Impulsive Buying Tendecy: The Role of Cognitive Factors, Personality Traits and Affect

Abstract

Impulsive buying is considered to be an emotional and unplanned decision-making behaviour. Because this type of purchasing rate has fairly increased in recent years, examining the determinants of impulsive buying is important to understand which intervention programs should be designed. In the current study, it was aimed to develop a model in which impulsive buying tendency is predicted by variables such as personality traits, affect and cognitive factors (problem solving skills and cognitive flexibility). Overall, 300 young adults (198 female and 102 male), took part in the study. The mean age of the participants for the current study was as 21.29 years (SD=2.95). Impulsive buying tendency, personality traits, affect, problem solving skills and cognitive flexibility variables were measured via Consumer Buying Impulsivity Scale (CBI), Behavioural Inhibition/Activation System Scales (BIS/BAS), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) and Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFI), respectively. The results indicated that personality traits in the behavioral activation system (reward system) could be an important determinant of impulsive buying tendency when examined together with other variables. In sum, high reward responsiveness may result in impulsive buying. Furthermore, affective factors (both negative and positive affect) rather than cognitive factors may be a triggering factor for impulsive buying.

Keywords

• impulsive buying
• problem solving
• personality
• behavioural activation
• behavioural inhibition