The Sleepy Consumer and Variety Seeking

Abstract

Sleepiness, the subjective feeling of the propensity to fall asleep, is a common, everyday experience that can be induced by various factors, such as sleep quality, sleep deprivation, ingestion of certain substances, or belief about how much sleep a person needs. Despite its prevalence, sleepiness and its influence on consumption behavior have rarely been linked in the research to date. The present research helps fill this void by uncovering the novel impact of sleepiness on consumer variety-seeking behavior. The studies, using various methods and all involving consequential choices, revealed that sleepier consumers tended to seek more variety. The driver of this effect was found to be a need for arousal to maintain wakefulness. The authors also show that variety-seeking behavior is effective in partially reducing sleepiness. The effect of sleepiness on variety seeking uncovered in this research is somewhat nonintuitive, in the sense that, a priori, one might expect sleepiness to be more likely to decrease rather than increase exploratory behavior. The authors discuss implications of the findings for different research areas and for marketing practice.