Consumer Behavior and Economic Decisions

Consumer behavior is one of the most prominent fields of research, development, and application of economic decision theories. These are decisions about the use of scarce resources, such as money, time, or effort, and they are subject to many influences - economic decisions in general and consumer decisions in particular rarely follow the normative rational choice model. This collection presents empirical papers on consumer behavior and economic decisions that include the accuracy of consumer perception of prices and price increases, the perception and acceptance of foreign products, imagery processes and spending, emotions and purchase decisions, financial satisfaction and saving behavior, and financial management in the private household. All contributions demonstrate the wide range of perspectives and theoretical frameworks that can be brought to this applied field of research at the intersection of psychology and economics, and they provide future directions for theory development and practical applications, such as marketing, consumer counselling, or policy.

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of Psychology, originally founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007, it is published in English and devoted to topical issues that provide state-of-the-art overviews of current research in psychology.

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of Psychology publishes high-quality research from all branches of empirical psychology that is clearly of international interest and relevance, and does so in four topical issues per year. Each topical issue is carefully compiled by guest editors and generally features one broad Review Article accompanied by Original Articles from leading researchers as well as additional shorter contributions such as Research Spotlights (presenting details of individual studies or summaries of particularly interesting work in progress), Horizons (summarizing important recent or future meetings or outlining future directions of work), and Opinion pieces that provide a platform for both established and alternative views on aspects of the issue's topic. The guest editors and the editorial team are assisted by an experienced international editorial board and external reviewers to ensure that the journal's strict peer-review process is in keeping with its long and honorable tradition of publishing only the best of psychological science. The subjects being covered are determined by the editorial team after consultation within the scientific community, thus ensuring topicality. The Zeitschrift für Psychologie / Journal of Psychology thus brings convenient, cutting-edge compilations of the best of modern psychological science, each covering an area of current interest.