TY - JOUR
T1 - Feeling economically stuck
T2 - The effect of perceived economic mobility and socioeconomic status on variety seeking
AU - Yoon, Sunyee
AU - Kim, Hyeongmin Christian
N1 - Funding Information:
Sunyee Yoon (sunyee@buffalo.edu) is assistant professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo, 215 Jacobs Management Center, Buffalo, NY 14260-4000. Hyeongmin Christian Kim (chkim@jhu.edu) is associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, 100 International Drive, Baltimore, MD 21202. Both authors contributed equally. The authors thank the editor, the associate editor, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Financial support of the Marketing Science Institute (grant 4-1934), awarded to the second author, is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - Five studies provide converging evidence for the joint effect of perceived economic mobility and socioeconomic status (SES) on compensatory behavior, such that low SES consumers who perceive low economic mobility (i.e., economically stuck consumers) seek more variety than other consumers. We trace this effect to these consumers' desire to compensate for their low sense of personal control. Furthermore, we show that these consumers' variety-seeking tendency disappears when their sense of control is boosted by other means or when the more varied option is not associated with a sense of control. Alternative explanations based on instrumental benefits, reactance, and affect were tested and did not account for the effect. Thus, the current research provides fresh insights to consumer research by contributing to the literature on compensatory behavior, variety seeking, and SES.
AB - Five studies provide converging evidence for the joint effect of perceived economic mobility and socioeconomic status (SES) on compensatory behavior, such that low SES consumers who perceive low economic mobility (i.e., economically stuck consumers) seek more variety than other consumers. We trace this effect to these consumers' desire to compensate for their low sense of personal control. Furthermore, we show that these consumers' variety-seeking tendency disappears when their sense of control is boosted by other means or when the more varied option is not associated with a sense of control. Alternative explanations based on instrumental benefits, reactance, and affect were tested and did not account for the effect. Thus, the current research provides fresh insights to consumer research by contributing to the literature on compensatory behavior, variety seeking, and SES.
KW - Choice
KW - Compensatory behavior
KW - Control
KW - Perceived economic mobility
KW - Socioeconomic status
KW - Variety seeking
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U2 - 10.1093/jcr/ucx091
DO - 10.1093/jcr/ucx091
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041512408
SN - 0093-5301
VL - 44
SP - 1141
EP - 1156
JO - Journal of Consumer Research
JF - Journal of Consumer Research
IS - 5
M1 - ucx091
ER -