Abstract:

It is seen that psychological factors are effective on consumer behavior, which is the subject of economics. These psychological factors, which affect the purchasing decision processes of consumers, have created a new field in economics. The relationship between economics and psychology laid the groundwork for examining the branches of social sciences together. This new perspective is conceptualized as behavioral economics. Behavioral economics provides to make sense of the behaviors of individuals in economic life and to reveal the unexplained parts with their real reasons. Purpose- It is aimed to explain the consumption trends of married and single consumers living in Kocaeli. Methodology/Approach/Design- In this study, a questionnaire was applied. The survey questions were prepared by considering the consumption habits of married and single consumers with literature reviews. Findings-. Behavioral economics, which emerged as a new field with the investigation of the effect of psychological factors on consumer behavior, enabled the rigid stance of the mainstream economic understanding to become flexible. While making consumption decisions of consumers, their marital status is effective on these decisions. It is seen that while single consumers display a rational attitude towards a consumption tendency, married consumers display a different attitude towards the same consumption tendency. On the contrary, it is determined that while single consumers behave irrationally in a consumption decision, married consumers can exhibit rational behavior.

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