The 2025 Hong Kong Consumer Behavior Newcomer Symposium, focusing on “The Frontier of Consumer Research,” was successfully held on December 4. The event served as a dynamic platform for early-career scholars and graduate students from across the region to foster collaboration and exchange knowledge on the latest developments in consumer behavior and marketing research.
The event opened with welcome remarks by Prof. Yuwei Jiang from PolyU. The full-day program covered cutting-edge topics, including price promotion framing, information disclosure, shared payment paths, ingredient quantity framing, prosocial behavior and financial risk-taking, household decision-making preferences, and mysterious consumption. Scholars from PolyU, HKU, HKUST, CUHK, and CityU shared recent empirical findings and theoretical advances, highlighting multi-dimensional progress in psychological mechanisms, decision processes, and market practice.
Speakers & Topics:
The sessions covered a diverse array of topics, ranging from pricing psychology to household dynamics.
Shangwen Yi (PolyU) opened discussions with an examination of "process amplifier effects" in promotions, revealing how implicitly partitioned percentage framing can boost purchase intentions for high-relevance products.
Jiaqi Yu (Assistant Professor, HKU) showed that the mere presence of a quantified attribute—rather than the level it conveys—can strongly shape consumer judgments, indicating that asymmetric information disclosure may, in certain contexts, hinder quality assessment.
Social dynamics in consumption were also a key focus.
Han Jung (Assistant Professor, HKUST) reported that indirect payment in shared expenses (one consumer pays in full and others reimburse) increases purchase satisfaction by creating and resolving a temporary sense of indebtedness, a robust effect across multiple preregistered studies.
Vincentia Yuen (Assistant Professor, CityU) found that engaging in prosocial acts elevates perceived deservingness, which in turn increases subsequent financial risk-taking; the effect strengthens with higher karmic beliefs and weakens when low deservingness is primed.
Other presentations delved into product perception and domestic decisions.
Michelle Kim (Assistant Professor, CUHK) demonstrated that “fewer ingredients” often signal “more natural” when processing information is unavailable, thereby influencing food choices; however, preferences can shift toward “more ingredients” when indulgence or uniqueness goals become salient.
Tess Kwon (Assistant Professor, HKU) identified an asymmetry in household decision preferences: consumers are more likely to opt for joint (vs. solo) decision-making with partners during disposal than acquisition, driven by concerns over rights infringement and valuation clarity—offering explanations for disposal delays and over-accumulation.
Eva Buechel (Assistant Professor, HKUST) analyzed the “mysterious consumption” phenomenon, showing that anticipated surprise can backfire at reveal due to wishful thinking and hedonic contrast, unless such expectations are constrained or outcomes are exceptionally desirable.
This symposium reflects PolyU’s commitment to open collaboration and innovation in marketing and consumer research.
