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The effect of sense of power on inaction inertia: From the perspective of endowment effect

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Abstract

Although scholars have identified a few antecedents of inaction inertia, scant attention has been given to the sense of power. Therefore, the present study connects consumers’ sense of power with inaction inertia, and investigates the mechanism underlying the effects of consumers’ sense of power and psychological ownership on inaction inertia from the perspective of endowment effect. Three experiments and one survey were conducted to test our predictions. Studies 1a and 1b found that consumers with low (vs. high) sense of power showed higher inaction inertia, whether state or trait sense of power. Study 2 found that psychological ownership moderated the relationship between sense of power and inaction inertia, and the valuation was an underlying driver of this effect. Furthermore, study 3 revealed the chain mediating role of both valuation and anticipated regret in the impact of sense of power and psychological ownership on inaction inertia. Theoretical and practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.

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Data availability

Data is available upon request.

Notes

  1. Chinese scholars generally agree on this understanding of inaction inertia (e.g., Chen et al., 2021; Cui et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2016; Su et al., 2013).

  2. We first translated all items that were originally in English into Chinese. Discrepancies in the translation were resolved by discussion. To establish semantic equivalence, we then translated the Chinese version back into English and modified it until the authors agreed that the back translation matched the original meaning of the English version.

  3. Following the suggestion of an anonymous reviewer, we run the same analyses without control variables, the finding remained unchanged.

  4. Following the suggestion of an anonymous reviewer, we run the same analyses without control variables, the finding remained unchanged.

  5. Following the suggestion of an anonymous reviewer, we run the same analyses without control variables, the finding remained unchanged.

  6. Following the suggestion of an anonymous reviewer, we run the same analyses without control variables, the finding remained unchanged.

  7. Following the suggestion of an anonymous reviewer, we run the same analyses without control variables, the finding remained unchanged.

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Funding

The present research was supported by the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.71701129).

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Authors

Contributions

Huaiyong Wang designed the research; Siyi Yue analyzed the data and wrote the first draft; all authors made significant suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huaiyong Wang.

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Ethical approval

The study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the author’s university. All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Yue, S., Wang, H. The effect of sense of power on inaction inertia: From the perspective of endowment effect. Curr Psychol 42, 29071–29089 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03983-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03983-2

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