Maladaptive consumption: a failure of intensional fluency

Foxall, Gordon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3572-6456 2024. Maladaptive consumption: a failure of intensional fluency. Martin, Ingrid M. and Stewart, David W., eds. Maladaptive Consumer Behavior: Theory Research, and Intervention, Palgrave Studies in Marketing, Organizations and Society, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 271-297. (10.1007/978-3-031-60199-6_10)

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Abstract

Where maladaptive consumption can be depicted as akrasia, it rests on the misalignment of objective and subjective valuations of the outcomes of competing courses of action. It is apparently endemic in economies that operate beyond the subsistence level and especially prevalent in marketing-oriented systems. While most consumers perceive the superiority of a larger or better good over another smaller or lesser one before either becomes available, there is temptation to select the item of lower objective worth when it becomes available. This situation, in which the consumer discounts a superior future in favor of an inferior present, presents a microcosm of choice in which akratic consumers spurn their delayed well-being by settling for instant gratification. Preference reversal based on a temporal realignment of values is linked to the adoption of neurotic beliefs based on fantasizing in lieu of reality-tested proper beliefs. Maladaptive consumption amounts to a failure of intensional fluency in which consumers are incapable of distinguishing rational from a-rational thinking. Overcoming the misalignment of values which describes akratic behavior requires realignment of the propositional attitudes which guide consumers’ actions so that they accurately capture the prevailing contingencies of reward and punishment.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:	9783031601989
Last Modified:	04 Dec 2024 10:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/173528

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