Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced our daily and social lives as well as our consumption patterns. This paper focuses on the relationship between the COVID-19 threat and variety-seeking. Based on several theories, including reactance theory and terror management theory, we predict that the perceived threat of COVID-19 will increase the tendency to choose more and different options in multiple choice settings. Firstly, two empirical studies demonstrate that variety-seeking in food and stationery choices is enhanced as people's perceived threat from the disease increases. Study 3 further suggests the boundary conditions of the above pattern in that the type of decision (i.e., multiple option selections across different brands vs. within the same brand) will moderate the impact of the perceived threat on varietyseeking. Specifically, when the decision involved choice across different brands, participants showed higher variety-seeking under high (vs. low) perceived threat. However, the opposite pattern was true when the decision involved choice within the same brand. This research offers a deeper understanding of how variety-seeking can be changed by the perceived threat of COVID-19.

中文翻译：

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感知到的COVID-19威胁对寻求多样性的影响

摘要COVID-19大流行严重影响了我们的日常生活和社会生活以及我们的消费方式。本文着重研究COVID-19威胁与寻求品种之间的关系。基于包括电抗理论和恐怖管理理论在内的几种理论，我们预测COVID-19的感知威胁将增加在多选设置中选择更多和不同选项的趋势。首先，两项实证研究表明，随着人们对疾病的感知威胁的增加，寻求食物和文具的多样性也得​​到了增强。研究3进一步提出了上述模式的边界条件，因为决策类型（即，不同品牌之间的多个选项选择与同一品牌内的多个选项选择）将减轻感知到的威胁对寻求多样性的影响。具体而言，当决策涉及不同品牌的选择时，参与者在感知到的威胁较高（相对较低）下表现出更高的寻求品种的机会。但是，当决策涉及同一品牌内的选择时，情况恰恰相反。这项研究提供了对COVID-19感知威胁如何改变寻求品种的更深刻理解。