Page 45 - IJSA, Vol. 4, No 2, 2021

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2021
рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa

effectively. This study may present online shopping as a coping repertoire of cyberchondriacs. To the best of our
relief from the psychological distress and the fear knowledge, there are currently no specific business
associated with COVID-19 threatening both individual solutions for cyberchondria. Our findings of relationships
psychological wellbeing and public health outcomes. between fear of COVID-19, hedonic shopping
In addition, cyberchondriacs indeed show their motivations, online shopping enjoyment and
motivations toward hedonic shopping experiences. But, cyberchondria shed light on potential interventions that
surprisingly, hedonic shopping motivations appear to need to be verified. Recently, it was argued that the
contribute differently to online shopping enjoyment. cyberchondria, and intention to self-isolate increased
Gratification seeking was found to be the key hedonic intention to make unusual purchases (Laato et al., 2020).
motivation contributing to enjoying online shopping, However, although retail sales increased during the early
whereas in emerging markets such as Tunisia, bargaining stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, an overall decrease
hunting had a negative effect on it. Taking into in the use of recreational services was observed. This
consideration these results, public health communicators change in consumer activity is forcing recreational
and marketers should highlight further the power of services providers to quickly adapt their business to the
shopping in terms of mood repair and stress and health new circumstances. This study proposes using online
anxiety release. However, should carefully observe this shopping as an emotional regulation tool that may reduce
health-related distress that may lead to the adoption of health related anxiety and may increase overall mental
some critical behaviors such as online impulsive well-being. This will then provide some important
shopping behavior. information for businesses and health organisms to tackle
Our study had several strengths. To the best of our these mental health-related issues in response to other
knowledge, it was one of the first studies to investigate similar societal disasters. This will be a call for future
the impact of the cyberchondria on shopping experiences research to investigate the alternative ways to increase
during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is particularly enjoyment and to reach new consumer enchantment as
important, as this study serves as some of the first data this traumatic stress could lead to the development of
about the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 avoidance behaviors or passive lifestyles after the
pandemic. However, our study suffers from some pandemic (Zhang & Ma, 2020).
limitations. The first could be associated with the The cyberchondria led by the COVID-19 pandemic may
convenience sampling method which may limit the be temporary and have less impact on consumers’
generalization of our findings. behavior as these later will be familiarized with the health
Another limitation should be mentioned. The recruitment information overload and with the overall situation. In
procedure may induce some responses’ bias. Being addition, cultural differences and social influence may
limited to online recruitment, particularly from social play a crucial role during this period. An avenue of future
media communities, may limit the validity of our results research could be testing this model in different cultural
to people with a high level of Internet familiarity. As our contexts and extending the research model by including
outcome variables are usually depending on the product social influence forces. Accordingly, scholars are
category, the generalizability of the result is also encouraged to take opportunities to collect empirical data
questionable if we consider some product category on purchasing experiences to further expand our
differences. Testing the proposed cyberchondria model knowledge on consumers’ behavior during catastrophic
in a specific domain will surely offer more reliable situations.
results.
In addition to the method, the timing also may create Conclusions
some problems in interpretations and managerial The consequences measured in the current work were
recommendations. This study was conducted during a pic some among other effects of mental health on consumers’
of virus spread and a total panic was recorded during the shopping attitudes. Mental wellbeing still faces
data collection period. It would be interesting to examine considerable challenges, taking into consideration the
the cyberchondria after the storm to evaluate how far the long-term drawbacks of the current pandemic. It is more
consequences are persisting. It would be beneficial to than necessary to promote social acceptability and to
conduct further longitudinal research into the afford a digital context in which cyberchondriacs may
psychological and cognitive impact of cyberchondria as have an anxiety relief context.
it continues to persist, as well as its consequences on the
shopping experience. Our cross-sectional study needs to Ethical Approval
be completed by experimental methods that would be The study protocol was consistent with the ethical
advantageous to test the proposed causality relations. guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as
Furthermore, the survey responses were self-reported reflected in a prior approval by the Institution’s Human
data. Thus, empirical observations and data from Research Committee.
recreational services providers could be used to support
these findings. Funding Source
Another priority for future research should be to clarify This research did not receive any outside funding or
the relationships between cyberchondria and other support.
coping strategies adopted to reduce distress or seek
reassurance. This will improve our understanding of the

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