Events

Mr. Tito Grillo
PhD Candidate in Marketing (Consumer Behavior)
University of Texas at Austin

Companies, policy-makers, and researchers typically try to understand consumers based on their current circumstances (e.g., where they live and their income). However, many behavioral and cognitive patterns are profoundly shaped during the early, formative periods of life. Thus, the social and economic conditions that mark these periods may have lasting consequences. The present research proposes that consumers with a resource-scarce upbringing develop an enduring “survival mindset” that, in adulthood, guides them to behave as if they had barely enough resources to handle pressing needs; in contrast, consumers from wealthier backgrounds develop a “surplus mindset” that guides them to behave as if they had extra resources available for non-pressing purposes. These two mindsets inform predictions involving consumers’ future-orientation, risk-taking tendencies, and resource management confidence in different domains of life. Nine studies explore these predictions in the contexts of financial decision-making and behaviors during COVID-19 using publicly available datasets and primary data from three countries. Controlling for current resources, consumers originally from wealthier backgrounds displayed greater financial future-orientation (e.g., longer planning horizons, stronger investing tendencies) and financial confidence (e.g., higher self-assessed financial skills, less financial anxiety), but also engaged in more behaviors involving coronavirus-related risks (e.g., eating in indoor areas of restaurants).