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Journal of Consumer Research
Current Issue Highlights
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Balancing the Basket: The Role of Shopping Basket Composition in Embarrassment Sean Blair
Neal J. Roese
When consumers anticipate feeling embarrassed by a purchase, they often purchase additional products to mitigate the threat. Nonembarrassing additional purchases do not necessarily attenuate anticipated embarrassment but may, paradoxically, exacerbate it instead. When additional purchases do attenuate anticipated embarrassment, they can do so independently of their effect on the salience of the embarrassing product. Five experiments provide converging evidence that additional purchases attenuate (vs. exacerbate) anticipated embarrassment to the extent that they are perceived to counterbalance (vs. complement) the undesired identity communicated during purchase. These results contrast with the traditional explanation for this strategy, which holds that additional purchases mitigate embarrassment because they compete with the embarrassing product for observers' attention. This research contributes to a more precise understanding of consumer coping and impression management by identifying shopping basket composition as an important factor in purchase embarrassment.
Volume 40, Number 4, December 2013
DOI: 10.1086/671761
Selected Media Mentions The blushing shopper: Does it matter what else you put in the basket with the anti-gas medication?
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The Unexpected Positive Impact of Fixed Structures on Goal Completion Liyin Jin
Szu-Chi Huang
Ying Zhang
The current research explores how the structure of a goal, more specifically whether its completion requires completing a set of actions in a fixed sequence or in a flexible order, influences the decision to adopt the goal and how consumers actually fare once they have initiated the goal pursuit. Although the requirement to complete all goal-related actions following a fixed sequence discourages consumers from adopting the goal, this rigidity turns out to be more effective in inducing actual goal completion. This reversal occurs because consumers are unable to foresee the extent to which a fixed goal structure can help reduce the difficulty in goal pursuit.
Volume 40, Number 4, December 2013
DOI: 10.1086/671762
Selected Media Mentions Psychology Today Ironic outcomes: Being specific, not flexible, helps consumers achieve their goals
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Moral Habitus and Status Negotiation in a Marginalized Working-Class Neighborhood Bige Saatcioglu
Julie L. Ozanne
Examinations of the moral and ethical dimensions in identity construction are scant in consumer research. This ethnography of a trailer-park neighborhood investigates how different moral dispositions shape low-income, working-class consumption practices and status negotiations. Drawing from Bourdieu's conceptualization of habitus and cultural capital, the authors extend this theory by foregrounding the moral aspects of habitus and demonstrate how morally oriented worldviews are enacted through consumption practices and social evaluations within everyday communities. The study reveals five moral identities that shape the social construction of status within the microcultural context of a trailer park. These findings point to the multiplicity and richness of social-class-based dispositions as well as the importance of studying micro-level contexts to better understand macrodynamics.
Volume 40, Number 4 , December 2013
DOI: 10.1086/671794
Selected Media Mentions Phys.Org Working-class consumers: A look at the complex social system of a trailer park
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Using Differentiated Brands to Deflect Exclusion and Protect Inclusion: The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem on Attachment to Differentiated Brands
Sara Loughran Dommer
Vanitha Swaminathan
Rohini Ahluwalia
While a substantial body of research suggests that belongingness needs motivate consumers to use brands to assimilate with a reference group, relatively less attention has been devoted to understanding when and why consumers use brands to differentiate themselves from the group. The current research fills this gap in the literature and identifies two ways consumers can differentiate themselves from the group through the use of brands: horizontal and vertical differentiation. Horizontal brands offer differentiation through the expression of personality, taste, traits, and so forth, whereas vertical brands offer differentiation by conferring status or demonstrating superiority to others in a group. Under social exclusion (inclusion), low self-esteem consumers increase perceptions of group heterogeneity (seek to protect their future belongingness) and subsequently increase their attachment to horizontal (vertical) brands. Overall, the belongingness goals of low self-esteem consumers drive such seemingly contradictory behaviors. Volume 40, Number 4, December 2013
DOI: 10.1086/671763
Selected Media Mentions Phys.Org Low self-esteem consumers: When does standing out help you fit in?
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