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Social identity threat and consumer preferences
Author(s) -
White Katherine,
Argo Jennifer J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2009.03.007
Subject(s) - identity (music) , social identity theory , feeling , product (mathematics) , psychology , social psychology , threatened species , social identity approach , consumer behaviour , advertising , social group , business , aesthetics , ecology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , habitat , biology
Although marketers often link brands with an aspect of consumer social identity, the current research demonstrates that such brand‐identity linkages may sometimes have negative consequences. Consumers motivated to protect and maintain feelings of individual self‐worth alter their product evaluations and choices to avoid a threatened aspect of their own social identity. Whereas those low in collective self‐esteem (CSE) tend to exhibit such identity avoidance effects, those high in CSE maintain associations with an identity‐linked brand even when that social identity is threatened. Moreover, when the consumer feels positively about the self via self‐affirmation, the effect among low CSE consumers is mitigated. Finally, it is demonstrated that differences in the use of identity as a resource underlie the effects.