Abstract

This study was intended to investigate the processes of consumer information acquisition by selecting both two promising personality variables (need for cognition and self-monitoring) and usage situations (fashion and working). Consumer information acquisiton processes included the amount of acquired information and the kind of information. The results of the amount of information revealed significant main effects of need for cognition and usage situation and a significant two-way interaction effect between need for cognition and usage situation. In the case of the kind of information, the results showed significant main effects of self-monitoring and usage situation and a significant two-way interaction effect between need for cognition and self-monitoring. The findings of this study suggest strongly that researchers must consider both individual differences and situations in studying consumer behavior.