The Effect of Expected Emotional Benefits on the Intention to Purchase Medical Aesthetic Services: An Empirical Study Based on Emotional Prediction Theory

Using emotional prediction theory as an analytical framework, this study examined the psychological mechanisms through which appearance satisfaction leads to intentions to consume medical aesthetic services, mediated by expected emotional benefits, and tested the moderating effect of the importance of appearance in this process.To this end, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted among potential medical aesthetic consumers in mainland China, and 345 valid responses were ultimately used in the analysis.The analysis used multiple regression with on ordinary least squares (OLS) and 5,000 bootstrap repetitions.The results showed that physical appearance satisfaction had a significant negative effect on expected emotional benefits (β = -0.241,p < 0.001), supporting H1.Expected emotional benefits significantly and positively predicted the intention to consume medical aesthetic services (β = 0.710, p < 0.001), supporting H2.Furthermore, the mediating effect of expected emotional benefits was statistically significant (indirect effect IE = -0.171,95% CI [-0.262, -0.087]).Consequently, H3 was also supported.In contrast, the hypothesis that the importance of physical appearance moderates the path from expected emotional benefits to consumption intention was not supported (β = 0.017, p = 0.494).This study is significant in that it systematically validated a mediational explanatory framework of emotional prediction mechanisms in research on medical aesthetics consumption intention.In particular, the fact that the coefficient of the M1→Y path (β = 0.710) in the effect size structure was significantly larger than the total effect of appearance satisfaction (c = -0.150)suggests that future-oriented emotional evaluation may have independent and central explanatory power in medical aesthetics decision-making.