    9. Sara Kim & Aparna A. Labroo, 2011. "From Inherent Value to Incentive Value: When and Why Pointless Effort Enhances Consumer Preference," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(4), pages 712-742.
    10. Keisha M. Cutright & Adriana Samper, 2014. "Doing It the Hard Way: How Low Control Drives Preferences for High-Effort Products and Services," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 730-745.
    11. Veronika Huta & Alan Waterman, 2014. "Eudaimonia and Its Distinction from Hedonia: Developing a Classification and Terminology for Understanding Conceptual and Operational Definitions," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1425-1456, December.
    12. Kastanakis, Minas N. & Magrizos, Solon & Kampouri, Katerina, 2022. "Pain (and pleasure) in marketing and consumption: An integrative literature review and directions for future research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 189-201.
    13. Bastos, Wilson, 2020. "“Speaking of Purchases”: How Conversational Potential Determines Consumers' Willingness to Exert Effort for Experiential Versus Material Purchases," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky & David Dubois, 2012. "Power and consumer behavior: How power shapes who and what consumers value," Post-Print hal-00724231, HAL.
    15. Barbopoulos, Isak & Johansson, Lars-Olof, 2017. "The Consumer Motivation Scale: Development of a multi-dimensional and context-sensitive measure of consumption goals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 118-126.
    16. Helena González‐gómez & Sarah Hudson & Aude Rychalski, 2021. "The psychology of frustration: Appraisals, outcomes, and service recovery," Post-Print hal-03329187, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kastanakis, Minas N. & Magrizos, Solon & Belk, Russell W., 2026. "“No pain no Gain”: understanding and applications of pain in marketing scholarship and practice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Péronne, Sarah & Camus, Sandra, 2025. "Achieving a balance between positive and negative aspects of pain consumption: The central role of coping strategies in counter-hedonic experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    2. Gu, Yu & Chen, Rong, 2024. "Bridging consumption and work: The effects of thoughts about different types of purchases on job-related motivations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    3. Vessal, Saeedeh Rezaee & Partouche-Sebban, Judith & Toledano, Alain & Bernhard, Fabian & Schiavone, Francesco, 2025. "Embracing pain in pursuit of growth: a qualitative study of chronically ill patients’ mountain climbing experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    4. Bastos, Wilson & Moore, Sarah G., 2021. "Making word-of-mouth impactful: Why consumers react more to WOM about experiential than material purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 110-123.
    5. Gaston-Breton, Charlotte & De Stefano, M. Cristina, 2025. "Mapping consumer well-being: Contextualization, conceptualization, and classification using topic modeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Bastos, Wilson & Barsade, Sigal G., 2020. "A new look at employee happiness: How employees’ perceptions of a job as offering experiences versus objects to customers influence job-related happiness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 176-187.
    7. Du, Yingying & Liu, Yun, 2025. "How social crowding undermines happiness from experiential purchases more than material purchases," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Vikram Kapoor & Russell Belk, 2022. "‘Pressure creates diamonds’/‘fire refines gold’: Conceptualizing coping capital," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 12(3), pages 196-215, December.
    9. Wilson Bastos, 2020. "Want to make me happy? Tell me about your experiences but not your objects," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 978-1001, September.
    10. Gábor Hajdu & Tamás Hajdu, 2025. "The Experiential Advantage in Consumption: Evidence from Hungary," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 1327-1346, April.
    11. Popovich, Deidre & Trussell, Mikaela & Frias, Kellilynn M., 2025. "Pain exchange consumption: An exploration of taking risks to avoid the pain of paying," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    12. Luo, Anqi & Mattila, Anna S., 2023. "When and how to sell pleasurably painful experiences," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Kastanakis, Minas N. & Magrizos, Solon & Kampouri, Katerina, 2022. "Pain (and pleasure) in marketing and consumption: An integrative literature review and directions for future research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 189-201.
    14. Lenka Mynaříková & Vít Pošta, 2023. "The Effect of Consumer Confidence and Subjective Well-being on Consumers’ Spending Behavior," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 429-453, February.
    15. Bogner, Anna, 2023. "Memory asymmetries in experiential and material purchases: The role of self-expression," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 8(1), pages 163-187.
    16. Holmqvist, Jonas & Ponsignon, Frédéric, 2025. "Liminality in customer experiences: The uncertain outcome of employing liminal spaces for customer escapism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    17. Ma, Jianfeng & Tu, Hongwei & Zhang, Pan & Fan, Lele & Cheng, Bao & Ma, Jie, 2021. "Can work–family conflict influence purchase preference? Experiential vs. material consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 620-632.
    18. Bastos, Wilson, 2020. "“Speaking of Purchases”: How Conversational Potential Determines Consumers' Willingness to Exert Effort for Experiential Versus Material Purchases," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-16.
    19. Mohamed Jasim, K. & Zaman, Mustafeed & Hasan, Rajibul & Akter, Shahriar & Vo-Thanh, Tan & Vrontis, Demetris, 2025. "Beyond borders, beyond bills: Unpacking the universal pain of medical expenditures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    20. Jurewicz., Zuzanna & Goode, Miranda R. & Thomson, Matthew, 2024. "A tonic for the highly stressed: Memories of extraordinary group experiences lead to greater cohesion and well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:199:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325003297. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.