Journal of Consumer Behaviour, J. Consumer Behav.

10: 17 (2011)
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.341

Emotion regulation consumption: When feeling better is the aim

ELYRIA KEMP 1*,y and STEVEN W. KOPP 2y
1
2

McCoy College of Business Administration,Texas State University, 601University Drive, San Marcos,TX 78666, USA
Sam M.Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas,WCOB 302, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
ABSTRACT
This research explored how individuals regulate their emotions by consuming products of a hedonic nature. We introduce a new
construct to the consumer research literature, emotion regulation consumption (ERC), which involves the consumption or purchase of a
good or service for the purposes of alleviating, repairing, or managing an emotion in the short term. Specically, ERC processes
were examined for four discrete emotions sadness, amusement, contentment, and fear/anxiety. Additionally, this research
demonstrates how an individuals ability to use internal cognitive control processes, or emotion regulation strategies, to manage
emotions may differentially moderate the effects of emotions on hedonic consumption. Important theoretical and managerial
implications are offered:
Anytime that I am bummed, I order in the unhealthiest foods I can think of. I denitely use food as a crutch. I call it eating my feelings.
(female, 23).
Whenever I feel great, the rst thing I want to do is play golf. It does not matter if I go play a full round somewhere or just get in some
practice at the driving range. . .I just want to hit some golf balls. (male, 24).1
Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION
Emotions shape our everyday existence, including our
consumption and purchase behavior. Individuals may use
consumption or purchasing as a way to manage their
emotions. Using consumption or buying as a way to regulate
emotions manifests itself daily in the lives of typical
consumers: Waking themselves with a cup of coffee in the
morning; treating themselves to a nice dinner for a job welldone; purchasing goods of either intrinsic or extrinsic value
(e.g., jewellery and cars) to make themselves feel better
(Mick and Demoss, 1990). Advertising with the intent of
eliciting emotional responses from the consumer has become
embedded in our culture You deserve a break today
(McDonalds), For all you do, this Buds for you
(Budweiser), and Celebrate the moments of your life
(General Foods International Coffee).
In fact, consuming to manage emotions can have
potentially averse effects on the consumer. For example,
emotional eating is a common response to stress or sadness
(DArrigo, 2007), and the obesity epidemic has been
attributed in part to emotional eating (Gould, 2007).
Additionally, people may be driven by their emotions to
engage in impulsive shopping behavior (Rook, 1987; Beatty
and Ferrell, 1998). More than half of Americans struggle to
control excessive spending and debt (Perry, 2002) and credit
cards have become lifestyle facilitators that assist consumers

* Correspondence to: Elyria Kemp, McCoy College of Business Administration, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX
78666, USA.
E-mail: elyria.kemp@txstate.edu
y
Assistant Professor.
1
The opening comments were taken from an exploratory study that provided
the motivation for the research that follows.

Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

in their need to self-medicate and gratify (Bernthal et al.,

2005).
Recent studies in consumer research have demonstrated
that individuals may engage in consumption to downregulate or decrease negative emotions (Andrade, 2005;
Garg et al., 2007). The psychology literature suggests that
the most commonly regulated affective states are negative
ones (Morris and Reilly, 1987; Lazarus, 1991; Gross et al.,
2006). However, individuals might also use purchasing or
consumption to self-regulate positive emotions in an effort to
maintain or intensify positive feelings (Isen and Simmonds,
1978; Pearlin and Schooler, 1978; Wegener and Petty, 1994).
The present research explores the role that specic
emotions play in the consumption process by examining
how individuals might strategically use consumption as a
mechanism for regulating or managing emotions. We
introduce a new construct to the consumer research literature,
emotion regulation consumption (ERC), which identies this
phenomenon. ERC is dened as the consumption or purchase
of a good or service for the purposes of alleviating, repairing,
or managing an emotion in the short term.
ERC involves the link between various discrete emotions
and consumption as opposed to global affect (Beatty and
Ferrell, 1998). ERC is conceptually different from theories in
the consumer research literature that have investigated the
relationship between general affect and mood in response
to an event or circumstance (e.g., self gifting, Mick
and Demoss, 1990). In fact, terms regarding feeling states
have been used interchangeably in the literature but have
distinct theoretical differences (Bower and Forgas, 2000).
Affect is a general term and a superordinate category for
affective states while mood is more differentiated than affect,
but less intense than emotions. Emotions, unlike moods, are
more intense and ephemeral and are response tendencies to
a stimulus. They have an antecedent or cause. Emotions

E. Kemp and S. W. Kopp

involve a higher degree of cognitive awareness than moods

(Lazarus, 1984, 1991; Smith and Ellsworth, 1985) and
may manifest themselves physiologically (Izard, 1977;
Hertenstein et al., 2009). Further, unlike affect and
mood, emotions are grouped into discrete categories or
taxonomies such as anger, fear, pride, and joy (Izard, 1977;
Plutchik, 1980). Hence, the focus of ERC, distinguishable
from other conceptual frameworks in the consumer research
literature, is on managing a specic, short-term subjective
state.
Examining specic emotions has garnered interest among
consumer researchers. Research has found that different
affective states such as amusement, sadness, and anger
result in distinct meaning and appraisals of an individuals
environment, and thus may have unique motivational
implications on choice and decision-making (Lerner and
Keltner, 2000). Further, the psychology literature has
demonstrated that emotions have adaptive and functional
signicance in human survival (Izard, 1977; Plutchik, 1980).
Emotions can elicit action tendencies or states of readiness
(Fridja, 1986) as well as different assessments or appraisals
of ones environment (Lazarus, 1984, 1991; Smith and
Ellsworth, 1985). Emotion theorists have cited the emotions
to be examined in this research as basic human emotions;
consumer research has deemed them to be emotions
experienced frequently during the consumption process
(Richins, 1997).
The present research extends previous literature on affect
regulation and consumption by (1) employing an experimental approach to studying ERC, (2) embarking on this
investigation by examining four discrete emotions
amusement, sadness, fear/anxiety, and contentment rather
than global affect or mood, and (3) exploring how individuals
may use cognitive control processes, or emotion regulation
strategies, to manage emotions and how the use of these
strategies may moderate the effects of emotions on hedonic
consumption. We conclude by suggesting that the ERC
phenomenon has both important theoretical and managerial
implications and by offering direction for marketing
managers in developing marketing programs for characteristically hedonic products.

EMOTION REGULATION CONSUMPTION:

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
An individual may engage in emotion regulation to dampen,
intensify, or simply maintain an existing emotion (Gross
et al., 2006). Conventional wisdom suggests that people
would rather feel good than bad (Clark and Isen, 1982). Such
hedonic tendencies have also been implied in the behavioral
literatures, proposing that people experiencing negative
emotions may make conscious efforts to down-regulate
negative affective states (Morris and Reilly, 1987; Zillman,
1988; Lazarus, 1991; Fredrickson et al., 2000; Baumeister,
2002a,b; Gross et al., 2006).
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions,
which evolved from the positive psychology literature,
focuses on the adaptive qualities of positive emotions.
Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Particularly germane to the regulation of negative emotion,

the broaden-and-build theory (Faber et al., 1998; Fredrickson
et al., 2000, 2001) proposes that positive emotions have
the ability to down-regulate or even undo the effects
of negative emotions. Fredrickson et al. (2000) found
physiological support for this phenomenon. Cardiovascular
reactivity was induced in participants by use of an anxietyinducing task. Following the task, participants were shown
lms that elicited contentment, amusement, or sadness.
Those subjects in the positive emotion-inducing conditions
(amusement and contentment) experienced a faster return to
baseline cardiovascular reactivity than those participants
shown lms that elicited the negative emotion (sadness) and
those in the control (neutral) condition. These ndings
offer physiological support for the undoing hypothesis.
Because hedonic products often generate positive affective
responses from the consumer (Holbrook and Hirschman,
1982; Voss et al., 2003), individuals experiencing negative
emotion may consume or purchase hedonic products in an
effort to invoke positive emotion.
While individuals may have strong propensities to mitigate
negative emotions, individuals experiencing positive emotions
may make active efforts to maintain them (Larsen, 2000).
The hedonic contingency theory is a theoretical
perspective which posits that happy individuals are interested
in sustaining their positive emotional state, and as a result
will scrutinize the hedonic consequences of a particular
action (Wegener and Petty, 1994). In fact, happy people may
learn what behaviors induce a positive feeling state and may
be more likely to repeat those behaviors in order to produce
or sustain positive feelings (Zillman, 1988). Wegener et al.
(1995) found that individuals in happy moods scrutinized
persuasive messages more for their hedonic consequences
than individuals in sad moods. Happy individuals subsequently engaged in signicantly more enhancement of
message processing than sad individuals when the message
was positive. Conversely, when the tone of the message
was negative, there was a signicant reduction in message
processing for happy individuals.
In summary, the broaden-and-build theory of positive
emotions lends theoretical substantiation to the concept that
positive emotions have the ability to undo the effects of
negative emotions. Individuals in negative emotional states
engage in affect repair by consuming or purchasing
something from which they derive some positive affective
benet. By the same token, emotion management tactics may
also be used by those experiencing positive emotions.
According to the hedonic contingency view, individuals
experiencing positive emotions will strategically evaluate the
hedonic consequences of an action before undertaking it to
guard against losing a pleasant affective state. Subsequently,
these individuals might also be more likely to engage in
consumption of a hedonic nature to maintain positive
affective states. Hence, we propose that emotion regulation
will manifest itself in two conditions: Individuals will
regulate positive emotions in an effort to maintain a positive
emotion, or will make concerted efforts to down-regulate
or dispel a negative emotion. This proposition is tested in the
following study.
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 17 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb

Proposed emotion regulation consumption

STUDY 1
Study 1 was conducted to ascertain whether emotion
regulation attempts would manifest in individuals experiencing contentment (positive emotion) or fear/anxiety
(negative emotion) as opposed to a neutral affective state.
Contentment, often used interchangeably with tranquility
and serenity, is a low-arousal positive emotion (Smith and
Ellsworth, 1985). An appraisal of safety along with a high
degree of certainty and a low degree of effort is concomitant
to contentment. Conversely, fear or anxiety is an unpleasant
affective state characterized by uneasiness and uncertainty
(Izard, 1977; Smith and Ellsworth, 1985). Fear supports the
action of ight (Fridja, 1986). When coping attempts fail,
fear develops into anxiety (Epstein, 1972). Study 1 explored
these two emotions within the context of ERC.
Procedure
Participants were 96 college students from a southern
university in the United States. Subjects were randomly
assigned to a condition that elicited contentment or fear/
anxiety. There was also a control or neutral condition. The
contentment lm clip was taken from Alaskas Wild Denali, a
nature/promotional lm for Alaska. The fear/anxiety lm
clip was an excerpt from the movie, Silence of the Lambs,
where an FBI agent chases an alleged murderer in an old
house. The neutral condition was a noncommercial screensaver entitled Sticks. Sticks randomly appeared on the screen
and there was no audio.
Participants were given instructions to pay very close
attention to the lm and to make every attempt to envision
that they were experiencing rst-hand what was happening in
the lm. After viewing the lms, subjects were presented
with the following shopping scenario adapted from Rook and
Fisher (1995), which involved the use of an imaginary
stimulus situation:
Imagine you are a college student with a part-time job. In
three days, you will get your paycheck, but until then you
only have $20 left for necessities. You go to Lagasses
Market to buy some needed groceries and see a display for
a decadent bakery-style cheesecake. The cheesecake costs
$12 dollars and would be great to share with friends.
Following this, participants indicated their purchase
intentions for the cheesecake. Purchase intentions were
measured on a seven-point scale using six items: The
probability that I will purchase the cheesecake is likely/
unlikely, probable/not probable, impossible/possible, certain/
uncertain, denitely would/denitely would not, nonexistent/
existent.
Results and discussion
Manipulation checks were performed to ensure that the
emotion-eliciting lms were successful in inducing the
intended emotions. Using the Emotion Report Form
(Eckman et al., 1980) as check measures, participants were
asked to rate how they felt, on a nine-point scale, while
watching the lm (e.g., I feel contentment). Results
indicated that there was a main effect for contentment, F(2,
Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

108) 34.41, p < 0.01, and fear/anxiety F(2,108) 159.25,

p < 0.01. Planned contrasts showed that the contentment
condition induced signicantly more contentment
(M 6.46) than the neutral and fear/anxiety conditions
(M 2.67 and 2.7, p < 0.01). Likewise, the fear/anxiety
condition elicited more fear/anxiety (M 6.28) than the
neutral and contentment conditions (M 1.3 and 1.14,
p < 0.01). The modal report for the neutral condition was 1
for all emotions, which helped to conrm the emotional
neutrality of this condition (Fredrickson et al., 2001).
Results from an ANOVA indicate that there was a main
effect for emotions on purchase intentions, F(2, 93) 8.19,
p < 0.01 (Figures 1 and 2). Individuals in the fear/anxiety
(negative) condition expressed stronger purchase intentions
for the hedonic product (cheesecake) than those in the neutral
condition (M 3.68 and 2.52, p < 0.01). Similarly, those in
the contentment (positive) condition exhibited greater
purchase intentions for the hedonic product (M 3.28 and
2.52, p < 0.01). Subsequently, there was a U-shaped effect
for emotions on hedonic consumption.
Findings from this study provide evidence for the ERC
phenomenon for both fear/anxiety and contentment. Affect
control processes manifested themselves for both these
emotions with individuals in these conditions expressing
greater purchase intent for the hedonic good than individuals
in the neutral condition. Individuals in the fear/anxiety
condition may have been making attempts to mitigate or
undo the effects of negative emotions by purchasing
something from which they would derive some enjoyment,
while individuals in the contentment condition may have
been making efforts to maintain their pleasant affective state.
How an individual experiences an emotion is primarily
based on the interpretation of the emotional experience. Just
as individuals engage in cognitive processes that involve
learning, rationalizing, and subsequently reinterpreting
objective circumstances (Loewenstein, 2001; Hoch, 2002),
individuals may also reinterpret specic emotional elements
in the environment. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) proposed
that individuals cope with emotion through cognitive
maneuvers that may alter the meaning of an event. These
individuals use strategies to inuence how and when they
experience certain emotions (Lazarus and Alfert, 1964) and
may vary in their ability to identify, understand, and even
manage certain emotions (Mayer and Salovey, 1997). ERC
may be contingent on an individuals proclivity to employ
innate strategies to regulate specic emotions. One common
emotion regulation strategy is cognitive reappraisal (Gross
and John, 1998, 2003).

Figure 1. Emotions on purchase intentions.

J. Consumer Behav. 10: 17 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb

E. Kemp and S. W. Kopp

reection on disappointing performances and failures.
Sadness results in an appraisal of trouble or loss (Tomkins,
1962). The effects that both amusement and sadness may
have on consumption are examined next.

Figure 2. Emotions on purchase intentions.

Cognitive reappraisal involves construing a potentially

emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its
emotional impact (Lazarus and Alfert, 1964). Reappraisal
is an antecedent-focused strategy. It occurs early and
intervenes before the emotion response tendencies have
been fully triggered. Reappraisal entails keeping the
emotion-eliciting event in mind and actively seeking
alternate interpretations of the meaning of the event.
Cognitive reappraisal is especially adaptive for negative
emotions. Individuals employing this strategy can effectively
down-regulate negative emotion.
ERC may hinge on an individuals propensity to employ
cognitive reappraisal. For example, individuals who use
cognitive reappraisal may be able to reduce the behavioral
consequences of negative emotion and may be less
compelled to engage in certain forms of consumption, like
hedonic consumption, to down-regulate negative emotion.
The employment of cognitive reappraisal within the context
of ERC along with two additional discrete emotions
(amusement and sadness) is further examined in the next
study.
STUDY 2
In Study 1, we examined whether emotion regulation
attempts would emerge in individuals experiencing either
contentment or fear/anxiety. We found evidence that
individuals experiencing these emotions might be more
inclined to enlist ERC activities than those in neutral
affective states. However, ERC may be also be affected by an
individuals ability to enlist innate emotion regulation
strategies. Study 2 examined the role of cognitive reappraisal
in ERC.
Study 2 also ascertained whether the ERC phenomenon
would manifest for other discrete emotions. Accordingly, the
target emotions in Study 2 were amusement and sadness.
Amusement, a high-arousal positive emotion, is often used
interchangeably with happiness (Lazarus, 1991). Amusement results in an appraisal of safety and familiarity (Izard,
1977). According to Frijda (1986), the action tendency
associated with amusement and happiness is free activation.
Amusement often creates the urge to participate in physical,
social, intellectual, or artistic play.
In contrast, sadness is a low-arousal emotion and can slow
the cognitive and motor systems. The slowing of cognitive
processes associated with sadness may have adaptive
signicance in that individuals may engage in more careful
Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Procedure
One hundred sixty-seven undergraduate students from a
university in the southern part of the United States were
randomly assigned to three different conditions: Amusement, neutral, and sadness. Once again, lms were used to
induce these emotions. The amusement lm clip was an
excerpt from one of the acts of standup comedian, Robin
Williams. The sadness lm clip was taken from the movie
The Champ (1979) which involves a scene where a little boy
(Ricky Schroder) sees his father (Jon Voight), a professional
boxer, die after a boxing match. The neutral clip was the
same clip used in Study 1, Sticks.
Cognitive reappraisal was a nonmanipulated, measured
variable. The participants were given Gross and Johns
(1998) Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, which measures
cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal was measured
using six items (e.g., When I want to feel less negative
emotion (such as sadness or anger), I change what Im
thinking about and When Im faced with a stressful
situation, I make myself think about it in a way that helps me
stay calm.).
After viewing the lm, subjects were presented with a
scenario in which they were asked to imagine that they were
at a silent auction and had an opportunity to bid on either a
$35 gift certicate for groceries or a $35 gift certicate for
dinner at a restaurant (Okada, 2005). The $35 gift certicate
for dinner represented a characteristically hedonic good, and
the $35 gift certicate for groceries, a characteristically
utilitarian good.2 Individuals expressed their purchase
intentions toward the goods by responding to a seven-point
scale (anchored by each good the gift certicate for dinner
vs. the gift certicate for groceries) with ve items regarding
whether their purchase of one of the items was likely,
probable, certain, possible, or denite. (Higher
means indicated more favorable purchase intentions for the
hedonic good.)
Results and discussion
Manipulation checks were performed to ensure that the
emotion-eliciting lms were successful in inducing the
intended emotions. As in Study 1, subjects were given
the Emotion Report Form (Eckman et al., 1980), which
asked them to rate on a nine-point scale how they felt while
viewing the lm. The Emotion Report Form measures
indicated that there was a main effect for both amusement,
F(2, 163) 97, p < 0.01 and sadness F(2,164) 206.1,
p < 0.01. Planned contrasts conrmed that the amusement
2

Results from a pre-test including 36 respondents using Voss et al. (2003)

Hedonic/Utilitarian Scale conrmed that a gift certicate for dinner was
viewed as more hedonic (M 5.62 and 4.03, p < 0.001; measured on a
seven-point scale) than a gift certicate for groceries and a gift certicate for
groceries was viewed as more utilitarian (M 6.12 and 5.28, p < 0.001) than
a gift certicate for dinner.

J. Consumer Behav. 10: 17 (2011)

DOI: 10.1002/cb

Proposed emotion regulation consumption

condition elicited signicantly more amusement (M 6.8)
than the sadness and neutral conditions (M 2.6 and 3.4,
p < 0.01). Correspondingly, the sadness condition elicited
signicantly more sadness (M 6.7) than the amusement
and neutral conditions (M 1.5 and 1.7, p < 0.01). The
modal emotion report for the neutral condition (Sticks) was
2, which conrmed the emotional neutrality of this
condition.
Results for purchase intentions indicate that subjects in
the sad condition expressed the highest purchase intentions
for the hedonic good (gift certicate for dinner) (M 4.91).
Both the amusement and neutral conditions followed in
preference for the hedonic good (M 4.7 and 4.03).
Signicant differences existed between the neutral and
sadness conditions ( p < 0.05) and the neutral and amusement conditions ( p < 0.05).
A median split was performed on the cognitive
reappraisal measure and participants were divided into
low and high cognitive reappraiser groups. Findings
indicated that low cognitive reappraisers in the sad condition
expressed greater afnity for the hedonic product than high
cognitive reappraisers in the sad condition (M 5.25 and
4.58, t(57) 1.8, p < 0.05). However, there were no
signicant differences between low and high cognitive
reappraisers in the amusement condition (M 4.49 and 4.92,
p > 0.05) and the neutral condition (M 3.71 and 4.35,
p > 0.05; Figure 3).
Once again, affect control processes manifested themselves. The signicant ndings that existed between the
sadness and neutral conditions lend support to the ERC
phenomenon. Individuals in the sadness condition exercised
greater preference for the hedonic good as a means to
down-regulate negative emotion. Further, the propensity
toward the hedonic good for those experiencing amusement
suggests that individuals were attempting to self-regulate
positive emotions in an effort to maintain positive feelings.
Results from Study 2 also provide some evidence
regarding the effect that emotion regulation strategy has
on the ERC phenomenon for negative emotion. As proposed,
low cognitive reappraisers were less able to access the
internal processes necessary to down-regulate negative
emotion. Consequently, this group was prone to enlisting
external means, consumption being one of them, to manage
their emotions. Hence, they expressed greater purchase
intentions for the hedonic good than their high cognitive
reappraiser counterparts.

Figure 3. Emotions
cognitive reappraisal.

Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

GENERAL DISCUSSION
Theoretical implications
The studies in this research explored ERC in an experimental
context by focusing on four commonly experienced discrete
emotions amusement, contentment, sadness, and fear/
anxiety. Findings support the theoretical underpinnings of
the undoing effect of the broaden-and-build theory,
suggesting that people might consume products of a hedonic
nature to down-regulate negative emotions such as sadness
and fear/anxiety, infusing themselves instead with positive
emotions. Further, results also indicate that people may
manage positive emotions, such as amusement and contentment, by engaging in consumption to maintain their emotional
state. This supports the affect maintenance proposition in
hedonic contingency theory. Overall, ndings provide causal
evidence for the ERC phenomenon for four distinct emotions;
individuals use consumption as a short-term strategy to manage
emotions apart from employing consumption to regulate
feeling states that may occur in response to life circumstances
or overarching events (Mick and Demoss, 1990).
However, differences in the way individuals cognitively
exercise control over their emotions may also inuence
consumption behavior. This research introduced a common
emotion regulation strategy to the consumer research
literature cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal
involves construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation
in a way that changes its emotional impact. Results from this
research suggest that ERC may also be contingent on an
individuals innate ability to manage various emotions.
Specically, this research found that individuals who were
less able to exercise internal control of their negative
emotions (particularly sadness) may be more likely to use
hedonic consumption as a way to manage their emotions.
These results also suggest that individuals employing
cognitive reappraisal can better down-regulate negative
emotion. Subsequently, ndings from the present research
not only provide evidence for the ERC phenomenon, but
also address what types of consumers may or may not be
more prone to engaging in ERC: Those consumers who
are low cognitive reappraisers may be more likely to use
consumption as a mechanism for managing a negative
emotion than those who are high cognitive reappraisers.
Managerial and consumer welfare implications
Studies that examine ERC have implications for marketing
management and social marketing. First, consumers preexisting shorter term emotions may affect their shopping
behavior. Understanding these dynamics can help marketing
managers make decisions about the marketing program.
For example, individuals experiencing either positive or
negative emotions may engage in more impulsive purchasing
behavior (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998; Baumeister, 2002a,b).
Research shows that as much as 85 per cent of purchasing
decisions are made at the point of purchase (Casey, 2002).
Evidence from the present research is consistent with
earlier studies that imply that the manipulation of elements
of a stores atmospherics may inuence shorter term
emotion in addition to more global affect and behaviors
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 17 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb

E. Kemp and S. W. Kopp

(Bakamitsos and Siomkos, 2004; Klaus, 2008). Thus, hedonic

products that are more accessible (e.g., near the front of the
store) might help consumers to better satisfy hedonic impulses,
subsequently increasing customer purchases.
Second, companies might also create products that appeal
to the emotion regulation tendencies of consumers. Several
consumer packaged goods companies have embarked on this
path by developing happy products during an economic
downturn (e.g., Frito-Lays Ping-Pong Cheetos and Krafts
Oreo Fun Stix) (Horovitz, 2009). Employing insight gleaned
from the ERC phenomenon can assist marketers in designing
and developing effective marketing communications for
these hedonic products. Managers should acknowledge the
gamut of emotions experienced by consumers and make
efforts to remind consumers of the feeling that using their
product might generate.
Third, marketers of hedonic products may also be able to
appeal to the emotion regulation proclivities of individuals
by using language in marketing communications that target
the emotional sensitivities of consumers (e.g., Pillsburys
Nothin says lovin like something in the oven). The use of
affect-laden words might be more effective when using an
emotional appeal for a hedonic product.
At the same time, consuming to manage emotions can have
potentially deleterious effects on the consumer if done in
excess. Consumers may repeatedly engage in a certain set of
consumption activities when they want to regulate their
emotions. The accumulation of experience of these activities
may lead to the generation of the emotion-regulatory habits
that are perhaps counterproductive. In Study 1, the hedonic
product of interest was a food item, cheesecake. Understanding ERC can also provide more insight into why
individuals engage in aversive consumption such as overeating. Regulating emotional distress often takes precedence
over impulse-control and individuals may be engaging in
these consumption activities to achieve short-term gratication from negative feelings (Baumeister, 2002a,b). For
example, emotional eating is a common phenomenon in
response to stress or sadness (DArrigo, 2007). Research has
shown that emotional eating is related to reliance on emotionoriented coping and avoidance distraction in both eatingdisordered women and relatively healthy women (Spoor,
2007). Emotional eating has even been blamed as the reason
for the failure of most weight-loss diets (Gould, 2007). This
research demonstrated that enlisting cognitive reappraisal was
an effective way for individuals to down-regulate a negative
emotion such as sadness. Social marketers might make
efforts to activate individuals cognitive reappraisal processes.
Initiating such behavior might include getting individuals to
realize that the interpretation of an emotional experience
versus the experience itself is most crucial. Further, educating
individuals to raise awareness of why they might engage in
excessive emotion-related consumption and then encouraging
healthier alternatives might be an effective way to reduce such
potentially destructive behavior.
Future research
This research offered an investigation into the role that preexisting emotions and emotion regulation strategy play in the
Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

consumption process. A wealth of research opportunities exist

for further exploration in this area. Four discrete emotions were
the target of this research, but future studies might explore
whether the ERC phenomenon holds for other commonly
experienced emotions such as anger, disgust, loneliness, and
pride. Additionally, exploring cognitive reappraisal with regard
to other specic emotions also merits attention. Individuals may
reappraise different emotions with varying degrees of facility.
A body of literature has emerged on the emotional
consequences and tradeoffs of indulgences and hedonic
consumption (Luce et al., 2001; Ramanthan and Williams,
2007). Research might examine the ERC phenomenon within
these contexts. More specically, what is the link between
ERC and satisfaction? After consuming or purchasing a
product to manage an emotion, what subsequent emotions
might individuals feel?
In this research, cognitive reappraisal served as a control
strategy that reduced the impact of a negative emotion.
Additional research examining the ERC phenomenon might
investigate whether there are differences with regard to age in
individuals ability to employ emotion regulation strategies
like cognitive reappraisal. Control theories suggest that an
individual may attempt to change some aspect of him or
herself to exercise perceived control over a challenging
situation (Rothbaum et al., 1982). This approach leaves the
external situation unchanged but facilitates coping in some
form. Research has suggested that these control processes
may occur more frequently with age (Heckhausen, 2007).
Future research might examine whether individuals become
more adept at using emotion regulation strategies like
cognitive reappraisal as they grow older.
Finally, as a result of negative emotions or emotional
duress, individuals may fail at self- or self-regulation, even
engaging in consumption of an impulsive nature to achieve
gratication in the short-term (Vohs and Faber, 2002).
Future research might also continue to explore the interplay
between ERC and regulatory depletion (Baumeister, 2002a,b).
This research provides evidence that emotions and the
strategies individuals employ to manage them can greatly
affect consumption. The impacts of this phenomenon
may vary across product categories, individual consumer
characteristics (e.g., gender), and communications or retail
environments. Further examination of emotion and its
immediate inuence on consumption is certainly warranted.

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