Self-threat refers to the negative psychologi cal state which is evoked by the experience of the discrepancy between an actual-self and an idealself or ought-self when certain information or situations suggest they have deficiencies in certain self-domains.The effects of self-threat on consumer behavior are complex,which stems from the following three aspects.First,the sources of self-threat are diverse.Consumers are likely to experience various sources of self-threat in daily life,such as competence being doubted by others,suffering social exclusion,feeling lack of attractiveness,etc.Second,consumers' reactions to self-threat are diverse.For example,they are may engaged in problem solving by consuming selfimprovement products,they may distract attentions and release themselves from the threats through hedonic and indulgent consumption,and they may also compensate for their damaged self-image by conspicuous consumption.Finally,the theories explaining consumer behavior under self-threat situations are also diverse,such as symbolic self-completion theory,selfaffirmation theory,coping tactics theory,defense mechanism theory,etc.In view of the above,it is necessary and valuable to explore and integrate the theories in this research area through literature review and and empiri cal studies.

The first seven chapters of this book concern theoreti cal research.The first chapter introduces the research background and research value of this book.The second chapter introduces the theoreti cal basis of studying selfthreat in the consumer behavior area and summarizes two perspectives on the study of how self-threat influences consumer behavior,namely,the perspective of studying the common effects of different threats and that of studying the specific effects of different threats.The third chapter takes the four research areas of social exclusion,mortality salient,powerlessness,and life pressure as examples to explain how studies are conducted from the perspective of specific effects.Studies undertaken from this perspective mainly explore the specific effects of each type of threat on consumer behavior based on the characteristics and specific theories of the given threat.The fourth chapter focuses on introducing the logic and contents of research from the perspective of common effects.In this chapter,the theories and methodology applied in this research perspective are reviewed,and four types of consumption are summarized as reactions to self-threats and four factors are identified that moderate consumers' choices between these consumption types.The consequences of such consumption types are also discussed.In the fifth chapter,we elaborate how to study consumer behavior under self-threat based on coping tactics theory.We also choose two types of products as typi cal representatives of consumers' preferences when they use different coping tactics.More specifi cally,problem-focused coping tactics will promote consumers' preferences for self-improvement products,while emotion-focused coping tactics will promote consumers' preferences for hedonic products.In the sixth chapter,we propose the concept of defensive consumption tendency,which refers to consumers' tendency to reject products that claim to improve their current deficiencies.We then elaborate the psychologi cal logic underlying defensive consumption based on the defensive mechanism theory.In the seventh chapter,we review the conceptual development and theories of perceived control as well as its impact on consumer behavior.

The last three chapters of this book are empiri cal studies.In the eighth chapter,we examine the effect of perceived control on consumers' products preferences under self-threat situations through four experiments.Chapter 9 reports four experiments conducted to check the effect of perceived control on consumers' defensive consumption tendency under self-threat situations.Finally,in Chapter 10,we discuss the theoreti cal contributions and practi cal implications of these empiri cal studies.

Key words: Self-threat; Consumer behavior; Perceived control;Coping tactics;Defense mechanism