THE ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMER
ATTACHMENT IN DIGITAL MARKETS

Avika Rajput

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.030

Title: THE ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMER ATTACHMENT IN DIGITAL MARKETS
Authors: Avika Rajput
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 7 Publication Date: July 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.030
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Avika Rajput Vanasthali Public School
MLA 8 Rajput, Avika. "THE ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMER ATTACHMENT IN DIGITAL MARKETS." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 7, July 2026, pp. 3313-3326, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.030. Accessed July 2026. APA 6 Rajput, A. (2026, July). THE ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMER ATTACHMENT IN DIGITAL MARKETS. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(7), 3313-3326. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.030 Chicago Rajput, Avika. "THE ECONOMICS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMER ATTACHMENT IN DIGITAL MARKETS." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 7 (July 2026), 3313-3326. Accessed July, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.030.
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ABSTRACT: Over the past three decades, the global economy has shifted from physical transactions to digital ecosystems where value, identity, and status are increasingly constructed online. This study examines five interconnected phenomena defining modern consumer behavior: virtual economies, publisher monopoly in esports, invisible switching costs, prestige through inaccessibility, and brand nostalgia. Despite rich scholarship in each area, critical gaps remain—cross-platform asset portability, publisher discretion as informal governance, algorithmic lock-in, digital-native luxury brands, and nostalgia arbitrage—while no study has examined these phenomena together to identify shared psychological mechanisms. Through a survey of consumer behavior, this research addresses these gaps by testing whether constraint acceptance, scarcity perception, identity anchoring, and loss aversion explain why modern consumers simultaneously pursue exclusivity, resist switching, embrace virtual constraints, and seek emotional connection through the past. Three key findings emerge. First, nostalgia drives 78.6–81.4% of emotional attachment and purchase behavior, with 78.6% feeling more connected to brands through nostalgic products/games and 81.4% reporting retro designs influenced purchases—confirming nostalgia as a core psychological anchor consistent with Weingarten & Wei (2023). Second, 65.7% stay loyal despite dissatisfaction and 81.4% recognize psychological retention strategies, demonstrating loyalty stems from invisible barriers (habit, sunk costs, algorithmic lock-in) rather than satisfaction—aligning with Burnham et al. (2003) on switching costs driving retention. Third, 58.6% accept publisher control in esports while acknowledging manipulation, revealing consumers view IP-based monopoly as legitimate despite recognizing its manipulative dimensions—consistent with Tiebreaker (2024) on publisher monopoly as digital market power. Open-ended responses clustered into four themes: loyalty (community, convenience, quality), enjoyment (pleasure, UX), status (esteem, identity, exclusivity), and investment (sunk costs, attachment). These findings answer the research question by demonstrating all five phenomena share underlying psychological mechanisms explaining modern consumer behavior in digital abundance. Overall, findings are consistent with existing literature because they align with established work on nostalgia's emotional effects, switching costs, and publisher monopoly, while uniquely showing these mechanisms operate together across phenomena—providing the first integrated framework for understanding meaning, status, and satisfaction in the digital marketplace.

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