Psychological antecedents of conspicuous consumption

Journal of Economic Psychology 10 (1989) 161-187

North-Holland

161

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS OF CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

Ottmar L. BRAUN and Robert A. WICKLUND *

Universitiit Bielefeld, FRG

Received May 25, 1988; accepted April 3, 1989

Congruent with microeconomic utility theory, one can often observe a negative relation between a

product’s price and the consumer’s demand for the product. But in the case of Veblen (1899/1979.

conspicuous consumption) the opposite is true: the higher the price the more attractive is the

product, because the price is taken as an indicator of the prestige value. In the present six sjudies,

which try to examine the psychological side of these issues, the relation between one’s insecurity

vis-&is a striven-for identity and the tendency to lay claim to material prestige symbols

associated with that identity was examined. Respondents in such diverse areas as athletics, law,

and business were asked for the extent to which they generally displayed material symbols in their

areas (such as clothing), or for the extent to which they ascribed high prestige value to their

hobbies, sports activities, or vacation spots. The central antecedent variable was the person’s

degree of experience, expertise, or experimentally-varied security within the identity area (i.e.

athletics, law or business). In all six studies there was a compensatory relation between experience,

expertise, or experimentally-induced competence and the resulting laying claim to material

indicators, or symbols - particularly among respondents who were strongly committed to their

identity areas. These results were explained in the context of a theory of self-completion.

The theory of demand (Lea et al. 1987: 38) would predict that, all else being equal, a price increase would generate a decrease in the product’s utility. Consequently, the sales potential of the product should fall. This is said to be the case because the human makes consumer decisions on the basis of an expectancy-value model (Ed- wards 1954; von Neuman and Morgenstern 1944). This notion is consistent with ‘incentive theory’ (Janis and Gilmore 1965) which indicates that costly items tend to decline in demand. In light of these

* The authors would like to thank Albrecht Steinecke for his numerous suggestions during the planning of studies 4, 5, and 6.

Requests for reprints should be sent to R.A. Wicklund, Abteilung Psychologie. Universitat Bielefeld, 4800 Bielefeld, FRG.

0167-4870/89/$3.50 0 1989, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Hntland~

162 O.L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige ,symhols

theories the human being functions as ‘economic man’: the price of a product and the person’s resources are the central determinants of the sales potential of a product. But from time to time one can observe positive relations between the ‘price of a product and consumer demand. In this case, the utility theory or incentive theory cannot explain the effect - one has to look elsewhere:

One explanation for a positive relation between price and consumer demand stems from Brehm’s (1966) theory of psychological reactance. The central idea in the application of reactance theory to consumer behavior (Clee and Wicklund 1980) is that threatened freedom of choice between products results in an increase in the threatened product’s attractiveness. Because a high price can constitute a barrier to obtaining a product, the barrier leads to increased attractiveness. This effect has been demonstrated several times (Brehm et al. 1966; Wick- lund 1970).

Beside threatened freedom, theorists have suggested other factors that might affect demand. The most famous proposal stems from Veblen (1899/1979), who held that there is a general tendency toward ‘conspicuous consumption’, wherein wealthy individuals buy expensive goods just because they are expensive, in order to display their wealth. Veblen’s theory thus implies a positive relation between wealth and conspicious consumption.

Leibenstein (1950) proposed two further effects: one is the ‘bandwagon’ effect, in which consumers want to buy whatever is being widely bought. The ‘snob’ effect is exact the opposite of the ‘bandwagon’ effect: The individual buys expensive and exclusive goods.

These considerations were extended by Lea (1980). He introduced a ‘counter-Veblen’ effect, whereby consumers buy cheaper items than they would need to in order to avoid ostentation. The underlying motivation of the inconspicuous consumer might be to not embarrass others by appearing wealthier, or to discourage them from asking for

financial support (Lea 1980: 165). Leibenstein (1950) as well as Lea (1980) used economic variables

such as price and supply to explain these effects. But in the present paper the psychological antecedents of conspicuous and nonconspicuous consumption are analyzed as a consequence of a psychological state that can underlie the workings of these economic variables. The central question, is: What are the psychological preconditions in individuals that bring them to buy prestigious goods or to ascribe prestige

O.L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols 163

value to products that they have already bought (conspicuous consumption)? And what are the psychological preconditions that lead people to behave in a modest manner (nonconspicuous consumption)? Our analysis, which follows, is in line with Lancaster’s (1966) position, who stated: ‘The good, per se, does not give utility to the consumer; it possesses characteristics, and these characteristics give rise to utility’ (Lancaster 1966: 134).

Material symbols in compensation

Two overriding points are central here. First, in line with the Adlerian (1917) picture of human functioning, the individual’s laying claim to superiority can stem from weaknesses that are not easily reparable. A common example within the Adlerian framework is that unattractive, unathletic, near-sighted, young man who, in accord with Adler’s thinking, would strive toward building up a sense of superiority. Second, in line with James (1890) and Erikson (1956), this compensatory process should be particularly noticeable in contexts where the individual has a strong personal interest or commitment. In keeping with the language of Erikson (1956) and Marcia (1966), striving to build up the self would be especially noticeable in self-chosen identity areas (e.g. intellectual, athlete, artist, and others).

An explicit theoretical statement of the relationship between commitment to an identity and compensation with regard to that identity is found in Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1982). The starting point of the analysis is the person who has a firm commitment to acquire a given identity. Characteristically the existence of such an identity has been assessed in one of two ways: (1) the amount of time and energy that the person devotes to the identity area (as in research by Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1981; Gollwitzer et al. 1982), and (2) the personal urgency of pursuing the identity (Gollwitzer and Wicklund 1985; Wicklund and Braun 1987).

Given that a person is identity-committed, the second issue is the Adlerian one: to what extent is the person burdened with an un- changeable weakness, or deficiency within the identity area? In general such a deficiency can be viewed as a lack of critical symbols, or markers, for the identity in question. Thus the deficient, striving intellectual teaches at a sub-standard university, or has earned poor grades during his studies, or has an absence of the ‘speech markers’ (i.e.

164 0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige s_ymbols

technical vocabulary, style of speaking - cf. Robinson 1979) appropriate to his chosen domain. According to the formulation (Wick- lund and Gollwitzer 1982) shortcomings with respect to such central, difficult-to-acquire symbols wiil result in the tendency formulated by Adler - compensation. And in the context of this thinking, compensation is to be accomplished by accumulating or laying claim to other symbols that signify one’s identity-attainment, within that same identity area. What form should such compensation take?

A symbol can be regarded as any facet of the person that has the potential to signal to others (who understand the symbol as related to the identity) that one possess the identity in question. As such, symbols can be composed of verbal utterances, identity-specific behavior, and also material indicators. In almost all of the research performed heretofore the focus has been on the verbal or behavioral levels. For instance, Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1981) have documented the tendency of inadequately-educated individuals to try to educate others within the relevant identity area: this effect was found only among subjects who were committed to their respective areas. ‘Trying to educate’ may be regarded as a symbol, for the simple reason that those who try to teach others in a particular area are perceived by neutral observers as being more competent (Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1981). A variety of research (Gollwitzer et al. 1982; Gollwitzer and Wicklund 1985) has also demonstrated that subjects who are rendered insecure vis-a-vis their identities are especially prone to (1) self-aggrandize and (2) resist admitting to weaknesses.

The theoretical notion has direct implications for material symbols as well, and the implication has seldom been tested, only because of the difficulty of measuring subjects’ acquisition of material symbols in the laboratory. However, the idea was tested and confirmed in field studies by Wicklund et al. (in Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1982), whereby it was shown (among other effects) that poorly qualified business majors wore more expensive accessories.

Specifying the variables

It is crucial to draw some lines of demarcation, to make clear when such effects are to be expected. These remarks are drawn from the theoretical idea (Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1982) as well as from several empirical studies:

0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols 165

(I) Commitment. The compensation phenomenon addressed here is specific to the identity in question, and therefore, the person’s commitment to that identity is an important precondition for the effects, as has been demonstrated in a number of studies (see summaries in Gollwitzer and Wicklund 1985; Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1983, 1985).

(2) Identity-specific incompleteness. In sharp contrast to the Ad- lerian formulation, or to the Tesser (1980, 1986) formulation, the present idea applies to compensation within a given identity area. The point has been made in a study by Gollwitzer and Wicklund (1985): when the insecurity, or incompleteness, is located in a non-identity area, one observes no compensatory efforts within the identity-area.

(3) Social reality. The compensating person must be sure that the newly acquired symbol will be recognized by others as a symbol for the identity. Without such an expectation one is not able to observe compensation.

(4) Permanence/changeableness of symbols. In order to make a clear prediction, the independent variable of the above compensation research was always a lack with respect to a salient, unalterable symbol. For instance, the person discovers that he lacks the personality necessary for success in the identity area (Gollwitzer and Wicklund 1985), that one’s teacher in the area was of low quality (Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1981), or else the person knows that he lacks education or experience in the area (Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1982: 109-143). The compensation that is measured as the dependent variable is then directed toward symbols that are readily accessable. Accessability is no problem when symbolizing is measured on the verbal level, but when compensation via material symbols is the focus, the following issues emerge:

The present research: Laying claim to material symbols

Ideally, the researcher would undertake a longitudinal study, observ- ing individuals who are very clearly committed and inexperienced (or otherwise inadequate) in their identities, and then note their frequency of material symbol-acquisition. Since this ideal entails nothing less than a major developmental/longitudinal study, an alternative can be arranged, whereby subject’s reports of symbol acquisition and display are assumed to reflect what they have actually done. This is the course to be followed in the six projects here. In addition to self reports about

166 0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols

the acquisition and display of material symbols, the present research will also examine respondents’ subjective appraisal of their existing arsenal of symbols. The incomplete persons should be more prone to exaggerate the prestige-value of whatever symbols they have at hand.

In the present research the practical utility of goods is not examined; instead, the psychological utility of goods is the focus. This perspective follows the proposal of Douglas and Isherwood who stated: ‘Forget that commodities are good for eating, clothing, and shelter; forget their usefulness and try instead the idea that commodities are good for thinking; treat them as a nonverbal medium for the human creative faculty’ (1979: 62).

Hypothesis

On the basis of the theoretical considerations above, it is expected that people who are committed to an identity and who evidence incompleteness with respect to that identity will tend to lay claim to prestige symbols. People who are committed to an identity and who feel complete should behave in a modest manner. In the case of uncommitted subjects there should be no such relation between experienced incompleteness and conspicuous consumption.

Study 1’

Overview

In the present study the subject’s laying claim to symbols of their identity was assessed in an indirect manner. First of all, the kinds of external appearance that might be pertinent to the identity (lawyer) were made salient, then respondents were asked whether they were recognizable as a lawyer. The variable of completeness/ incompleteness was operationalized in terms of amount of experience in the profession.

’ The data of this study were taken from a study by Wicklund and Braun (1987), in which the

main findings had to do with a different theoretical framework.


Method

Subjects Nineteen law students from a large, southern university in the USA

and 25 practicing attorneys from a firm in that same city were the respondents in the study. All of them were male.

Procedure Respondents were contacted individually and interviewed via a

questionnaire. The law students were interviewed in the law school building, the attorneys in their firm. The questionnaire was filled out privately, i.e. with no other law students or attorneys present. The first major question, which listed a few examples of external characteristics that would conceivably be appropriate to the identity, was worded,

‘What external characteristics do lawyers possess that make them easy to recognize? (clothing

styles, car driven, marital status, etc.)’

The second question is the one that is central for the analysis here, and asked,

‘Do people perceive you as a lawyer or a potential lawyer and if so. why?’

There was space on the questionnaire for a yes-or-no response, in addition to space for subjects to write a justification. Once subjects had completed the questionnaire they were thanked for their assistance.

Results

As shown in table 1. almost all of the law students indicated that they would be recognizable as a lawyer, in contrast to only 10 of the 25 practicing attorneys. The difference reaches significance, x2 = 7.00, p < 0.01 (Yates corrected). Of the 16 students who answered positively, all 16 indicated a reason (characteristically referring to clothing, auto-

Table 1

(Study 1) Recognizability as a lawyer or potential lawyer.

Attorneys (n = 25)

Law students

(n =19)

Recognizable as a lawyer 10 16 Not recognizable as a lawyer 15 3

168 0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Premge symbols

mobile, manner of speaking, or other external characteristics). It is also worth noting that four subjects wrote a clear objection to the idea that attorneys might be recognizable by general, external qualities. All four of these were among the practicing attorneys.

Discussion

The results support the idea that individuals who are striving toward a particular identity, and who are inexperienced in that identity realm, are more likely to claim that they can be recognized as belonging to that identity. In short, it appears to be more important to the students than to the professionals, to have the outward manifestations of an attorney. It could of course be the case that these differential self-reports reflect the respondents’ actual appearance. That is, much as Hass and Shaffir (1977) describe the initiation of medical students into their professions by their wearing professional clothing, it may be that the present students go out of their way to dress and behave as attorneys.

Alternatively, there may be no objective differences between the outward appearance of the student and professional respondents; the only difference might be the reporting of being recognizable. However, this is not the crucial issue. The important psychological point is that the inexperienced respondents lay claim to the outward manifestation of the identity.

Study 2

Overview

This study begins with the simple assumption that the identity associated with a particular university stabilizes itself during the course of a student’s studies, just as a professional identity stabilizes itself as one gains experience with one’s profession. It is also assumed here that a large number of students desire the identity of ‘student at X university’ (cf. Cialdini et al. 1976), thus a considerable proportion of students should be interested in acquiring the manifestations of the identity of their own university. In the present study these manifestations were defined in terms of (1) university-related attire or accessories


that the students claimed to own, and (2) aggrandizement of the student’s own university. As in the first study, it was hypothesized that the younger students, being relatively insecure in their university-identities, would lay claim to possessing more of the appropriate symbols.

Method

Subjects The subjects were 71 students from a large southern university in the

USA - 36 first year and 35 fourth year students. Thirty-two of them were male, 39 were female.

Procedure The respondents were interviewed individually on the campus. Each

subject filled out a questionnaire that contained questions asking for basic biographical information about trivial matters such as football and alcohol, and two questions that asked about prestigious articles and about the rank order of their university.

University-specific articles

‘List articles (clothing, notebooks, etc.) that you own which display any (name of university)

logo or color.’ (Spaces were provided for nine such articles.)

Rank order of university

‘Of the top 50 universities I would rank (subject’s own university) _ (1 being best)‘.

Results

The number of articles listed was divided at the median (34, and the difference between the first-year student and fourth-year student samples was then examined. As reflected in table 2, the preponderence

Table 2

(Study 2) Frequencies of subjects above and below the median with respect to the university-specific

goods listed.

First-year

students

(n = 36)

Fourth-year

students

(n = 35)

Three or fewer articles listed 13 22

More than three articles listed 23 13


of articles listed was found among the first-year sample, x2 = 5.08, p < 0.03.

Although there is not a significant difference between samples with respect to perceived rank order of the university ( p -C 0.12), the correlation between number of articles listed and rank of university is worth noting. The value of r = -0.35, p < 0.005 indicates that the students who claim a large number of university-relevant articles also rank that university more positively.

Study 3

Overview

The first two studies did not delve into the variable of commitment to the identity. It was assumed implicitly that the subjects were strongly committed to the identities (attorney, student at University X), but such an approach is necessarily conservative, in that the relatively non-committed subjects in the sample would tend to weaken the compensatory pattern between lack of experience and laying claim to symbols. In the present study the commitment variable is considered explicitly, in addition to a continuation of the experience/competence theme. In line with the above argument, it is expected that those low in experience, and who are highly committed to the activity realm, will show the highest extent of laying claim to material symbols.

Method

Subjects and procedure A sample of 21 inexperienced tennis players was drawn from a

course for beginners in tennis, in Bielefeld, FRG. The duration of the course was one week, two hours each day, and each training group consisted of four members. The tennis instructor handed out the questionnaire following the instruction period, on the fifth day of the course, and subjects filled out the questionnaire alone. The ages of the beginner sample varied between 13 and 65, the mean being 33 years. Twelve of them were female and 9 were male.

The experienced sample consisted of 27 regular members of a tennis association, also in Bielefeld. The only prerequiste for their inclusion in


the study was that they had played tennis regularly for at least three years. A male tennis trainer who was familiar with these players administered the questionnaire to them just after they had completed a match. As with the beginner sample, the subjects filled out the questionnaire alone. The ages of the experienced players varied between I7 and 66, the mean being 36 years. Fourteen of them were female and 13 were male. Their experience in playing tennis ranged between 3 and 30 years and the mean was 8 years experience. Accord- ing to their self-reports they were very active: at the time of the study they were playing tennis, on the average, 6 hours per week.

The first page of the questionnaire entailed standard biographical information and questions regarding their participation in tennis. Then came the question that assessed their subjectively-felt commitment to playing tennis:

‘How unfortunate would it be for you if you could not play tennis any more?’

not unfortunate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 very unfortunate

This commitment item is virtually identical to that used in research by Gollwitzer (1986).

The tendency to lay claim to material symbols was assessed in the following manner:

‘For playing tennis do you prefer clothing of a particular company or brand? If yes, which

one?’

If a subject mentioned a particular brand a ‘1’ was coded into the raw data, and if not, a ‘0’ was coded. Thus a higher value represents a stronger brand orientation.

Results 2

An ANOVA with the factors experience (beginners vs. experts) and commitment (high/low based on a median split, M&I = 4.5) was carried out, using the dependent variable brand-orientation. The results, shown in table 3, are clear-cut.

Beginners show a greater claiming of material symbols than do the experts, especially when they are committed to the identity of a

’ The number of subjects and consequently the degrees of freedom are not always consistent with the number of subjects reported in the methods. This fact is attributable to incompletely answered

questionnaires, for this study as well as for the following studies. The exact number of subjects for

each analysis can be taken from the tables.

172 O.L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols

Table 3

(Study 3) Brand orientation index.

Experts

(n = 27)

Beginners

(n = 20)

Uncommitted

tennis players

Committed

tennis players

0.17 0.00

(6) ’ (12) 0.14 0.63

(21) (8)

tennis-player. As predicted, the committed beginners show a singularly high brand-orientation, and the interaction is significant, F(1, 43) = 8.11, p < 0.01. The main effect for commitment is also significant, F(1, 43) = 7.18, p = 0.01. The expert/beginner effect approaches significance, F(1, 43) = 3.76, p -c 0.06. Two of the simple effects are also significant: the commitment effect within the beginner sample, t(l8) = 4.24, p < 0.001, and the expert/beginner effect within the committed sample, t(27) = 2.86, p -c 0.01.

Because the cell frequencies in the 2 X 2 design are less than uni- form, an alternative analysis was carried out to be sure that the effects were reliable. The correlation between brand-orientation and commitment was computed within the beginner and expert groups separately. Within the beginner group there is a high correlation, Y = 0.73, p < 0.001, whereas the correlation in the expert group is practically zero, r = 0.19, ns. The difference between the two values is significant, z = 2.32, p -c 0.03. Neither for the commitment variable nor for the brand-index are there significant variance differences between the two

groups (both ps > 0.05).

Study 4

The first three studies have dealt with symbols that were material in the sense of objects that could be purchased, or otherwise acquired, and carried as a part of one’s person. Our thesis applies equally to the case in which the association with an object, event or activity is more temporary. Very specifically, the following three studies will consider the case of a person who is active in hobbies and sports, and who

O.L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Presiige symbols 173

travels during vacation, and the question is the extent to which the person views the hobby/sport and vacation spot as pertinent to a given self-definition. As in the studies just described, the combination of commitment to a self-definition and the relative completeness/ incompleteness within that self-definition are regarded as the central determining variables. Unlike the first three studies, the present group of studies does not begin with sets of symbols that are explicitly identity-defining or identity-relevant. Rather, the studies depend on the assumption that hobbies, sports, and vacation spots can be treated as symbols within a number of different identity realms. Thus, in this respect, these three studies take the risk that the symbols may be too global in order to have a clear psychological relevance to the identities in question. Nonetheless, the central hypothesis of this manuscript will again be tested, this time in the context of business identities (studies 4 and 5) and the lawyer identity (study 6).

Overview

The identity pertinent for this study was the university major ‘business and economics’. Subjects’ extent of commitment to that identity area was established, and so was the degree of perceived difficulty of that study area. It was assumed that students who admitted that the study area was difficult could be regarded as relatively incomplete within that identity area. As dependent variables, the symbolic value that subjects accorded their hobbies/sports and vacation spots was measured in several respects.

Method

Subjects The sample was composed of 85 business and economics students

from the University of Bielefeld - 30 women and 55 men. All of the subjects were participants in a lecture for students in the sixth semester. Their ages ranged between 21 and 28 years, and the mean was 23 years.

Procedure The questionnaire was handed out in the lecture hall to 150 students,

with the instruction that it be filled out by the respondent, alone, and returned the next day. Eighty-five questionnaires (57%) were returned.


Commitment. The question designed to assess the extent of commitment was worded,

‘Do you definitely want to become a manager or economist or would you be willing to take up

some other occupation such as lawyer?.’ Subjects answered either ‘yes’ (definitely a manager or

economist) or ‘no’.

Difficulty of study area. Second, they were asked,

‘How difficult is the study of economics/business in comparison to other majors?’

very easy 1 2 3456789 very difficult

This second question served as the operationalization of the subject’s capacity to master his performance-relevant environment.

Dependent variables

Prestige of hobbies or sports. Subjects responded to the following questioning format:

‘What is your main hobby/sport that you do in your leisure time?’

‘How much prestige value does this hobby/sport have?

very low 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 very high

Prestige value and ‘fashion’ of vacation country. As the study was run

in the spring of 1986, subjects were asked about their vacation with reference to their forthcoming summer plans:

‘To which country will you travel this year? If you have not yet decided to travel to another

country, please write down that country that you would prefer.’

Then subjects were asked two questions in regard to the country that was named. If they named no country, they were excluded from the analysis.

‘Does your vacation country have high prestige? definitely definitely

not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 yes

‘Is your vacation country in fashion?’ definitely definitely

not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 yes

Results

The commitment item, with its yes/no format, automatically divides subjects into two groups. The groups were further subdivided according

O.L. Braun, R.A. Wieklund / Prestige symbols 175

Table 4

(Study 4) Prestige of hobby.

Complete

(studies perceived as easy)

Incomplete

(studies perceived as difficult)

Uncommitted

to business identity

Committed


5.76 5.65

(21) a (20) 5.24 6.63

(21) (19)

a Cell ns.

to a median split (M&I = 6.5) on the difficulty variable. Using this basic design, four analyses of variance were performed - one for each of the three central dependent variables and one for the combination of all three together.

Prestige of hobby /sport. Table 4 indicates that the four means take the pattern expected by the hypothesis, in that the value for the committed-difficult group is uniquely high. The interaction approaches significance, F(1, 77) = 3.33, p < 0.08. Of the simple effects, the effect for difficulty within the committed group is significant, t(38) = 2.34, p -C 0.03. Further, the commitment effect within the difficult group is in the expected direction, but does not reach the acceptable level of significance (p < 0.12).

Prestige of vacation country. The pattern is similar to the above (see table 5) and the interaction is significant, @1, 74) = 7.26, p < 0.01. The main effect for commitment is also reliable, F(1, 74) = 5.58, p <

0.03. Of the simple effects, the difference between the value of 6.83 and

Table 5

(Study 4) Prestige of vacation country.

Uncommitted

to business identity Committed

to business dentity

Complete


5.85

(20) a 5.75

(20)

Incomplete


4.85

(20) 6.83

(18)

a Cell ns.


Table 6

(Study 4) Vacation country ‘in fashion’.

Uncommitted


Committed


a Cell ns.

Complete


4.60

(20) a 4.84

(19)

Incomplete


4.20

(20) 5.58

(19)

4.85 is significant, t(36) = 3.81, p < 0.001, and the difference between 6.83 and 5.75 approaches significance, t(36) = 1.86, p < 0.08.

Vacation country ‘in fashion’. The results are shown in table 6. Al- though the pattern of means is in the expected direction, and the committed/difficult cell shows the highest mean, the interaction is not significant (p < 0.20). The main effect for commitment approaches significance, F(1, 74) = 3.49, p < 0.07, and the simple effect for commitment within the group of subjects who perceive their studies as difficult is significant, t(37) = 2.30, p < 0.03.

Symbolizing index. For this analysis, which serves as a summary statement of the effects, the individual measures of symbolizing just reported were added together. The pattern of means is shown in table 7. The interaction is significant, F(1, 70) = 5.13, p < 0.03, and the main effect for commitment is practically significant, F(1, 70) = 3.64, p = 0.06. Of th e two critical simple effects, both are significant: the difficulty variable has a significant effect within the committed group,

Table I

(Study 4) Symbolizing index.

Complete


Incomplete


Uncommitted to business identity

Committed


16.25 14.95

(20) a (19) 16.00 18.53

(18) (17)

a Cell ns.


t(33) = 2.08, p -C 0.05; and correspondingly, the commitment variable has a significant effect within the difficult group, ~(34) = 3.36, p =

0.002.

Discussion

The data suggest that one’s hobby/sport, and also vacation, can have a symbolic meaning for one’s identity as business person/ economist. While we did not ask specifically in what manner that particular sport, hobby, or vacation place might be connected to subjects’ commitment to business/economics, the data make it clear that the prestige of certain extra-occupational activities is psychologi- cally pertinent to those occupational commitments. Thus the general widespread idea that people strive after leisure activities and vacations with prestige value is not consistent with the obtained results. Rather, there appears to be a definite psychological pre-condition (one’s degree of commitment and incompleteness) for such striving.

It might also be noted that the data obtained here are not influenced by the type of leisure activity of vacation spot. That is, there were no systematic differences among the four cells with respect to the type of sport, hobby, or vacation named by the respondents. A similar kind of hypothesis is tested in the fifth study, but in the context of an experiment.

Study 5

Overview

The starting point was subjects’ extent of commitment to an identity as business person/economist. This time, however, the incompleteness variable was operationalized by means of an experimental manipulation. Following the reasoning of Tesser (1986) and Wagner (1986) it was decided to make half of the subjects insecure with respect to their status in their majors by means of asking questions that implied great accomplishments during the course of their studies. Given that students are generally not accomplished in the realms dealt with in these questions, it may be assumed that the nature of the questions threatened the subjects’ identities.

178 0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige ;ymhols

Method

Subjects Fifty-one business and economics students from the University of

Bielefeld, 14 women and 37 men, took part in the study. All of these subjects were participating in a lecture for second-year students. Their ages varied between 20 and 32 years and the mean age was 22.

Procedure The questionnaire was handed out in a business lecture. Altogether,

143 questionnaires were handed out, with the instruction that the students fill them out alone and bring them back the next day. Fifty-one of the questionnaires were returned (36%).

Commitment. Similar to the previous study, the commitment item was worded,

‘Do you definitely want to become a manager or economist or would you be willing to take up

some other occupation such as lawyer?’ Subjects answered either ‘yes’ (definitely a manager or

economist) or ‘ no’.

Threat manipulation. The central idea behind the threat-to-identity manipulation was that of confronting the Threat condition subjects with standards that would far exceed their actual attainments in business/economics. This was accomplished by asking subjects about their relevant experience (for example, whether they had attained a doctoral degree, and how many years they had worked in the business world). They were also asked in how many conventions they had participated (on a scale ranging from 0 to 7 or more conventions), how many research projects they had completed (again 0 to 7 or more), how many exhibitions they had attended in the past year (0 to 7 or more) and to indicate their number of publications. For Control condition subjects the focus was on basic questions about their studies, including such routine matters as the number of years they had studied.

Dependent variables. The questions here are a slightly altered form of those in the previous study:

‘To which land or area will you travel this year? If you haven’t yet made a decision, please

write down the area or country that you would prefer.’

0. L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols

Prestige

179

‘Does the above-named country have high prestige in the business world?’

definitely definitely

not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 yes

Vacation county ‘in fashion’

‘Is your vacation country in fashion this year for business students?


not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 yes

Results

Given that the return rate of the questionnaire was somewhat low, i.e. 36%, it was important to ensure that there were no important differences between the samples that constituted the two conditions. With respect to the variables of age, sex, desire to go into business/ economics, and perceived difficulty of the area of study, there was no significant difference between the Threat and Control conditions (all Fs c 1). Accordingly, we will proceed with the analysis on the assumption that there were no systematic, pre-existing differences between the two samples.

Prestige of the vacation country. For this variable there were neither main effects (ps > 0.20) nor an interaction between commitment and threat ( p 2 0.40).

Vacation country ‘in fashion’. The results of the ANOVA with the factors commitment to an identity (yes/no) and the experimental conditions (Threat/Control) are shown in table 8. As one can see, the mean of the committed/ threat cell is uniquely high and the expected interaction approaches significance, F(l, 36) = 3.84, p < 0.07. The difference between the means of 3.40 and 5.57 is significant, t(20) = 2.13, p < 0.05, and the difference between the values of 3.33 and 5.57 approaches significance, t(14) = 1.82, p < 0.10.

Discussion

The study offers some hint that the effects of the previous studies can also be brought about by an experimental induction of threat.

1x0 O.L. Braun, R.A. Wicklund / Prestige symbols

Table 8

(Study 5) Vacation country ‘in fashion’

Uncommitted


Committed


.’ Cell ns.

Control

3.89

(9) a 3.33

(9)

Threat

3.40

(15) 5.51

(7)

However, it must be noted that the effects (which were marginal) were limited to just one of the two dependent variables. One of the reasons for the weakness of that pattern lies, of course, in the small number of subjects. In addition to the considerable attrition rate stemming from non-returned questionnaires, 11 of the remaining 51 subjects were unusable owing to incomplete questionnaires. Nonetheless, the data pattern of this last study is congruent with that of study 4 and lends credence to the idea that the committed, less-than-complete person is the one who will lay claim to identity-bolstering symbols, in this case vacation-relevant symbols.

It should also be added that the results of study 4, and of the other correlation studies, may have been stronger than those of study 5 because the measured incompleteness (e.g. inexperience, perceived difficulty of studies) is something that they had been dealing with for a considerable period of time, thus they had had time to build up an attraction to certain, identity-bolstering activities or objects. In contrast, the identity-bolstering that goes on within an experiment must take place instantaneously, without subjects’ having time to accumulate prestige objects or experience, or to generate a heightened sense of the value of such objects or experiences. Thus even though such experimental induction can result in cognitive bolstering of identity-relevant events (as in Gollwitzer and Wicklund 1985; Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1981) there is a good reason to think that the effects should be stronger when subjects are given more time - via their daily experiences - to produce those bolsterings of identity.

Study 6

Even if it may generally be difficult to generate identity-supporting responses to symbols by means of experimental manipulations, we


thought that the issue was sufficiently pressing that we would perform one additional study. The present experiment is a conceptual replication of study 5, and includes the same threat manipulation. There are, however, two central differences: the subjects are law students rather than business/economics students, and the treatment of commitment-to-identity is different in the present study. Specifically, it has been shown by Wicklund and Braun (1987) that the motivation to be successful within particular identity areas (art, law, and business) is reflected in respondents’ preoccupation with the traits associated with people who are successful in the relevant area. Preaccupation means simply that the person thinks a great deal about such traits; in the Wicklund and Braun work, self-reported frequency of identity-relevant trait thinking was the operationalization of such preoccupation. This kind of operationalization is applied directly in the present study as the commitment variable, such that respondents who are relatively high in relevant trait-thinking are designated as committed to the identity in question. The other group, those who do not think often about the personality of the expert lawyer, are thus regarded as less committed. Otherwise the hypothesis remains the same as that for studies 4 and 5.

Method

Subjects Sixty law students from the University of Bielefeld, 17 female and 43

male, participated in the study. Their median age was 24, and the age range was between 20 and 30.

Procedure A female interviewer approached individual students in the law

library and offered them DM3.00 (approximately $1.70 at the time of the study). If the subject agreed to participate, the interviewer layed a questionnaire on the table that contained the following hypothesis-relevant items (in addition to basic biographical information):

Trait-thinking (the operationaiization of commitment)

‘How often do you think about which traits that you, as a lawyer, must possess?’

never 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 very often

182 0. L. Braun, R.A. Wrcklund / Prestige .~ymhols

Threat manipulation. The threat manipulation was almost exactly as that of study 5: The main departure was a rewording suitable for attorneys.

Dependent variables. Since the present study was conducted in closer proximity to subjects’ previous vacation than to their forthcoming one, the wording of the central dependent measure items was altered accordingly:

‘Where did you spend your 1986 summer vacation?’

country: area:

Vacation country ‘in fashion’

‘Was your vacation country in fashion in 1986?’


not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Yes

Prestige of vacation country

‘Does your vacation country have high prestige among those in the legal profession?’


not 1 2 3 4 5 6 I 8 9 Yes

Results

A 2 X 2 analysis of variance resulted out of the combination of the Threat-Control factor and the commitment factor. Commitment was defined in terms of the thinking-in-terms-of-traits item, whereby subjects were divided at the median (Mdn = 4.5). Those above the median were considered to be highly committed to the identity.

Vacation country ‘in fashion’. The pattern of means is shown in table 9, where one can see that the committed/ threat cell is uniquely high. The simple effect for commitment within the threat condition approaches significance, t(19) = 1.85, p = 0.08, and there is a strong tendency toward a main effect for commitment, F(1, 40) = 3.66, p -C 0.07. However, the interaction falls short of significance ( p < 0.40).

Prestige of vacation country. The pattern is similar to the above (see table lo), and the simple effect for commitment within the threat


Table 9

(Study 6) Vacation country ‘in fashion’.

Control Threat

Uncommitted


Committed


a Cell ns.

4.38 3.90

(8) a (10) 5.13 5.91

(15) (11)

Table 10

(Study 6) Prestige of vacation country.

Uncommitted


Committed


Control

5.75

(8) d 5.33

(15)

Threat

3.70

(TO) 5.70

(10)

d Cell ns.

condition is significant, t(l8) = 2.45, p < 0.03. In addition, the expected interaction is also significant, F(1, 39) = 4.89, p < 0.05.

Combination of fashion and prestige. As in study 4, the two central dependent variables were combined. The resulting means are shown in table 11. As in the above analysis, the commitment simple effect within the threat condition is significant, t(18) = 2.83, p < 0.02. Still more important is the interaction which summarizes the combined working of the the two variables, F(1, 38) = 4.12, p < 0.05. The main effect of commitment is also significant, F(1, 38) = 4.38, p < 0.05.

Table 11

(Study 6) Symbolizing index.

Uncommitted

Control

10.13

Threat

7.60 to business identity

Committed


(8) * (10) 10.21 12.10

(14) (10)

a Cell ns.


General discussion

The starting point of our analysis was the notion that - in contrast to microeconomic demand theory - one can observe positive relations between price and consumer demand. As noted above, there are also alternative characterizations of this phenomenon: the Veblen-effect (Veblen 1899/1979, conspicuous consumption), the bandwagon effect, or the snob effect (Leibenstein 1950). In the case of conspicuous consumption (Veblen-effect) and the snob effect, one has to assume that the consumer takes the price as an index of the product’s prestige value and that the prestige value is the desired characteristic of the product. From Veblen’s standpoint, conspicuous consumption could be identified by the avoidance of work, by the wearing of expensive, dysfunctional clothing, and a life of idleness. The underlying motivation in the eyes of Veblen is the demonstration of wealth toward others, and his idea implies a positive correlation between wealth and conspicuous consumption.

The above notions might hold in a very general way, but when we consider psychological variables that should be pertinent to the problem, we arrive at a more differentiated view. The present research, for instance, points to a compensatory relation between persons’ security (i.e. wealth, competence, or other sources of security in an identity) and certain kinds of conspicuous consumption. In the present case, conspicuous consumption is defined in the eye of the consumer, i.e. we have used the respondent’s subjectively-rated prestige of the product as the outcome variable. Important here, of course, is the respondent’s commitment to the identity in question: without such a commitment, the compensatory relation disappears.

In the first two studies there was definite evidence of an inverse relationship between experience in the identity area and the laying claim to symbols, and comparable patterns were obtained in the studies that followed. The important contribution of those last four studies lies with the commitment variable, whereby it becomes clear that if the relatively uncommitted respondents are singled out and their data analysed separately, the compensatory phenomenon disappears and is replaced by a positive relationship between security and conspicuous consumption.

The present set of studies constitutes a conceptual replication of earlier experimental and correlational work in the area of self-comple-


tion theory (cf. Wicklund and Gollwitzer 1982, 1985). The commitment variable has invariably played a central role in the various forms of compensation observed in a variety of laboratory and field contexts. The present group of studies extends this same reasoning - implement- ing once again the variables commitment and completeness/ incompleteness - in the arena of material symbols, or markers, of one’s

identity attainment. The generality of the present effects is not limited to their compari-

son with earlier research. That is, the samples represent two countries, both sexes, a variety of ages, non-student groups, alternative methods of operationalizing incompleteness, and claims to the possession of symbols in a diversity of settings.

In studies 4, 5 and 6 we asked in a global manner about the prestige value of a good. It was not taken into account that a particular good has a specific meaning in a specific identity area. That is, in all of the research reported here there was no special attempt to be sure that the prestige value of the product was appropriate to the identity toward which subjects were striving. But this consideration can be crucial. For example, if we take an individual who is committed to being a ‘good Christian’ in all respects defined by the church, it is clear that the price of one’s hotel room on a tourist island will not contribute directly to the fulfillment of that identity. Rather, adorning oneself with Christian jewelry and assorted symbols is the more likely route. In other words, the fulfillment of any given identity is reached via means that are defined by the specific subgroup in question, a point made by Hass and Shaffir (1977) and documented by Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1982). This view is consistent with the Douglas and Isherwood (1979: 59) statement that goods ‘. . . are needed for making visible and stable the categories of culture. It is standard ethnographic practice to assume that all material possessions carry social meanings and to concentrate a main part of cultural analysis upon their use as communicators.’

Finally, the psychological analysis presented here uses incompleteness as the starting point, and shows how certain forms of conspicuous consumption can stem out of this incompleteness (together with commitment). If one begins with the dependent variable itself, i.e. conspicuous consumption, and looks backward in time to try to find the cause, it is clear that one will find other kinds of causal elements - quite independent of incompleteness among identity-committed individuals. For instance, even if the empirical evidence for the idea is weak, there


may very well be a general price-quality illusion (Diller 1977; 227) thus driving people to pay more money in the hope of receiving better products. If those better products simultaneously carry a ‘prestige’ message, then we can say that price alone might also contribute to what looks like conspicuous consumption. In short, if the attempt is to get a handle on conspicuous consumption in all its forms, it is necessary to examine such processes, in addition to the kind of compensatory striving investigated here.

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Psychological antecedents of conspicuous consumption