The scale you completed was the Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence Scale, developed by William O. Bearden, Richard G. Netemeyer, and Jesse E. Teel (1990).

The scale measures your susceptibility to the influence of others when shopping.

This scale consists of two subscales:
  • Valuing Information
    • This measures the extent to which you want to gather product information from others before making your purchase. If your score is high, you’re likely to seek out expert advice.

  • Valuing others' Opinions
    • This measures the extent to which you value others' opinions when shopping. If your score is high, you will likely to worry about what others will think of your purchases or copy the purchases of people you admire.
The graph below shows shows the extent to which you value information (the first green bar) and the extent to which you value others' opinions (the second green bar) when shopping. The shopping values of less-happy people are shown in red bars, and the shopping values of happy people are shown in blue bars.





As the graph above shows, happier people are less worried about what others will think of their purchases.

Why is shopping susceptibility important for well-being? It shouldn’t hurt you to seek advice in order to make a purchase most beneficial to yourself. However, decades of research on shopping motivation show it’s a bad idea to hope others will like you better if you buy X, Y, and Z. They won’t.

What else should I know? Below are the influences on yours susceptibility:
  • Economic Status
    • People who are better-off financially are actually more susceptible to the influence of others because they have resources to chose between a variety of products - they seek out information. They have resources to signal status - they're more likely to act upon concerns about what others think.
  • Values
    • If your values are external or internal interpersonal (meaning you are more concerned with your situation and interaction with other people rather than your own feelings), then you are likely to be more susceptible to the normative influence of others as a consumer. In contrast, if your values are more internal, you are less susceptible.
  • Social Identity
    • Another influence on your likelihood of being influenced is the complexity of your social identity - the more social groups you identity with, the more complex your social identity is and the lower your susceptibility. With more diversity of tastes and opinions, you are more likely to listen to yourself instead of others and attempt to fit in with one particular group.
If you liked this survey, you might like our Material Values Questionnaire.

Do you have ideas on improving this study? Or did you encounter any difficulties in answering the questions? Click here to send a message to the creators of this study.



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