Which one would you choose for your dessert between a piece of chocolate cake and a serving of fruit salad? Consumers are often faced with this kind of choice between hedonic and utilitarian products in their everyday lives. This research investigates how the various psychological responses caused by social exclusion affect the consumers' preferences for hedonic and utilitarian products. Specifically, we predicted that socially excluded consumers will prefer utilitarian products to hedonic products(H1). Social exclusion decreases the sense of control and threatens the feeling of safety, but utilitarian features can help deal with the psychological instabilities. Thus, we also predict that perceived sense of control(H2) and activated regulatory focus(H3) will mediate the effect of social exclusion on relative preference for utilitarian products(vs. hedonic products). Furthermore, the mediating role of decreased sense of control in the relationship between social exclusion and prevention focus was predicted(H4). Building on these prior theorization, it is expected that the effect of social exclusion will be sequentially mediated by perceived sense of control and activated regulatory focus(H5). Two experiments are conducted to test our hypotheses. The results of experiment 1, achieved by measuring participants' perceived sense of control and relative preference for utilitarian products(vs. hedonic products) using a one-factor two-level(social inclusion vs. social exclusion) between-subjects design supported H1 and H2. In experiment 2, we used a one-factor three-level(social inclusion vs. neutral vs. social exclusion) between-subjects design including a baseline condition and measured participants' activated regulatory focus in addition to the measurement items of experiment 1. The results confirmed H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are discussed and limitations and directions for future research are suggested.