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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 11, 2025

Using a Virtual Store As a Research Tool to Investigate Consumer In-store Behavior

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Published on: July 24, 2017

When Does Sharing Stigmatize? Saving Money (vs. Seeking Variety) Through Access-Based Consumption.

Yang Jenny Guo¹, Cait Lamberton²

¹Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.

Frontiers in Psychology

|December 6, 2021

Summary

Framing access-based services by affordability can negatively impact financially-constrained consumers. Highlighting variety instead boosts consumption happiness by avoiding self-identity issues.

Keywords:

access-based consumption communications financial constraints happiness resource affordability resource variety

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Published on: January 25, 2018

Area of Science:

Consumer Behavior
Psychology
Marketing

Background:

Access-based services offer alternatives to ownership for financially-constrained individuals.
Communicating the benefits of these services, particularly affordability, may have unintended negative consequences.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of framing access-based consumption benefits (affordability vs. variety) on financially-constrained consumers.
To understand the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects.

Main Methods:

Four experimental studies were conducted to compare the impact of affordability-focused versus variety-focused messaging.
Participants included individuals identified as financially constrained.

Main Results:

Framing access-based consumption in terms of affordability undermined consumer happiness compared to framing it in terms of variety.
Affordability-focused messaging reinforced negative self-perceptions associated with financial constraints.

Conclusions:

Marketing communications for access-based services should emphasize variety over affordability for financially-constrained consumers.
Careful framing is crucial to avoid negatively impacting the self-identity and consumption experience of vulnerable populations.