Reconciling Impulsiveness with Self-Control: Explaining Differential Impatience toward Hedonic and Utilitarian Consumption

Intertemporal decisions often involve tradeoffs between certain costs and the timing of consumption or ownership. We argue and empirically demonstrate that, ceteris paribus, consumers are more impatient for hedonic (or luxury) goods than utilitarian (or necessity) goods. However, when making actual purchase decisions involving cost-timing tradeoffs, the effect is reversed and consumers are more willing to bear a cost for faster receipt of a utilitarian good than for a hedonic good. We propose that the “luxury guilt” associated with hedonic goods gives rise to enhanced use of self-control when such purchases are not easily justified. Supporting this interpretation, we observe a more pronounced reversal effect for consumers with high luxury guilt, and find that desire for the good correlates with the timing of utilitarian purchases, but not hedonic purchases. We demonstrate that these effects are eliminated when costs can be justified or guilt is reduced.