Against the backdrop of sustained socioeconomic development, consumers have become increasingly rational; nevertheless, mysticism-themed consumption has rapidly risen as a new form of emotional consumption, drawing growing scholarly attention to its psychological underpinnings. From the perspective of self-protection motivation, this research examines the effect of experienced regret on consumers’ preference for mysticismthemed consumption, as well as its underlying mechanism and boundary condition. Across three experiments, the results show that: (1) experienced regret significantly enhances consumers’ preference for mysticism-themed consumption, and this effect holds in both tangible product and intangible service contexts; (2) experienced regret indirectly promotes such preference by activating self-protection motivation, indicating a partial mediating effect; and (3) self-monitoring moderates this relationship, such that the increase in preference is more pronounced

among individuals with higher self-monitoring. This study extends research on the cross-domain consequences of experienced regret and elucidates the psychological pathway through which it influences preference for mysticism-themed consumption.

mysticism-themed consumption')">"> mysticism-themed consumption, experienced regret, self-protection motivation, self-monitoring, consumer preference