Effect of psychological factors and cognitive factors on consumer behavior

Abstract

The theory of behavioral economics investigates the influence of behavioral and psychological factors on economic decisions. Psychologists and economists of energy consumption have studied the effects of behavior economy on energy consumption and have shown that behavioral factors can have a significant impact on energy consumption patterns. Therefore, consumer behavior as a variable and an interesting category has played a significant role in the behavioral economy and has a special impact on the energy economy. Nowadays, reducing energy consumption to protect the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase economic stability has become one of the most important priorities of policymakers. Thus, countries and governments seek to use various solutions through extensive studies on energy consumption. The effect of consumer behavior has been a main factor in achieving the goal of reducing energy consumption. The trend and path of reducing energy consumption are directly dependent on consumer behavior and consumer’s energy consumption habits. The current study investigates the effect of psychological factors and cognitive factors on consumer behavior and analyzes the mentioned subject with a descriptive survey method. As the findings show, the variable of psychological factors can predict 45% of the changes in the variable of consumer behavior. The variable of cognitive factors can predict 20% of the changes in the variable of consumer behavior.

Keywords: behavioral economics, energy economy, consumer behavior, psychological factors, cognitive factors