Cognitive dissonance shaping consumer behaviour within Generation Z: a case of the Indian healthcare industry

This thesis integrates two cognitive dissonance concepts in a pre-decisional context: (i) Festinger’s, 1957’s initial understanding of cognitive elements as drivers arousing dissonance and dissonance becoming a motivator for behaviour; (ii) the premise of the action-based model of dissonance developed by Harmon-Jones in 1999 including the notion that cognitive elements arousing dissonance, already stem from a goal-oriented place due to brain and mind developments among generations to understand the cognitive underpinning of the shift from mainstream to complementary alternative medicine currently happening worldwide. Given that a cognitive heuristic element can be anything from inner knowledge to self-beliefs etc.), to enhance specificity for this thesis, latent needs have been chosen as the focus of cognitive drivers. Specifically, the literature in this study has delineated theoretically and conceptually that a latent need as a cognitive heuristic element is capable of arousing pre-decisional dissonance. This is because latent needs in this study have been exemplified as arousing from the pre-reflexive self-awareness state in an individual, which is the arena from which cognitive elements as drivers operate. Thus, this thesis becomes the first to establish a typology of pre-decisional cognitive dissonance states in a highly cognitive and reflexive cohort as generation Z. Moreover, to establish that pre-decisional cognitive dissonance states affect information processing and guide the individual from the need recognition stage of consumer decision-making which has been underexplored in academic literature.
After an extensive integrative literature review wherein cognitive dissonance theory’s evolution and studies were scrutinised and gaps/omitted themes delineated chronologically from 1957 till 2022, the conceptual standing was cogently established. Following this establishment, the neurological and behavioural presence within the cohort in question, Zers, was explicated. Post the conceptual delineation, qualitative data were collected to achieve the objectives set out and to answer this thesis's research questions. The data constitutes 35 Generation Z members using semi-structured interviews. For this thesis, the context chosen was first India as demography, and within that – healthcare as a sector. This demography was because the largest Zers population in India is currently surpassing China, and there has been no study on this specific context and theory. Second, the generalisability and application can be more far-reaching from demography with the maximum Zoomer population, along with the insights gained from a complex setting such as healthcare. Third, there is currently a significant shift from mainstream to alternative medicine the world over, so the generalisability will increase manifold by detailing the cause of the shift of a substantial section of the cohort. The sampling technique to recruit the participants was purposive sampling. Every participant was weighed upon this study's specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. After data collection, the data was analysed via the thematic analysis approach. Following this, the data was interpreted alongside critically reviewed literature to bring out novel conceptual understandings aligned with the objectives and questions.
The findings from this study indicate that four main categories of latent needs perform the role of cognitive heuristic elements within generation Z members. From the data, these latent needs are observed to arouse pre-decisional action-based cognitive dissonance within Zers.
Resulting from the data analysis, this thesis has addressed the following research gaps theoretically and practically. First established pre-decisional cognitive dissonance states. Second, established latent needs as a cognitive heuristic element that arouse pre-decisional action-based cognitive dissonance enforcing in selective exposure due to affect-regulation of the ACC mechanism prevailing within Zers. Thus, the thesis has delineated and developed a novel data-driven consumer decision-making process for the new-age digital native consumer, to name a few. Practically speaking, this study enables an in-depth understanding of a new-age cohort and their cognitions and motivations, understanding how and why they will upend various market sectors. Second, what sort of content marketing should be undertaken for Zers and their successors-gen Alpha. Third, what should allopathic healthcare providers consider appealing to, and how concerning this cohort; one that is refraining from partaking in their treatments.