‘Familiar or risky’: The Asperger syndrome affects exploratory consumer behaviour

The objective of this study is to assess whether Asperger-syndrome characteristics negatively affect exploratory consumer behaviour. The Asperger syndrome is a complex autism syndrome leading to restrictions in people’s (non-)verbal communication, imagination, and acquisition and maintenance of social contacts. Exploratory consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour to discover and to try new products or services.The results show that higher Autism-Spectrum Quotient scores, indicating the Asperger syndrome, lead to lower tendencies for exploratory consumer behaviour, both in general and on six of the seven subscales (repetitive behaviour proneness, innovativeness, risk taking, exploration through shopping, interpersonal communication, and brand switching). Asperger is not a distinct disorder, but many people have a few autism characteristics. This means that these results are relevant for a much larger group than just the people with an Asperger-syndrome diagnosis.