CHILDRENS CONSUMER-BEHAVIOR IN A STORE WITH UNATTRACTIVE MERCHANDISE - THE CAVEAT-EMPTORIUM

Eight- to ten-year-old children received $4.00 and were allowed to sho p in an experimental store. Half received the money as payment for wor k while the remainder received it as a present. In an orthogonal manip ulation, for half the children the store contained attractive merchand ise while for the remainder the merchandise was unattractive. In addit ion, mothers responded to some questions about their children's econom ic socialization. We examined the effects of work condition, store con dition, gender, and several variables derived from mothers' responses on amount of money spent in the store. Based on the results of earlier research, we predicted that children who received an allowance at hom e (vs. those who did not) would be ''better'' consumers, i.e., less li kely to spend on unattractive merchandise. These results were found an d were interpreted in terms of trust and expectations of responsibilit y communicated by the giving of allowance and their effects on economi c socialization.