Consumer Health under the Scope

Abstract

This essay offers two new lenses for studying consumer health. Theories of psychoimmunology and institutional environments bring a wider array of individual, social, cultural, and organizational drivers into view, and they expose how higher-stakes and more typical consumer activities involve important health issues. This more complex accounting reveals that not only is health a critical issue for many topics in the field but that consumer research can make important contributions to the study of health and the resolution of health problems.