IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v67y2014i7p1439-1446.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retail customers' self-awareness: The deindividuation effects of others

Author

Listed:
  • Uhrich, Sebastian
  • Tombs, Alastair

Abstract

The presence of others often affects retail shopping behavior. Other customers tend to increase one's self-awareness and cause negative self-conscious emotions. This research's findings suggest fellow customers also mitigate focal customers' evaluative concerns. Deindividuation theory, which posits that other customers create anonymity and reduce self-awareness, helps explain this phenomenon. A laboratory experiment and a quasi-experimental field study in a retail setting support the notion that the presence of other customers creates a deindividuation effect on a focal customer during unwanted social evaluation from salespeople. Results show a small group of other customers resulted in lower levels of emotional discomfort and behavioral inhibition than either an empty store or a larger group size, suggesting a U shape relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Uhrich, Sebastian & Tombs, Alastair, 2014. "Retail customers' self-awareness: The deindividuation effects of others," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1439-1446.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:67:y:2014:i:7:p:1439-1446
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.07.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296313002968
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.07.023?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer J. Argo & Darren W. Dahl & Rajesh V. Manchanda, 2005. "The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 207-212, September.
    2. He, Yi & Chen, Qimei & Alden, Dana L., 2012. "Consumption in the public eye: The influence of social presence on service experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 302-310.
    3. Pan, Yue & Siemens, Jennifer Christie, 2011. "The differential effects of retail density: An investigation of goods versus service settings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 105-112, February.
    4. Grace, Debra, 2009. "An examination of consumer embarrassment and repatronage intentions in the context of emotional service encounters," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9.
    5. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen & Barr, Terri Feldman, 2005. "Perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction: the role of shopping values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1146-1153, August.
    6. Dahl, Darren W & Manchanda, Rajesh V & Argo, Jennifer J, 2001. "Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 473-481, December.
    7. Tombs, Alastair G. & McColl-Kennedy, Janet R., 2010. "Social and spatial influence of customers on other customers in the social-servicescape," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 120-131.
    8. Kyoungmi Lee & Hakkyun Kim & Kathleen D. Vohs, 2011. "Stereotype Threat in the Marketplace: Consumer Anxiety and Purchase Intentions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(2), pages 343-357.
    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. Carmen-Maria Albrecht & Stefan Hattula & Donald R. Lehmann, 2017. "The relationship between consumer shopping stress and purchase abandonment in task-oriented and recreation-oriented consumers," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 720-740, September.
    2. Majid Ghorbani & Liyan Xuan, 2018. "Challenging Ingrained Thoughts? The Joint Effect of Stereotypes and Awareness of Related Information on Pro-Environmental Behavior in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Cavusgil, Erin & Yayla, Serdar & Cem Kutlubay, Omer & Yeniyurt, Sengun, 2022. "The impact of demographic similarity on customers in a service setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 145-160.
    4. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    5. Albrecht, Kathrin, 2016. "Understanding the effects of the presence of others in the service environment: A literature review," jbm - Journal of Business Market Management, Free University Berlin, Marketing Department, vol. 9(1), pages 541-563.

    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. Luck, Michael & Benkenstein, Martin, 2015. "Consumers between supermarket shelves: The influence of inter-personal distance on consumer behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 104-114.
    2. Jana Holthöwer & Jenny Doorn, 2023. "Robots do not judge: service robots can alleviate embarrassment in service encounters," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 767-784, July.
    3. Uhrich, Sebastian, 2011. "Explaining non-linear customer density effects on shoppers’ emotions and behavioral intentions in a retail context: The mediating role of perceived control," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 405-413.
    4. Carol L. Esmark & Stephanie M. Noble, 2018. "Retail space invaders: when employees’ invasion of customer space increases purchase intentions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 477-496, May.
    5. Hwang, YooHee & Shin, Joongwon & Mattila, Anna S., 2018. "So private, yet so public: The impact of spatial distance, other diners, and power on solo dining experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 36-47.
    6. Fan Alei (Aileen) & Van Hoof Hubert B. & Loyola Sandra Pesantez & Lituma Sebastián Calle & Granda Marlene Jaramillo, 2016. "The impact of other customers and gender on consumer complaint behaviour in the Ecuadorian restaurant setting," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 21-29, May.
    7. Park, Yookyung & Yi, Youjae, 2022. "Is a gift on sale “heart-discounted†? Givers’ misprediction on the value of discounted gifts and the influence of service robots," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    9. Brack, Anna Dorothea & Benkenstein, Martin, 2012. "The effects of overall similarity regarding the customer-to-customer-relationship in a service context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 501-509.
    10. Arne K. Albrecht & Gianfranco Walsh & Simon Brach & Dwayne D. Gremler & Erica Herpen, 2017. "The influence of service employees and other customers on customer unfriendliness: a social norms perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 827-847, November.
    11. Park, Soobeen & Zhang, Shaoqing, 2019. "A pilot study of circulation layout based on perceived retail crowding," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 305-315.
    12. Kohei Kawaguchi & Kosuke Uetake & Yasutora Watanabe, 2019. "Effectiveness of Product Recommendations Under Time and Crowd Pressures," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 253-273, March.
    13. Gupta, Shipra & Coskun, Merve, 2021. "The influence of human crowding and store messiness on consumer purchase intention– the role of contamination and scarcity perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Myles Landers, V. & Esmark Jones, Carol L. & Barney, Christian, 2024. "The social influence of employee groups: Understanding the impact of employee groups on customer intentions through intimidation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Esmark, Carol L. & Noble, Stephanie M. & Breazeale, Michael J., 2017. "I’ll Be Watching You: Shoppers’ Reactions to Perceptions of Being Watched by Employees," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 336-349.
    16. Creed, Bernard & Ning Shen, Kathy & Ashill, Nick & Wu, Tianshi, 2021. "Retail shopping at airports: Making travellers buy again," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 293-307.
    17. Nguyen, July & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean, 2020. "Similarity over difference: How congruency in customer characteristics drives service experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 592-603.
    18. Thomas, Veronica L. & Saenger, Christina, 2020. "Feeling excluded? Join the crowd: How social exclusion affects approach behavior toward consumer-dense retail environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 520-528.
    19. Stefan J Hock & Rajesh Bagchi & Darren DahlEditor & Eduardo AndradeAssociate Editor, 2018. "The Impact of Crowding on Calorie Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1123-1140.
    20. He, Yi & Chen, Qimei & Alden, Dana L., 2012. "Consumption in the public eye: The influence of social presence on service experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 302-310.

    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:67:y:2014:i:7:p:1439-1446. 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.