Work

Weather, temperature, and variety-seeking: When arousal turns environment into choice

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Drawing on a large-scale transactional dataset from a leading Chinese watch retailer and a complementary survey, this study demonstrates that weather and temperature systematically influence consumers' variety-seeking behavior through arousal-based mechanisms. Specifically, relative to cloudy conditions, sunny weather elevates arousal and enhances variety-seeking, whereas rainy weather suppresses arousal and reduces variety-seeking. Temperature exhibits a U-shaped relationship with variety-seeking: consumers’ tendency to diversify their choices is lowest around 23 °C and rises at both higher and lower temperatures, consistent with heightened arousal responses. Moreover, these effects are more pronounced in online contexts and weaker in offline settings. The U-shaped temperature pattern remains robust across different weather conditions, although the curvature and turning points vary. Collectively, the findings advance understanding of variety-seeking behavior and arousal theory, while offering actionable insights for weather-responsive marketing strategies.

Source: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104590

Authors: Jiarui Sui, Jianhao Hu, Xuan Zhang, Wanyue Li

Institutions: Shandong University, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Language: English

Topic: Consumer Retail Behavior Studies

Subfield: Marketing

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,510

Funders: Shandong University, Department of Education of Hebei Province, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, Hebei University of Technology