Abstract：The COVID-19 epidemic, as a social emergency, has not only had a profound impact on the economy and public management of China, but also brought some changes in the psychology and behavior of residents at the individual level. One of the typical characteristics is the irrational consumption behavior residents exhibited during the COVID-19 epidemic. Based on the risk perception and risk perception theory, fear and terror management theory, boredom and related psychological theory, this paper selects three consumption behaviors in terms of conformity consumption, impulsive consumption and and scarcity consumption for research. Through the investigation of the relevant data of 1,548 residents in 297 prefecture-level cities from 31 provinces across China during the epidemic period, the impact mechanism of the epidemic on residents' irrational consumption was analyzed. The results show that(1) the epidemic will increase the residents' conformity consumption, impulsive consumption and scarcity consumption through enhancing their risk perception, fear and boredom;(2) the materialistic tendency and the number of co-residents will magnify the impact of the epidemic on irrational consumption of residents;(3) the number of co-residents positively moderates the impact of the epidemic on conformity consumption and impulsive consumption.

Keyword：

public health event; irrational consumption; COVID-19 epidemic; conformity consumption; impulsive consumption; scarcity consumption;