Death, Mortality and Consumer Decision Making: Two Essays

Death, Mortality and Consumer Decision Making: Two Essays Dwayne Scott McGraw ABSTRACT This dissertation presents two essays that address specific aspects of the broad domain of death, mortality and consumer decision making. Essay 1 examines how priming mortality salience (MS) and financial vulnerability (FV) influences insurance policy choices of young, middle aged and senior consumers. Essay 2 investigates how, in funeral planning contexts when consumer may be dealing with significant grief, manipulating choice architecture (via additive vs. subtractive framing of funeral package options) influences the composition and cost of the chosen funeral package. In Essay 1, we use a three-factor design: 2 (MS prime: present/absent) x 2 (FV prime: present/absent) x 3 (Age: Young/Middle-Aged/Senior) to examine how participants evaluate and choose among three hypothetical policies (premium/benefits: low, medium, and high). In a control group (neither prime present), the younger and middle age groups modally select the medium policy whereas the seniors select the high policy. However, the primes affect these choices. When MS alone is primed (FV prime absent), young adults move toward the low policy (assures death benefits at affordable cost). The middle-aged group moves toward the high policy. The seniors remain over-insured with the high policy. When FV is primed, the senior group seems to recognize that their strong financial situation and low obligation levels warrant the medium policy. Interestingly, sensitive to higher financial obligations, the middle-aged tend to buy the high policy. With both MS and FV primed, seniors continue to show affinity toward the medium policy (salience of lower FV tempers the MS effect). Sensitized to their financial situation, younger adults continue to favor the low policy. The middle-aged group remains with the higher policy: both primes have impact. These evaluation data are generally consistent with the choice data. The findings have significant implications for designing life ...