Atmospheric excitement, customers’ moods and gender: A study of young shoppers

This paper aims to demonstrate how both incidental moods and gender can moderate the relationship between the level of excitement triggered by a mall environment and shopping behaviour. Our method is based on a 4 × 2 between subjects experiment with a final sample of 377 Spanish undergraduates. The study analyses four incidental moods that differ in the dimensions of valence and arousal, and their interaction effects with two atmospheric scenarios in a mall (exciting versus non-exciting atmospheres). Our findings support mood regulation theory for positive low-arousal individuals, and reject this theory for the rest of mood conditions. Additionally, arousal reduces customers’ cognitive capabilities, confirming previous research. This means that high-arousal shoppers are not influenced by a mall environment. Finally, gender differences are only found within more frequent shoppers and for negative low-arousal (NLA) shoppers. Managerial implications are provided regarding the creation of relaxing areas or the stimulation of shoppers