Glossary · Behavioral Economics
Mood Index
also: affect index · clinical purchase index
Definition
The Mood Index is a proposed three-component framework for thinking about cosmetics e-commerce purchase behavior in clinical-psychology terms over a trailing 180-day window. The three components are an affect score, a compulsivity score, and an identity score. The construct has not been formally validated, the operational weights and thresholds discussed in the source essay are starting points for testing rather than benchmarks.
The Mood Index is intended for cosmetics retailers because cosmetics is the 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 is meant to capture mood-repair purchase patterns (late-hour single-item premium-tier baskets, return-then-repurchase loops). The compulsivity score is meant to capture CBD-consistent patterns (high frequency, elevated returns, payment-method oscillation). The identity score is meant to capture extended-self construction patterns (tight category sequencing, brand-tribe loyalty, anniversary-driven replenishment). The threshold logic (suppression above the 80th percentile on the compulsivity score, differentiated treatment above the 80th percentile on the others) is a hypothesis generated from advisory partner data and remains to be tested with a properly registered, longitudinal study.
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.