Conspicuous consumption for social parity

Extant literature on status signalling primarily adopts Veblen’s theory of class to caste and racial identities. This study aimed at adopting a more suitable theoretical lens to examine status signalling that is more relevant not only for class identities, but also for other identities such as caste and racial identities. By viewing conspicuous consumption within the framework of the stigma-identity-threat model, the study analyses how socially disadvantaged groups in India respond to stigma through their consumption behaviour. Using data from two rounds of the India Human Development Survey, we study whether disadvantaged social groups embrace or distance themselves from their stigmatised identity. For the periods 2004–05 and 2011–12, we find that households from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes among caste groups, and Muslims among religious groups, tend to move away from their devalued identity. However, the manner in which this is done not only varies across these social groups but also across time. The study also finds that the material threshold that a social group needs to surpass in order to stop signalling status varies based on their position in the social hierarchy.