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Silver Spoons and Platinum Plans: How Childhood Environment Affects Adult Health Care Decisions

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  • Chiraag Mittal
  • Vladas Griskevicius

Abstract

Can socioeconomic status in childhood influence desire for health coverage in adulthood? We develop and test a model that yielded two sets of findings across five experiments. First, people who grew up poor were generally less interested in health coverage compared to those who grew up wealthy. This effect was independent of people’s current level of socioeconomic status, emerged most strongly when adults were experiencing financial threat, and was mediated by differences in willingness to take risks between people from poor versus wealthy childhoods. Second, we show that this effect reverses when people are provided with base-rate information about disease. When information about the average likelihood of getting sick is made available, people who grew up poor were consistently more likely to seek health coverage than people who grew up wealthy. This effect was again strongest when people felt a sense of financial threat, and it was driven by people from poor versus wealthy childhoods differing in their perceptions of the likelihood of becoming sick. Overall, we show how, why, and when childhood socioeconomic status influences desire for health coverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiraag Mittal & Vladas Griskevicius, 2016. "Silver Spoons and Platinum Plans: How Childhood Environment Affects Adult Health Care Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(4), pages 636-656.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:43:y:2016:i:4:p:636-656.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucw046
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Christopher Hickey & Derek T. Tharp, 2021. "U.S. health insurance marketplace taxonomy and the influence of labeling on consumer perception of plan suitability," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 203-231, March.
    2. Wu, Yuechen & Wang, Ruijuan & Jin, Huizhen & Zhu, Meng, 2023. "Providing assets in the sharing economy: Low childhood socioeconomic status as a barrier," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 534-551.
    3. Meiting Liu & Aki Koivula, 2021. "Silver Spoon and Green Lifestyle: A National Study of the Association between Childhood Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Adulthood Pro-Environmental Behavior in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-14, July.
    4. Wang, Wangshuai & Yi, Yanxi & Li, Jie & Sun, Gong & Zhang, Mo, 2022. "Lighting up the dark: How the scarcity of childhood resources leads to preferences for bright stimuli," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1155-1164.
    5. Yang, Feifan & Chu, Rongwei & Cai, Yahua & Chen, Zhijun, 2022. "Breadwinning: Migrant workers’ family motivation in facing life-threatening events and its performance implications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 491-502.
    6. Kim, Jungkeun & Giroux, Marilyn & Kim, Jae-Eun & Choi, Yung Kyun & Gonzalez-Jimenez, Hector & Lee, Jacob C. & Park, Jooyoung & Jang, Seongsoo & (Sam) Kim, Seongseop, 2021. "The moderating role of childhood socioeconomic status on the impact of nudging on the perceived threat of coronavirus and stockpiling intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Dominic Thomas, 2022. "Unhealthy food preferences: A psychological consequence of poverty?," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 613-639, June.
    8. Leiby, Justin & Madsen, Paul E., 2017. "Margin of safety: Life history strategies and the effects of socioeconomic status on self-selection into accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 21-36.
    9. Whelan, Jodie & Hingston, Sean T., 2022. "Pathogens, privilege, and purity: How pathogen threat and childhood socioeconomic status influence consumers’ condemnation of purity violations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 636-647.
    10. Wang, Lili & You, Yanfen & Yang, Chun-Ming, 2020. "Restrained by resources: The effect of scarcity cues and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on consumer preference for feasibility," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 557-571.
    11. Bradshaw, Hannah K. & Rodeheffer, Christopher D. & Hill, Sarah E., 2020. "Scarcity, sex, and spending: Recession cues increase women's desire for men owning luxury products and men's desire to buy them," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 561-568.
    12. Rebecca Hamilton & Debora Thompson & Sterling Bone & Lan Nguyen Chaplin & Vladas Griskevicius & Kelly Goldsmith & Ronald Hill & Deborah Roedder John & Chiraag Mittal & Thomas O’Guinn & Paul Piff & Car, 2019. "The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 532-550, May.

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