The effect of social interaction on consumer market behaviour

The discipline of economics is considered as a discipline that directly affects social life, both through philosophy and policies. Throughout its development, the traces of the philosophy of individualism are seen in economics, gaining a scientific quality. By excluding the social effects on the individual from the analysis within the methodological framework, the individual is characterized by the concept of homo economicus. However, in order to distribute social benefits more widely, studies on the discovery of relations between society and individuals are increasing day by day. The concept of consumption is also a key concept in the distribution of social benefits, which is the scene of relations between the individual and society. Because in the discipline of economics, which is often defined as a discipline that examines how unlimited needs can be met at an optimal level with scarce resources, the issue of satisfaction of needs occurs with consumption. The social benefit produced by the most efficient use of scarce resources is obtained through the act of consuming. However, for the most optimal distribution of social benefits, the act of consuming must also take place in a free and safe environment. On this occasion, the issue of the safety of messages from the seller to the consumer comes to the fore and gains importance with the emergence of fields such as behavioral economics. In the study, it is aimed to examine the effects of the most common seller-consumer persuasion messages among various consumer groups and to make policy recommendations to make these messages safer. The data were obtained from 484 participants selected by Convenience Sampling in Fatsa district of Ordu. The reliability of the obtained data was measured and then some parametric tests were applied. According to the results, it has been determined that different demographic groups are affected by the persuasive messages at different rates, and they also perceive that they encounter many misleading/directive messages in their daily lives. Based on the results, the centerline of the policy recommendations aimed to be proposed is to develop a number of applications where consumers can verify the messages addressed to them. By this means, consumers will be able to direct their spending more accurately and efficiently, as well as feeling much safer while performing their consumption actions. Keywords: Consumer Behavior, Social Interaction, Persuasion, Safety, Social Benefit, Consumption Decisions