Relational Spending in Funerals: Caring for Others Loved and Lost
通过混合方法研究葬礼规划中的关系性消费动机，发现关爱导向驱动决策，表现为平衡偏好、个人牺牲和花费金额，且为他人规划葬礼时花费更高。
Funeral rituals perform important social functions for families and communities, but little is known about the motives of people planning funerals. Using mixed methods, we examine funeral planning as end‐of‐life relational spending. We identify how relational motives drive and manifest in funeral planning, even when the primary recipient of goods and services is dead. Qualitative interviews with consumers who had planned pre‐COVID funerals ( N = 15) reveal a caring orientation drives funeral decision‐making for loved ones and for self‐planned funerals. Caring practices manifest in three forms: (a) balancing preferences between the planner, deceased, and surviving family; (b) making personal sacrifices; and (c) spending amount (Study 1). Archival funeral contract data ( N = 385) reveal supporting quantitative evidence of caring‐driven funeral spending. Planners spend more on funerals for others and underspend on their own funerals (Study 2). Preregistered experiments ( N = 1,906) addressing selection bias replicate these results and find generalization across different funding sources (planner‐funded, other‐funded, and insurance; Studies 3A–3C). The findings elucidate a ubiquitous, emotional, and financially consequential decision process at the end of life.