Making Decisions for Other People: the Moderating Roles of Risky Information, Health Claims and Product Involvement

People tend to incorporate more variety seeking when they make purchasing decisions for others rather than for themselves because such behavior is perceived as a socially agreeable behavior. Building upon previous research, the present research seek to explore the underlying mechanisms and factors on the relationship between self-other difference and variety-seeking tendency. Risky information, health claims and consumer product involvement are used to examine the moderating effects on this relationship. The results indicate that people demonstrate less variety seeking in the presence of risky information than in the absence of risky information when purchasing products for themselves, while their variety-seeking behavior remains similar regardless of whether products have risky information when selecting products for others. In addition, people demonstrate more variety seeking in the presence of health claims than in the absence of health claims when purchasing products for themselves, while people tend to demonstrate less variety seeking in the presence of health claims than in the absence of health claims when selecting products for others. Moreover, people with high product involvement tend to demonstrate more variety seeking than do those with low involvement when selecting products for themselves, while they demonstrate similar variety seeking regardless of whether they have low or high involvement when purchasing products for others. Finally, the academic and practical implications are addressed.