Economic Inequality Increases the Preference for Status Consumption

Prior research has shown the relationship between objective economic inequality and searching for positional goods. It also investigated the relationship between social class and low income with conspicuous consumption. However, the causal relationship between economic inequality (the difference in wealth between individuals and groups living in a shared context and consumer behavior) has been less explored. Furthermore, there are also few studies looking for the psychological mechanisms that underlie these effects. The current research’s main goal is to analyze the consequences of perceived economic inequality (PEI) on conspicuous and status consumption and the possible psychological mechanisms that could explain its effects. Furthermore, the current research aims to examine whether there is a causal relationship between PEI and materialism preferences and attitudes toward indebtedness. This work includes two preregister experimental studies. In the Study 1 (n = 252), we manipulated PEI and its legitimacy through a 2 (high vs. low inequality) × 2 (Illegitimate vs. legitimate) between-participants experiment. Results showed a main effect of PEI on status consumption, status seeking, status anxiety, materialism, and attitude toward indebtedness. No interaction effect between legitimacy and inequality was found. In the Study 2 (n = 301), we manipulated the PEI through the Bimboola Paradigm. We replicated the effect of PEI on status consumption, status seeking, and materialism and found that status seeking mediated the relationship between PEI and status and conspicuous consumption. Economic inequality affects consumer behavior and favors consumption preferences for products that provide desirable symbolic values associated with status. These results could have important implications in the interpersonal and intergroup processes, including those related to consumption and purchase.

Income inequality, regional characteristics and household’s conspicuous consumption: An empirical study in developing market

This study aims to analyze the effect of income inequality and regional characteristics such as ethnicity and religion on conspicuous consumption for visible and invisible good types of households in the Indonesian regions by dividing regions into regions with low and high-income inequality levels based on the value median Gini index in Indonesia. The data set deployed in this study were pooled data collected from households provided by the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics 2017 and 2018. Employing the OLS method, we find that 1) income inequality has a negative effect on visible goods, and positive effect on invisible goods, 2) ethnicity and religion give an effect on visible and invisible goods. The government should pay attention to the phenomena of conspicuous consumption because numerous problems will likely arise if this conspicuous consumption is ignored. High conspicuous consumption would tend to lead to a materialistic lifestyle causing a higher inequality. In addition, the crime rate could equally increase given the high risk of conspicuous consumption in attracting others’ attention to individuals’ wealth.

Is it recession-proof? Masstige purchase intention: the moderating effect of perceived economic crisis

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of economic crisis on consumers’ masstige behavioural intention. The study examines the effects of uniqueness, hedonic value, conspicuous consumption and perceived quality on masstige purchase intention, and as well the moderating effect of perceived economic crisis. The study conducts the hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results show that uniqueness and hedonic values have significant influences on masstige purchase intention, while conspicuous consumption and perceived quality have no influence on masstige purchase intention. In addition, perceived economic crisis has no moderating effect on the relationship between uniqueness, hedonic value, conspicuous consumption, perceived quality and masstige purchase intention.

Inequality, Conspicuous Consumption, and the Growth Trap

Avoiding devastation of the human habitat is arguably the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, and high inequality greatly impairs successfully addressing this threat. In societies in which fluid social mobility is believed possible, inequality encourages households to seek social certification and status through consumption. Rising inequality strengthens this dynamic. The institutions and behavior generated by the belief that ever-greater consumption brings ever-greater well-being reduce the potential for people to achieve social status and self-respect through more environmentally friendly domains such as democratized work and community. Inequality impedes responses aimed at reducing environmental damage by augmenting the political power of the wealthy, whose interests would be most harmed by measures to protect the environment. The wealthy benefit from pollution because their far greater consumption is made less expensive and their assets yield higher profits. They are also better able to shield themselves from the negative consequences of environmental degradation.

The role of socio-psychological and personality antecedents in luxury consumption: a meta-analytic review

PurposeThis paper conducts a meta-analytic review of literature focused on the salient socio-psychological and personality antecedents of luxury purchase intention. It investigates the role of moderators that can assist an effective market segmentation of the luxury market in both emerging and developed economies.Design/methodology/approachThe final analysis includes 95 effect sizes from 42 studies conducted in 15 countries, spanning 5 continents, from 2000 to 2020. The review examined moderating role of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, market type (emerging vs developed) and other study characteristics.FindingsFindings show that socio-psychological antecedents had a more salient role than personality antecedents in driving luxury purchase intention (LPI), across both emerging and developed markets. Normative influence, status consumption and materialism exhibited a stronger influence on LPI in emerging markets than developed markets. Further, stronger effects for normative influence and status consumption on LPI were found in high power distance cultures. The role of seeking uniqueness was more salient and the role of normative influence was less salient in studies with a higher percentage of females. Conspicuous consumption was a stronger driver of LPI for fashion luxury products than other luxury products. The study also proposes distinct definitions of status and conspicuous consumption as there is often theoretical overlap of these constructs in literature.Research limitations/implicationsA meta-analytic review may leave blind-spots due to lack of sufficient number of studies investigating certain theoretically relevant moderators. The authors discuss these gaps, along with study limitations.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has conducted a meta-analytic review of the antecedents and moderators of LPI. With the extension of luxury demand beyond the developed countries in the West to the “new rich” consumers in the East, it becomes imperative to conduct a meta-analysis for a richer understanding of the drivers of luxury demand across different cultural orientations and market segmentations.

The Opposite of Custom

Fifteenth-century Italian urban and ecclesiastical authorities sought to regulate the laity’s conspicuous consumption of dress, sometimes resulting in canon law petitions for exemption on the grounds of custom. By exploiting an ambivalent definition of custom according to status, wealthy men and especially women successfully sidestepped regulation. Critics of luxury such as the Franciscan Observants, who encountered similar arguments in confession, countered this permissive understanding of custom with alternate criteria for determining proper dress tied to the morality of the economic behavior that made luxurious dress possible. Overlapping definitions of custom drawn from canon law and moral theology thus provided both fashionable people and their confessors a way to negotiate and contest their status.

Conspicuous Consumption: economies of virtue and the commodification of Indigeneity

Our work examines the complexities and paradoxes of decolonization and Indigenization, including multiple understandings, conflicting aspirations, contradictory desires, institutional instrumentalizations, heterogeneity within and between Indigenous communities and enduring limitations of efforts in this area. We start this article with an overview of the work of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures arts/research/ecology collective and the “Towards Braiding” mode of inquiry, which provide the context for our work. Next, we use this mode of inquiry to present three scenarios that illustrate how Indigeneity is consumed in non-Indigenous institutions. We conclude the article with a reflection about the difficult path towards non-consumptive modes of engagement with Indigenous peoples grounded on relations rooted in trust, respect, reciprocity, consent and accountabilityi and where difficult conversations can happen without relations falling apart.