Addiction As Consumer Choice ─ Exploring the Cognitive Dimension

A striking characteristic of addictive behavior is the pursuit of immediate reward at the risk of longer-term detrimental outcomes. It is typically accompanied by the expression of a strong desire to cease from or at least control consumption that has such consequences, followed by lapse, further resolution, relapse, and so on. Understood in this way, addiction includes substance abuse as well as behavioral compulsions like excessive gambling or even uncontrollable shopping. Behavioral economics and neurophysiology provide well-worn paths to understanding this behavior and this book regards them as central components of this quest. However, the specific question it seeks to answer is, What part doescognition – the desires we pursue and the beliefs we have about how to accomplish them – play in explaining addictive behavior?

The answer is sought in a methodology that indicates why and where cognitive explanation is necessary, the form it should take, and the outcomes of employing it to understand addiction. It applies the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) of consumer choice, a tried and tested theory of more routine consumption, ranging from everyday product and brand choice, through credit purchasing and environmental despoliation, to the more extreme aspects of consumption represented by compulsion and addiction.

The book will advance debate among behavioral scientists, cognitive psychologists, and other professionals about the nature of economic and social behavior.

Gordon Foxall is Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University where he directs the Consumer Behaviour Analysis Research Group (CBAR). He holds PhDs in industrial economics and business (University of Birmingham) and in psychology (University of Strathclyde), and a higher doctorate (DSocSc), also from the University of Birmingham. He is the author of over 200 refereed papers and about 25 books. A Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS) and of the British Academy of Management (FBAM), he is an Academician of the Academy of Social Science (AcSS). His research interests are in psychological theories of choice and their neuroeconomic underpinnings and in the explanation of consumer choice and the behaviour of the marketing firm. His work on the behavioural economics of consumer choice has inaugurated a new area of research,consumer behaviour analysis, which brings behavioural economics and behavioural psychology to the investigation of consumer and marketer behaviour in the natural settings of contemporary markets