Abstract

This study explores the impact of social crowding on color saturation preference and its internal psychological mechanism. In three studies (333 subjects), two different stimuli are used to manipulate the level of social crowding to probe into individuals' preference for product color saturation in socially crowded settings. The findings reveal that in socially crowded environments, individuals prefer products with low color saturation, where threat to freedom and the need to avoid have mediating effects. That is, in socially crowded settings, individuals’ perceived threats to freedom are enhanced, which makes them more inclined to choose products with low color saturation to express their need to avoid and deal with the threats. This paper combines social crowding with product color saturation preference, enriches the research on social crowding and color marketing, and improves the theoretical system of social crowding theory. This study also provides insights of product package color strategies, and can help brands formulate more accurate color marketing strategies according to the environment of product sales channels.

Key words: Social crowding, color saturation, threat to freedom, avoidance behavior, consumers' preference.