Self-concept related explanations of happiness in social experiential settings

Abstract

It is not always the consumer’s choice whether or not to share the servicescapes with friends or family or with totally stranger consumers. Therefore, any insight into these situations and possible variables that affect the happiness garnered from these experiential settings is worth being introduced into the evolving literature. This research investigated how consumers’ derived happiness levels from paid experiences like coffeehouses differ according to the social structure and the self-concept of the consumer. Through a series of (five online and one field) experimental studies, it is first reasserted that individuals garner more happiness from social experiences than solitary experiences and reserve more money and time for them. In addition, when the distinction of friends versus strangers is made in the collective experience situation, individuals’ cultural construals come into play and the autonomous-related self challenges the assumption that all individuals garner more happiness from experiences with friends than with strangers. In the remainder of the thesis, it is demonstrated that the clarity of the selfconcept also plays an important role in determining the differential happiness of social experiences with friends versus strangers. The studies successfully ruled out alternative self-related variables like self-esteem and self-efficacy as potential drivers of this effect and voyeuristic experiences like theaters or concerts are introduced as boundary conditions of this effect.