Decision-Making Styles Shaping College Students' Sports and Health Consumption Preferences: Behavioral and
Gang Ma1, Shengyue Wang1, Jialin Fu1
1College of Economics and Management, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|July 28, 2026
Summary
College students’ decision-making styles influence sports and health consumption. Maximizers prefer discounts, while satisficers favor public welfare, impacting brain activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Consumer Psychology
- Sports Science
Background:
- Understanding decision-making styles is crucial for consumer behavior.
- College students' preferences in sports and health consumption are influenced by various factors.
- Cognitive neural mechanisms underlying consumer choices remain an active area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how decision-making styles (maximizers vs. satisficers) affect college students' sports and health consumption preferences.
- To explore the underlying cognitive neural mechanisms using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
- To examine brain activation patterns under different promotional conditions (no promotion, discount, public welfare).
Main Methods:
- A within-subjects design involving 39 college students.
- Behavioral experiments measuring consumption preferences.
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess brain activation in the prefrontal cortex.
Main Results:
- Public welfare promotions were most preferred, followed by discounts, then no promotion.
- Maximizers favored discount promotions, while satisficers preferred public welfare promotions.
- Different promotional strategies elicited distinct patterns of activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, correlating with decision-making styles.
Conclusions:
- Decision-making styles significantly shape sports and health consumption preferences through information processing depth and neural activation.
- Maximizers engage in rational calculation, while satisficers rely on intuitive experience.
- Findings support precision marketing strategies and the national fitness program.
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