Universität zu Köln

Wingen, Sophia ORCID: 0000-0001-8734-9026 (2026). Essays in Economic Psychology. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

The economic conditions under which humans work and purchase goods are changing rapidly due to technological developments. Consequently, economic psychology research should investigate factors that shape how individuals accept such changes, the consequences these changes could have for them, and whether they are willing to contribute to the adaptation of these changes themselves. To address this need, the three research projects in this dissertation examine questions in two subdomains of economic psychology: consumer psychology (Projects 1 and 2) and organizational psychology (Project 3). In Project 1, I investigated whether consumers’ self-efficacy motivates them to initially patronize checkout free stores, which are stores in which an AI-enabled system processes checkout and payment autonomously. Three studies with a total of N = 905 participants showed a consistent medium-to-large association between consumer self-efficacy and their initial patronage intentions for checkout-free stores. The second project was co-authored with Erik Hoelzl. In an incentivized laboratory experiment (N = 150), we investigated whether checkout-free shopping leads to prices being perceived as lower and recalled less accurately than in conventional shopping. While we could not show an effect of checkout-free shopping on price perception and price recall for unpurchased products, price recall accuracy decreased for purchased products and for the total spending amount. This effect was mediated by reduced payment transparency in the checkout-free store. Project 3 was co-authored by Thomas Graczyk, Tobias Wingen, and Simone Dohle. We applied dual-pathway models of mindsets to the domain of managerial coaching. We tested whether a growth mindset can simultaneously motivate individuals to coach by increasing outcome expectancies for coaching and demotivate them to coach by increasing blame attributions towards the coachee. In four online studies (total N = 2,295), we demonstrated a consistent positive association between growth mindsets and willingness to coach, which was mediated by increased outcome expectancies. We could not show a demotivating effect of a growth mindset via increased blame attributions. In conclusion, the findings from the three projects included in this dissertation show that consumers are more likely to initially patronize checkout-free stores when they feel high self-efficacy for using them. Further, if they use them, this may reduce their memory for prices. Lastly, individuals feel more motivated to coach if they hold a growth mindset, due to increased outcome expectancies for coaching.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Wingen, Sophia sophia.wingen@fernuni-hagen.de https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8734-9026 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-815645
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Sociology and Social Psychology > Department of Economic and Social Psychology
Subjects:	Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language consumer psychology English checkout-free shopping English organizational psychology English AI-enabled checkouts English mindset English
Date of oral exam:	6 October 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Erik, Hoelzl Prof. Dr. Lea, Ellwardt Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81564