Ideology and Brand Consumption

Romana Khan; Kanishka Misra; Vishal Singh

doi:10.1177/0956797612457379

Ideology and Brand Consumption

Romana Khan¹; Kanishka Misra²; Vishal Singh³

¹ Graduate School of Business, Ozyegin University · ² Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan · ³ Stern School of Business, New York University

Psychological Science 2013

Do mundane daily choices, such as what brands people buy in a supermarket, reflect aspects of values and ideologies? This article presents a large-scale field study performed to determine whether traits associated with a conservative ideology, as measured by voting behavior and religiosity, are manifested in consumers’ routine, seemingly inconsequential product choices. Our analysis of market shares for a variety of frequently purchased products shows that both of these measures of conservatism are associated with a systematic preference for established national brands (as opposed to their generic substitutes) and with a lower propensity to buy newly launched products. These tendencies correspond with other psychological traits associated with a conservative ideology, such as preference for tradition and the status quo, avoidance of ambiguity and uncertainty, and skepticism about new experiences.

DOI: 10.1177/0956797612457379
Volume: 24 (3)
Pages: 326-333
Language: en
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Sources: crossref