Glossary · Behavioral Economics
Mood Index
also: affect index · clinical purchase index
Definition
The Mood Index is a three-component construct that summarizes the dominant clinical-psychology mechanism driving a customer's cosmetics e-commerce purchase behavior over a trailing 180-day window. The three components are an affect score, a compulsivity score, and an identity score, computed from session-level basket and return events.
The Mood Index is designed for cosmetics retailers because cosmetics is the only consumer category where affect regulation, compulsive buying disorder, extended-self identity construction, and social comparison operate at unusually high intensity at the same time. The affect score captures mood-repair purchase patterns (late-hour single-item premium-tier baskets, return-then-repurchase loops). The compulsivity score captures CBD-consistent patterns (high frequency, elevated returns, payment-method oscillation). The identity score captures extended-self construction patterns (tight category sequencing, brand-tribe loyalty, anniversary-driven replenishment). Above the 80th percentile on any component, the construct triggers differentiated CRM treatment, with the highest-compulsivity tail receiving suppression rather than activation.
Essays on this concept
- Behavioral Economics
The Mood Index: Reading Affect, Compulsivity, and Identity Signals in Cosmetics E-commerce Baskets
Cosmetics is the only consumer e-commerce category where four clinical psychology mechanisms operate at unusually high intensity at the same time. Each one leaves a distinct fingerprint in checkout data. Standard segmentation models miss most of it.