Journal of Consumer Affairs
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Wiley (GB) |
| ISSN | 0022-0078 / 1745-6606 |
| Scopus | 21759 |
| Wikidata | Q6295026 |
| OpenAlex | S189751245 |
| Website | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1745-6606 |
| Total publications | 18 |
| Coverage period | 1997 - 2026 |
| Country | US |
| Language | EN |
| Indexing | Scopus indexed |
| SJR | 1.043 (Q1) |
| SNIP | 1.325 |
| CiteScore | 7.8 |
| Overton policy citations | 1 |
| Female authorship share | 50.9% |
The Journal of Consumer Affairs focuses on consumer behavior, economics, and business. This field is not related to social anthropology or its cognate areas, falling outside the scope of relevant disciplines
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous) · Sociology and Political Science · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Business Law and Ethics · Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing · Consumer Retail Behavior Studies · Customer Service Quality and Loyalty · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Time Will Tell—A Longitudinal Study of Consideration of Future Consequences and Financial Behavior in Young Adults
Young adults need to adopt responsible financial behaviors in order to protect themselves as consumers. While much about the factors that influence financial behavior is known from cross‐sectional and panel studies of mixed samples of younger and older individuals, relatively few studies have focused on young adults and even fewer have applied a longitudinal design. The present study analyzed 862 people 16–28 years old in Croatia at two time poin…
Bank on It
While the experiential learning approach effectively improves financial literacy in developed countries, its applicability in developing countries faces resource constraints. However, expanding banking access in developing countries may enhance traditional financial education programs by enabling the practical application of learned financial concepts. Using a quasi‐experimental design, we examine this hypothesis by evaluating the impact of Pakis…
Designing Eco‐Friendly Message Sidedness for Consumer Happiness
Persuasion‐oriented communication for green products often provokes skepticism about corporate motives, undermining consumers' emotional satisfaction. This study proposes that negative motivational inference triggered by eco‐friendly messages can lead to unfavorable attitudes, reducing emotional well‐being. To address this, the study examines how message sidedness and appeal type shape emotional well‐being. Moreover, by integrating the Persuasion…
“Just Do It?” Not So Fast
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in complex consumer‐facing services, traditional adoption models such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) are increasingly insufficient for capturing the recursive, sociotechnical, emotional, and ethical dynamics of AI–consumer interactions by overlooking a recursive relationship between user and system. These models treat trus…
Reimagining Therapy
Growing numbers of consumers are turning to Generative AI (GenAI) for mental health support, yet the psychological engagement processes underlying consumer–GenAI therapy interactions remain insufficiently understood. This gap limits our ability to explain why consumer experiences diverge, particularly in emotionally sensitive contexts requiring high levels of engagement. To address that, we examine why these experiences vary and what mechanisms c…
Capturing Adults' Familiarity With Financial Fraud
According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $12.8 billion to fraud in 2024, with actual losses estimated to be as high as $196 billion. Research on financial fraud knowledge is scant, limiting development of effective protection tools. Using RAND's American Life Panel, 1,509 respondents (ages 21–90) listed up to five fraud schemes and tactics. We explore respondents' conceptualizations of fraud types through the freelisting techniqu…
Rethinking Emotional Labor
This article offers a commentary on the role of AI‐driven systems in emotional labor and its implications for consumers' well‐being. The central insight is that AI systems can alleviate service providers' emotional burden while providing consistent support, which challenges the notion that only humans can deliver authentic emotional support. However, this poses ethical concerns, such as the absence of true human emotion or the potential to manipu…
How Consumers Evaluate Human, AI , and Hybrid Therapists
As generative artificial intelligence becomes prominent in digital therapy, understanding how consumers evaluate human, AI, and hybrid therapists is increasingly important. Drawing on insights from signaling, construal level, stimulus‐organism‐response, and perceived risk research, this paper examines how therapy delivery mode shapes expected service satisfaction through capabilities‐based, relational‐based, and risk‐based pathways. Across two ex…
Bridging Financial Gaps
This study examines the relationship between disability status and financial satisfaction, a subjective measure of financial well‐being, with particular attention to the moderating role of financial technology (Fintech) among U.S. households. Using data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study, we find that disability is negatively associated with financial satisfaction. However, the relationship between Fintech use and financial well‐be…
Blind Spots in Product Design
Visually impaired individuals represent a sizable segment of the global population but remain underrepresented in consumer research. Existing literature mainly frames visually impaired consumers (VICs) through a vulnerability lens, focusing on shopping barriers and assistive remedies. While valuable insights into retail accessibility and inclusion have emerged, little attention has been given to the product development stage, psychological proces…
Perceived Gift Value and Subjective Well‐Being of Chinese Older Adults
This study examines how perceived gift value (PGV) is associated with subjective well‐being (SWB) among Chinese older adults during traditional festivals, drawing on Zhongyong thinking as a culturally grounded interpretive framework. Using a mixed‐method design, the findings reveal a dual‐pathway process in which PGV is linked to both independent and interdependent self‐concepts, which are in turn related to higher levels of SWB. Although both pa…
Beyond the Drug Label
We investigate how content‐centric regulation obligates pharmaceutical companies to provide material information that includes balanced information about a drug's benefits and risks to consumers. Paradoxically, this regulatory compliant information results in information so complex it leaves a vacuum of easy‐to‐digest and useful consumer information. This research compares company‐provided information regulated by the Food and Drug Administration…
Intergenerational Transmission of Money Attitudes and Financial Wellbeing
Using data from 251 Indian parent–child dyads, we examine whether money attitudes of young adults reflect their parents' money attitudes. We also study whether parental money attitudes have a direct or indirect impact on the financial wellbeing (FWB) of their adult child. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded four distinct money attitudes viz. power‐prestige, retention‐time, distrust, and anxiety. Estimated PLS‐SEM path models indicate that parent…
Aging Gracefully
To be an aging consumer in a youth culture means facing several challenges, including maintaining self‐esteem in the face of negative media portrayals, redefining the meaning of being sexually active, coping with vulnerability, planning for retirement and investing for the final years. Despite tremendous differences and contradictions among aging consumers, many policymakers take a narrow, single‐minded approach to issues of consumer welfare and …
Determinants of Online Privacy Concern and Its Influence on Privacy Protection Behaviors Among Young Adolescents
With Rogers' protection motivation theory as the theoretical framework, this study identified determinants of young adolescents' level of privacy concerns, which, in turn, affects their resultant coping behaviors to protect privacy. Survey data from 144 middle school students revealed that perceived risks of information disclosure increased privacy concerns, whereas perceived benefits offered by information exchange decreased privacy concerns. Su…
The Privacy Paradox
Impelled by the development of technologies that facilitate collection, distribution, storage, and manipulation of personal consumer information, privacy has become a “hot” topic for policy makers. Commercial interests seek to maximize and then leverage the value of consumer information, while, at the same time, consumers voice concerns that their rights and ability to control their personal information in the marketplace are being violated. Howe…
From Research to Policy
There goes in the world a notion that the scholar should be a recluse, a valetudinarian.... As far as this is true of the studious classes, it is not just and wise. Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential.... Without it, thought can never ripen into truth... (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Retail Stores in Poor Urban Neighborhoods
This paper examines several hypotheses about access to different types and sizes of retail establishments by residents of poor and non‐poor urban neighborhoods, using Chicago as a case study. As expected, poor zip code areas in Chicago have fewer and smaller retail outlets overall than nonpoor areas, including fewer supermarkets, banks, and large drug stores. After controlling for purchasing power, poor areas still lack large drug stores but, sur…
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Retail Stores in Poor Urban Neighborhoods
This paper examines several hypotheses about access to different types and sizes of retail establishments by residents of poor and non‐poor urban neighborhoods, using Chicago as a case study. As expected, poor zip code areas in Chicago have fewer and smaller retail outlets overall than nonpoor areas, including fewer supermarkets, banks, and large drug stores. After controlling for purchasing power, poor areas still lack large drug stores but, sur…
From Research to Policy
There goes in the world a notion that the scholar should be a recluse, a valetudinarian.... As far as this is true of the studious classes, it is not just and wise. Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential.... Without it, thought can never ripen into truth... (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
The Privacy Paradox
Impelled by the development of technologies that facilitate collection, distribution, storage, and manipulation of personal consumer information, privacy has become a “hot” topic for policy makers. Commercial interests seek to maximize and then leverage the value of consumer information, while, at the same time, consumers voice concerns that their rights and ability to control their personal information in the marketplace are being violated. Howe…
Determinants of Online Privacy Concern and Its Influence on Privacy Protection Behaviors Among Young Adolescents
With Rogers' protection motivation theory as the theoretical framework, this study identified determinants of young adolescents' level of privacy concerns, which, in turn, affects their resultant coping behaviors to protect privacy. Survey data from 144 middle school students revealed that perceived risks of information disclosure increased privacy concerns, whereas perceived benefits offered by information exchange decreased privacy concerns. Su…
Aging Gracefully
To be an aging consumer in a youth culture means facing several challenges, including maintaining self‐esteem in the face of negative media portrayals, redefining the meaning of being sexually active, coping with vulnerability, planning for retirement and investing for the final years. Despite tremendous differences and contradictions among aging consumers, many policymakers take a narrow, single‐minded approach to issues of consumer welfare and …
Time Will Tell—A Longitudinal Study of Consideration of Future Consequences and Financial Behavior in Young Adults
Young adults need to adopt responsible financial behaviors in order to protect themselves as consumers. While much about the factors that influence financial behavior is known from cross‐sectional and panel studies of mixed samples of younger and older individuals, relatively few studies have focused on young adults and even fewer have applied a longitudinal design. The present study analyzed 862 people 16–28 years old in Croatia at two time poin…
Bank on It
While the experiential learning approach effectively improves financial literacy in developed countries, its applicability in developing countries faces resource constraints. However, expanding banking access in developing countries may enhance traditional financial education programs by enabling the practical application of learned financial concepts. Using a quasi‐experimental design, we examine this hypothesis by evaluating the impact of Pakis…
Designing Eco‐Friendly Message Sidedness for Consumer Happiness
Persuasion‐oriented communication for green products often provokes skepticism about corporate motives, undermining consumers' emotional satisfaction. This study proposes that negative motivational inference triggered by eco‐friendly messages can lead to unfavorable attitudes, reducing emotional well‐being. To address this, the study examines how message sidedness and appeal type shape emotional well‐being. Moreover, by integrating the Persuasion…
“Just Do It?” Not So Fast
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in complex consumer‐facing services, traditional adoption models such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) are increasingly insufficient for capturing the recursive, sociotechnical, emotional, and ethical dynamics of AI–consumer interactions by overlooking a recursive relationship between user and system. These models treat trus…
Reimagining Therapy
Growing numbers of consumers are turning to Generative AI (GenAI) for mental health support, yet the psychological engagement processes underlying consumer–GenAI therapy interactions remain insufficiently understood. This gap limits our ability to explain why consumer experiences diverge, particularly in emotionally sensitive contexts requiring high levels of engagement. To address that, we examine why these experiences vary and what mechanisms c…
Capturing Adults' Familiarity With Financial Fraud
According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $12.8 billion to fraud in 2024, with actual losses estimated to be as high as $196 billion. Research on financial fraud knowledge is scant, limiting development of effective protection tools. Using RAND's American Life Panel, 1,509 respondents (ages 21–90) listed up to five fraud schemes and tactics. We explore respondents' conceptualizations of fraud types through the freelisting techniqu…
Rethinking Emotional Labor
This article offers a commentary on the role of AI‐driven systems in emotional labor and its implications for consumers' well‐being. The central insight is that AI systems can alleviate service providers' emotional burden while providing consistent support, which challenges the notion that only humans can deliver authentic emotional support. However, this poses ethical concerns, such as the absence of true human emotion or the potential to manipu…
How Consumers Evaluate Human, AI , and Hybrid Therapists
As generative artificial intelligence becomes prominent in digital therapy, understanding how consumers evaluate human, AI, and hybrid therapists is increasingly important. Drawing on insights from signaling, construal level, stimulus‐organism‐response, and perceived risk research, this paper examines how therapy delivery mode shapes expected service satisfaction through capabilities‐based, relational‐based, and risk‐based pathways. Across two ex…
Bridging Financial Gaps
This study examines the relationship between disability status and financial satisfaction, a subjective measure of financial well‐being, with particular attention to the moderating role of financial technology (Fintech) among U.S. households. Using data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study, we find that disability is negatively associated with financial satisfaction. However, the relationship between Fintech use and financial well‐be…
Blind Spots in Product Design
Visually impaired individuals represent a sizable segment of the global population but remain underrepresented in consumer research. Existing literature mainly frames visually impaired consumers (VICs) through a vulnerability lens, focusing on shopping barriers and assistive remedies. While valuable insights into retail accessibility and inclusion have emerged, little attention has been given to the product development stage, psychological proces…
Perceived Gift Value and Subjective Well‐Being of Chinese Older Adults
This study examines how perceived gift value (PGV) is associated with subjective well‐being (SWB) among Chinese older adults during traditional festivals, drawing on Zhongyong thinking as a culturally grounded interpretive framework. Using a mixed‐method design, the findings reveal a dual‐pathway process in which PGV is linked to both independent and interdependent self‐concepts, which are in turn related to higher levels of SWB. Although both pa…
Beyond the Drug Label
We investigate how content‐centric regulation obligates pharmaceutical companies to provide material information that includes balanced information about a drug's benefits and risks to consumers. Paradoxically, this regulatory compliant information results in information so complex it leaves a vacuum of easy‐to‐digest and useful consumer information. This research compares company‐provided information regulated by the Food and Drug Administration…
Intergenerational Transmission of Money Attitudes and Financial Wellbeing
Using data from 251 Indian parent–child dyads, we examine whether money attitudes of young adults reflect their parents' money attitudes. We also study whether parental money attitudes have a direct or indirect impact on the financial wellbeing (FWB) of their adult child. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded four distinct money attitudes viz. power‐prestige, retention‐time, distrust, and anxiety. Estimated PLS‐SEM path models indicate that parent…