The Importance of Personality Psychology in the Study of Prosocial Consumer Attitudes – Implications for Research in the Field of Socially Responsible Marketing

Abstract

Theoretical background: This article is based, regarding the theoretical foundations, on selected issues of behavioral economy and economic psychology, which question the classical assumptions of the homo oeconomicus concept and the standard approach to studying the consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Purpose of the article: The system of individual and socially shared consumer values undergoes evolutionary changes in the modern, turbulent socio-economic reality. The thesis has been put forward that in the post-pandemic realities, because of the re-evaluation of given values, psychological factors play an increasingly important role in shaping pro-social consumer attitudes, and the consumer’s personality largely determines favorable attitudes towards socially responsible marketing initiatives. The article is conceptual in nature. It provides a theoretical background for the authors’ planned empirical research. The main objective of this paper is to define the new research areas for socially responsible marketing, in which personality psychology could play a significant role in identifying consumers’ pro-social attitudes. Research methods: Given the need for an interdisciplinary approach to studying consumers’ pro-social attitudes, a review was conducted of the literature on the subject concerning the behavioral economy and economic psychology, with a special emphasis on the issue of personality. Main findings: The literature studies and observation of the socio-economic reality aimed at identifying new direction of empirical research in socially responsible marketing. Four main research areas were proposed to which the appropriate marketing types were assigned: post-COVID reality (social marketing and cause-related marketing); healthcare (social marketing); the reality of war (social marketing and cause-related marketing; ecology – green marketing). The empirical studies based on personality psychology in the areas indicated above could refer to the concept of goal-oriented behavior psychology and the Five Factor Model.

Keywords

• behavioral economics
• economic psychology
• personality psychology
• socially responsible marketing