The Gamble of Blind Boxes: How Curiosity and Social Value Drive Impulsive Buying and Depression

Tóm tắt

Blind box retail transforms uncertainty into entertainment, yet the very uncertainty that captures attention can also unsettle consumers. Drawing on a stimulus-organism-response lens, this study conceptualises curiosity as the trigger that elevates social value appraisals and, in turn, increases susceptibility to impulsive purchasing, with potential downstream implications for well-being. The model was tested using a cross-sectional survey of 238 Vietnamese blind-box shoppers and analysed through PLS-SEM with validated reflective measures. Curiosity was positively associated with social value and exhibited a direct positive relationship with impulsive purchase; impulsive purchase, in turn, was positively related to depressive affect. Mediation analyses further indicate that curiosity shapes impulsive action both directly and indirectly via social value, extending debates on the welfare implications of probabilistic selling. Theoretically, the findings refine stimulus-organism-response reasoning for uncertainty marketing by specifying curiosity as a design-sensitive lever and social value as a proximal psychological channel through which intrigue is translated into action, extending emerging debates on the welfare consequences of probabilistic selling.