Abstract:

The herd behavior acted by consumer is a typical phenomenon in consumption market. It refers to the behavior that consumers follow others’ decisions under the uncertain situation. This research explored the psychological mechanism of herd behavior by simulating situations of consumption. First experiment studied the way of information processing by manipulating the quality of message. The result shows that the herd behavior is on account of consumers using consensus heuristic and competence heuristic. The second experiment tested the condition that two heuristics were applicable. The result shows that when consumers face a high degree of consensus, they would like to use the consensus heuristic; but when consumers face a low degree of consensus, they would like to be in agreement of the competence heuristic.

Key words: consume decision, herd behavior, heuristic

摘要：

羊群行为是消费市场上的一种典型现象，它是指在不确定情境中，消费者模仿他人进行消费决策的行为。本研究通过模拟消费情境对消费者羊群行为的心理机制进行研究。研究1通过操纵观点的强弱研究消费者的信息加工方式。结果发现，消费者的羊群行为是消费者采用一致性启发式或能力启发式的结果。研究2进一步通过操纵群体内部的一致性程度考察两种启发式的作用条件。结果表明，在群体内部一致性程度高的情况下，消费者倾向于采用一致性启发式，与大众决策保持一致；在群体内部一致性低的情况下，消费者倾向于采用能力启发式，与专家的决策保持一致。

关键词: 消费决策, 羊群行为, 启发式