Consumption-Related Affect and Consumer Well-Being

This chapter reviews the relationships between consumption-related affect and consumer well-being. Given the inherently psychological nature of both concepts under consideration, our review deliberately focuses on the consumer psychology literature, with a particular emphasis on the affect-dominant dimension of well-being, namely psychological well-being. After addressing the conceptual confusion that often exists in both well-being and affect literature, we explore how positive and negative affect (such as happiness, nostalgia, regret, guilt, rumination, and shame) are involved in the consumer decision-making process and how they relate to consumer well-being through specific affect-regulation mechanisms. We also highlight how the notion of consumer well-being seems to be torn between a kind of permanent race to happiness, as promoted by positive psychology, and a cocktail of negative emotions that come into play at various stages of the consumer decision-making process, which are considered integral to the affective risks associated with the consumption experience. Accordingly, this chapter is organized around six themes: psychological well-being, the conceptualization of consumer affect, the relationship between these two concepts, the dual (positive and negative) approaches to consumer well-being, and policy recommendations to improve consumer well-being.