Familiar or Risky

1. FamiliarorRisky How the Asperger syndrome affects exploratory consumer behaviour and impulse buying. Tjerk H. Baas & W. Fred van Raaij

2. Introduction • Asperger syndrome • Definition: “Asperger Syndrome is one of several Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) characterized by difficulties in social interaction and by restricted, stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities. AS is distinguished from the other ASDs in having no general delay in language or cognitive development” (McPartland & Klin, 2006).

4. Introduction • Exploratory Tendency Behavior • Definition: “behaviour with the goal to change environmental stimuli” (Raju, 1980) • Dependent on the Optimum LevelofStimulation (OLS). • “a characteristic of an individual in terms of his/her general response to environmental stimuli” (Raju, 1980)

5. Introduction • Impulse Buying Tendency • Definition: “the tendency of a person to do unplanned, immediate and thoughtless purchases” (Weun, Jones, and Beatty, 1997).

6. Hypotheses • H1 : Persons with many autism characteristics show less exploratory behaviour than people with few autism characteristics. • H2 : People with many autism characteristics show a lower tendency for impulsive purchases than people with few autism characteristics.

7. Figure 1 & 2. Expected relations betweenAutism-spectrumQuotient (AQ) score and Exploratorybehaviour (1) / Impulsebuyingtendency (2)

8. Method • Operationalisation • Explorative Consumer Behavior  Exploration Tendency in Consumer Behavior Scales [ETCBS] (Raju, 1980). 39 items. • Impulse Buying Tendency  Impulse Behaviour Tendency scale [IBT] (Weun, Jones, Beatty, 1997) 5 items. • Autistic traits  Autism-spectrum Quotient [AQ] scale (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001)

9. Method • Sample • 93 participants

10. Method • Sample • People with AS contacted by advertisements on internet sites of associations for autism and on e-mail circles and newsletters.

11. Method • Data collection & materials • Survey questionnaire with ETCBS (Raju, 1980), IBT (Weun, Jones, & Beatty, 1997) and AQ (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), translated into Dutch. • Further socio-demographic items were asked: gender, age and level of education. • Printed and internet versions of the questionnaire.

12. Results of scale analysis • Discriminant Function Coefficients _______________________________________________ AQ Total 0.906 Gender (male=1) 0.115 Age 0.269 Education –0.491 _______________________________________________ Table 1. Explanation of Diagnosis AS with standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients (two-group multiple discriminant analysis) Canonical correlation is 0.81

13. Results multiple regression Analysis Beta t sig. _________________________________________________________ AQ Total –0.556 –5.20 .000 Gender male –0.039 –0.41 .681 Age –0.077 –0.73 .468 Education 0.090 –0.96 .342 _________________________________________________________ Table 1. Explanation of Exploratory Tendency in Consumer Behavior Scales (ETCBS) (Raju, 1980) (adjusted R² = 0.328)

14. Results multiple regression Analysis Beta t sig. ____________________________________________________ AQ Total –0.205 –1.92 .059 Gender male –0.161 –1.67 .098 Age –0.238 –2.27 .026 Education –0.385 –4.03 .000 ____________________________________________________ Table 2. Explanation of Impulse Behavior Tendency (Weun, Jones, & Beatty, 1997) (adjusted R² = 0.256)

15. Conclusions • Results of regression analyses support the first hypothesis (on exploratory behaviour). Marginal significance for the second hypothesis (on impulse buying). • A higher AQ score leads to less exploratory behaviour and less impulse buying behaviour. • Generalisability: There are probably many more people in the population with few autistic characteristics. • Research may be done on the direct relationship between autistic characteristics and OLS. • Available time for the acquisition of information is probably an important factor.