IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15950-d1280396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Comparisons and Compensatory Consumption: The Art of Buying a Superior Self

Author

Listed:
  • Kristi Reid-Partin

    (School of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78705, USA)

  • Veena Chattaraman

    (Department of Consumer and Design Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA)

Abstract

This paper examines how consumers’ body satisfaction, beliefs about the malleability of their appearance, and incidental comparisons with upward vs. lateral social media influencers interact to affect the type of consumption behaviors they engage in. Based on propositions of the compensatory consumption behavior (CCB) model and the social comparison theory, this study employs an online experiment with a 2 (social comparison: upward/lateral) × 2 (body satisfaction: low/high) × 2 (implicit theory: entity/incremental) × 2 (product type: head- and body-related) mixed-factorial design among a sample of 192 women (19–35 years). The appearance of the influencers was manipulated (upward: thinner, primped models; lateral: average weight, natural models), as were the products being advertised, whereas body satisfaction and consumers’ implicit theory were measured. The results indicated that consumers were more persuaded to purchase products from lateral compared to upward influencers. Further, lateral influencers were more persuasive for head-related (vs. body-related) products, whereas upward influencers were more successful in promoting body-related (vs. head-related) products. A significant ( p < 0.05) interaction between body satisfaction, implicit theory of appearance, and product type also emerged, supporting the proposals of the CCB model on how consumption behaviors are affected by felt discrepancies. These findings indicate that marketers can access more effective marketing results by collaborating with influencers that have a similar appearance to that of their target audience.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristi Reid-Partin & Veena Chattaraman, 2023. "Social Comparisons and Compensatory Consumption: The Art of Buying a Superior Self," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15950-:d:1280396
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15950/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15950/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Xiaoying & Baskin, Ernest & Peng, Siqing, 2018. "Feeling inferior, showing off: The effect of nonmaterial social comparisons on conspicuous consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 196-205.
    2. Holbrook, Morris B, 1986. "Aims, Concepts, and Methods for the Representation of Individual Differences in Esthetic Responses to Design Features," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(3), pages 337-347, December.
    3. Holbrook, Morris B & Moore, William L, 1981. "Feature Interactions in Consumer Judgments of Verbal versus Pictorial Presentations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(1), pages 103-113, June.
    4. Edell, Julie A & Burke, Marian Chapman, 1987. "The Power of Feelings in Understanding Advertising Effects," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 421-433, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Youping & Shuai, Jie, 2019. "Monopolistic competition, price discrimination and welfare," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 114-117.
    2. Martins, José & Costa, Catarina & Oliveira, Tiago & Gonçalves, Ramiro & Branco, Frederico, 2019. "How smartphone advertising influences consumers' purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 378-387.
    3. Septianto, Felix & Ye, Sheng & Northey, Gavin, 2021. "The effectiveness of advertising images in promoting experiential offerings: An emotional response approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 344-352.
    4. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Goodstein, Ronald C. & Grewal, Dhruv & Price, Robert & Raghubir, Priya & Stewart, David, 2009. "Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 15-30.
    5. Garaus, Marion & Wagner, Udo & Manzinger, Sandra, 2017. "Happy grocery shopper: The creation of positive emotions through affective digital signage content," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 295-305.
    6. Babin, Barry J. & Griffin, Mitch, 1998. "The nature of satisfaction: An updated examination and analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 127-136, February.
    7. Bhukya, Ramulu & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Social influence research in consumer behavior: What we learned and what we need to learn? – A hybrid systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. Muhammad Abdullah Khan & Usman Ghani & Sadia Aziz, 2019. "Impact of Islamic Religiosity on Consumers’ Attitudes towards Islamic and Conventional ways of Advertisements, Attitude towards Brands and Purchase Intentions," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-30, March.
    9. Lee, Seunghwan & Kim, Yukyoum & Heere, Bob, 2018. "Sport team emotion: Conceptualization, scale development and validation," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 363-376.
    10. Ali, Mazhar, 2016. "Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness of Creative Television Advertisements for High Involvement Products," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(4), pages 916-932.
    11. Angela Aerry Choi & Daegon Cho & Dobin Yim & Jae Yun Moon & Wonseok Oh, 2019. "When Seeing Helps Believing: The Interactive Effects of Previews and Reviews on E-Book Purchases," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1164-1183, December.
    12. LEMOINE, Jean-François & PLICHON, Véronique, 2000. "Le rôle des facteurs situationnels dans l'explication des réactions affectives du consommateur à l'intérieur d'un point de vente. / The Role of Situational Factors in the Understanding of Consumer Aff," LEG - CERMAB / Centre de Recherche en Marketing de Bourgogne - Cahier de recherche 2000-04, LEG - CERMAB, CNRS UMR 5118, Université de Bourgogne.
    13. Sunyoung Hlee & Hanna Lee & Chulmo Koo, 2018. "Hospitality and Tourism Online Review Research: A Systematic Analysis and Heuristic-Systematic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-27, April.
    14. McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Patterson, Paul G. & Smith, Amy K. & Brady, Michael K., 2009. "Customer Rage Episodes: Emotions, Expressions and Behaviors," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 222-237.
    15. Sonia Capelli & William Sabadie & Olivier Trendel, 2009. "Président, fais moi rire ! La communication politique entre peur et humour," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-00467982, HAL.
    16. Holak, Susan L. & Havlena, William J., 1998. "Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories: An Examination of the Emotional Components of Nostalgia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 217-226, July.
    17. Coulter, Keith S. & Punj, Girish, 1999. "Influence of Viewing Context on the Determinants of Attitude Toward the Ad and the Brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 47-58, May.
    18. Zeng, Guojun & Cao, Xinning & Lin, Zhibin & Xiao, Sarah H., 2020. "When online reviews meet virtual reality: Effects on consumer hotel booking," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Avramova, Yana R. & Dens, Nathalie & De Pelsmacker, Patrick, 2021. "Brand placement across media: The interaction of placement modality and frequency in film versus text," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 20-30.
    20. Federica Codignola & Paolo Mariani, 2022. "Investigating preferences in art collecting: the case of the François Pinault Collection," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2022(1), pages 107-133, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15950-:d:1280396. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.