A research article on the role of emotional intelligence on consumer ethical behaviors

Emotional intelligence, which allows individual and social awareness and expression of emotions, has a great importance in many areas of life. Emotional intelligence playing an active role in consumer evaluations and preferences acts in parallel with ethical phenomenon and its conclusions are based on ethical rules. In terms of consumers in the society lived, emotional intelligence plays an active role in developing decision-making behaviors of consumers and taking ethical rules into consideration when making decisions. Alternative evaluation and selection of consumers depends on the use of emotional intelligence and acting based on ethical rules when making decisions affecting both himself and other individuals. While this emotional intelligence was discussed within the concept of emotion and intelligence in the study, it was tried to evaluate concepts of ethics and consumer ethics together. In the application part, the data obtained by survey method about effects of emotional intelligence on consumer ethical behavior were added to the study by analyzing. A total of 400 participants over the age of 18, who live in Ankara and work in different sectors were included in the study. A survey was applied to participants between January and March 2019. The first part of the survey used in the study consisted of 35 questions determining the level of emotional intelligence. In the second part, there were 21 questions determining the ethical behavior of consumers. In the third part, there was demographic information with a total of 6 questions. Participation levels of participants in judgments related to emotional intelligence and consumer ethical behavior were measured with a 5-point Likert scale (5 = fully agree, 1 = strongly disagree). SPSS 22 package statistics program was used for data analysis and AMOS 23 program was used for confirmatory factor analysis. When the findings obtained in the application part of the study are examined, it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence dimensions and consumer ethical behaviors. Based on this result, it can be said that emotional intelligence has an impact on consumer behavior within ethical values. In this study, it has been observed that emotions, one of the basic characteristics that distinguish human beings from other creatures, become more functional by combining intelligence and make a positive contribution on the ethical approach structure in consumption. Keywords: emotional intelligence, consumer ethics, consumer behavior