When Shift Happens: Social Identity Threat and Consumer Preferences

The current research examines the influence of social identity threat on consumer preferences. In particular, we test the possibility that consumers will demonstrate product preferences that avoid association with a threatened aspect of their identity. Results of four experiments demonstrate the conditions under which consumers will alter their consumption preferences for a variety of products including movies, magazines, and personal care products when their identity becomes threatened. The tendency to shift preferences away from a threatened identity was moderated by self-esteem (study 2) and the source of threat (studies 3 and 4)



Citation:

Katherine White and Jennifer J. Argo (2006) ,"When Shift Happens: Social Identity Threat and Consumer Preferences", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Margaret Craig Lees, Teresa Davis, and Gary Gregory, Sydney, Australia : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: .

Authors

Katherine White, University of Calgary, Canada
Jennifer J. Argo, University of Alberta, Canada



Volume

AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7 | 2006



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