IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v37y2010i3p443-455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You Like What I Like, but I Don't Like What You Like: Uniqueness Motivations in Product Preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Caglar Irmak
  • Beth Vallen
  • Sankar Sen

Abstract

Consumers often gauge their own and others' preferences for products through social comparisons. This research examines the role of consumers' need for uniqueness (CNFU) in two common social comparisons: projection and introjection. Consumers project (i.e., rely on their own preferences to estimate those of others), regardless of their CNFU. However, high-CNFU consumers are less likely than low-CNFU ones to introject (i.e., rely on estimates of others' preferences to gauge their own). Moreover, alleviating the introjection-induced threat to the high-CNFU consumers' self-concept by having them deliberate on their differentness from others increases their likelihood of introjection. Together, these findings confirm our basic contention that the process underlying introjection is more motivational in nature than that underlying projection. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Suggested Citation

  • Caglar Irmak & Beth Vallen & Sankar Sen, 2010. "You Like What I Like, but I Don't Like What You Like: Uniqueness Motivations in Product Preferences," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 443-455, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:37:y:2010:i:3:p:443-455
    DOI: 10.1086/653139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/653139
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/653139?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chaouali, Walid & Ben Yahia, Imene & Souiden, Nizar, 2016. "The interplay of counter-conformity motivation, social influence, and trust in customers' intention to adopt Internet banking services: The case of an emerging country," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 209-218.
    2. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    3. Stathopoulou, Anastasia & Balabanis, George, 2019. "The effect of cultural value orientation on consumers' perceptions of luxury value and proclivity for luxury consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 298-312.
    4. Caroline Lancelot Miltgen & Gaelle Pantin-Sohier & Bianca Grohmann, 2016. "Communicating Sensory Attributes and Innovation Through Food Product Labeling," Post-Print hal-01247599, HAL.
    5. Chang, Hsin Hsin & Wong, Kit Hong & Shen, Yi An, 2022. "Effects of the consumer socialization process on content sharing on SNSs: Social comparison and anticipated emotions as moderators," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    6. Wang, Xia & Yu, Chunling & Wei, Yujie, 2012. "Social Media Peer Communication and Impacts on Purchase Intentions: A Consumer Socialization Framework," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 198-208.
    7. Huang, Huiling & Liu, Stephanie Q. & Kandampully, Jay & Bujisic, Milos, 2020. "Consumer Responses to Scarcity Appeals in Online Booking," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Liu, Longzhu & Chen, Rong & He, Feng, 2015. "How to promote purchase of carbon offset products: Labeling vs. calculation?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 942-948.
    9. Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier & Caroline Lancelot Miltgen, 2012. "L'impact des stimuli informationnels d'un nouveau produit alimentaire sur les réactions affectives et cognitives du consommateur," Post-Print hal-01117036, HAL.
    10. Ubedullah Khoso & Eric Tafani & Asim Qazi Shabir, 2023. "Scarcity Appeals In Cross-Cultural Settings: A Comprehensive Framework," Post-Print hal-04261221, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:jconrs:v:37:y:2010:i:3:p:443-455. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    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.