Leiden University Student Repository

Bekker, Kevin 2022

Influence of auditory distraction on purchasing behavior in an online shopping environment

Bachelor thesis | Psychologie (BSc)

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Distraction has been shown to increase the time people spend in a physical store as well as the amount of purchases people make in a physical store. However, many people shop online, and the online...Show moreDistraction has been shown to increase the time people spend in a physical store as well as the amount of purchases people make in a physical store. However, many people shop online, and the online market seems to be growing. The current research investigated if the findings of earlier research of distraction in a physical store are replicable to an online shopping environment. It was tested if distraction would increase the amount of time people spend, and amount of purchases people make in an online shopping environment. Participants were asked to perform a shopping task in an artificial webshop, and they were split into two groups. One group was distracted by an audio fragment while performing the shopping task, and the other group was not distracted. The amount of time that participants spend in the webshop, and the amount of purchases that participants made were measured. Although the distraction manipulation, as measured by self-report, seemed to be effective, no significant differences in amount of purchases and time spend in the webshop was found between the groups. These findings suggest a different effect of distraction in online shopping environments compared to shopping in a physical stores. This effect could be explained by the different ways people navigate through a physical store compared to a webshop.Show less