The Effects of Sociocultural Attitudes toward Appearance on Male Consumers' Apparel Buying Behavior and Appearance Management Behavior

외모에 대한 사회문화적 태도가 남성 소비자의 의복구매행동과 외모관리행동에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance on male consumers' apparel buying behavior and appearance management behavior. The subjects were 353 males aged from 40 to 59 years old. The research method was a survey and the questionnaire consisted of sociocultural attitude toward appearance items, apparel buying behaviors items, appearance management behaviors items, and subjects' demographic characteristics items. The data were analyzed by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, factor analysis, cluster analysis, multiple response analysis, ${\chi}2$ test, ANOVA and Duncan's multiple range test. The results were as follows. Three dimensions (appearance importance awareness, slimness importance awareness, internalization) were emerged on sociocultural attitude toward appearance, and subjects were divided into 4 groups(receptive, unreceptive, awareness, and internalized group) by this variable. The 4 groups by sociocultural attitude toward appearance showed many differences on apparel buying behaviors and appearance management behaviors. Receptive and internalized group more importantly regarded fashion trend and store display as apparel buying motives, design and trend as selection criteria, and did shopping to buy clothes more often than awareness and unreceptive group. Receptive and internalized group recognized higher the need for various appearance management behaviors and spent more expense to enhance their appearance than other groups.