Flaunting Porsches or Paris? Comparing the Social Signaling Value of Experiential and Material Conspicuous Consumption.
| Title: | Flaunting Porsches or Paris? Comparing the Social Signaling Value of Experiential and Material Conspicuous Consumption. |
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| Authors: | Merrell WN; Aarhus University, Denmark.; University of Oslo, Norway.; Ackerman JM; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. |
| Source: | Personality & social psychology bulletin [Pers Soc Psychol Bull] 2025 Apr 29, pp. 1461672251331658. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Apr 29. |
| Publication Model: | Ahead of Print |
| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Journal Info: | Publisher: Sage Publications for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7809042 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1552-7433 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01461672 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Pers Soc Psychol Bull Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc; Original Publication: Columbus, Ohio [etc.] Behavioral Sciences Laboratory [etc.] |
| Abstract: | Humans have always found ways to flaunt how they spend money. In studying this conspicuous consumption behavior, researchers have focused almost exclusively on one particular target of consumption-material goods that are bought and physically owned. Here, we propose that a different, understudied target of conspicuous consumption-experiential purchases-offers unique social signaling value compared to material goods. Across experimenter-derived stimuli (Study 1a) and real-world instances of conspicuous consumption scraped from Instagram (Study 1b), we find that conspicuous experiences can convey status equivalently to, while simultaneously signaling warmth better than, conspicuous material purchases. This communal advantage is driven by higher levels of perceived intrinsic motivation afforded to conspicuous experiences (Study 2) and is only present when the experiences are consumed by others (Study 3). These findings broaden our understanding of status-based consumption processes and position conspicuous experiences as signaling tools with unique social features and value. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: communal perceptions; conspicuous consumption; consumer psychology; experiences; status perceptions |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20250429 Latest Revision: 20250429 |
| Update Code: | 20260130 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/01461672251331658 |
| PMID: | 40296564 |
| Database: | MEDLINE |
Journal Article