THE SLEEPY CONSUMER: HOW SLEEPINESS SHAPES CONSUMER PREFERENCES

Author

Manhui JinFollow

Graduation Semester and Year

Summer 2025

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing

Department

Marketing

First Advisor

Narayan Janakiraman

Second Advisor

Zhiyong Yang

Abstract

The two-essay dissertation aims to examine how sleepiness (defined as the subjective feeling of being sleepy), a common yet underexplored consumer state, shapes preferences in two important consumption domains: sensory marketing and sustainability. Essay 1 investigates how feeling sleepy influences consumer preferences for products with warm (vs. cool) sensory appeals. Eight studies (with two additional studies reported in the Web Appendix), demonstrate that consumers experiencing high (vs. low) levels of sleepiness consistently exhibit a stronger preference for warm sensory attributes. The effect is driven by an elevated need for warmth associated with sleepiness. Consistent with the need for warmth logic, when a thermal goal to stay cool is made salient (compared to a control condition wherein it is unchanged), individuals with high sleepiness—but not those with low sleepiness—significantly decrease their preference for warm sensory appeals. In contrast, when a thermal goal to stay warm is made salient (compared to a control condition wherein it is unchanged), individuals with low sleepiness—but not those with high sleepiness—significantly increase their preference for warm sensory appeals. Essay 2 explores the trade-offs consumers make between a product’s environmental-friendliness and its performance strength while feeling sleepy. Across eight studies (one more reported in Web Appendix), I demonstrate from a self-protective lens that sleepiness heightens consumers’ sensitivity to environmental hazards, which in turn increases their preference for green products described with environmentally friendly claims (vs. regular products emphasizing performance superiority). Supporting this mechanism, when environmental hazards sensitivity is contextually suppressed by weakening perceived vulnerability (compared to a control condition wherein perceived vulnerability is unchanged), those with high sleepiness (but not those with low sleepiness) significantly decreases their preference for green products. In contrast, when environmental hazards sensitivity is contextually heightened by strengthening perceived vulnerability (compared to a control condition), consumers with low sleepiness (but not those with high sleepiness) significantly increase their preference for green products. These findings advance theoretical understanding of how feeling sleepy shapes consumer preferences and provide actionable implications for designing consumption environments that align with sleepiness-related needs.

Keywords

Sleep deprivation, Sleepiness, Sensory marketing, Need for warmth, Sustainability liability, Green products

Disciplines

Marketing

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Jin, Manhui, "THE SLEEPY CONSUMER: HOW SLEEPINESS SHAPES CONSUMER PREFERENCES" (2025). Marketing Dissertations. 59.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/marketing_dissertations/59