The Role of Guilt and Shame on Conspicuous Consumption

Abstract

The proposed study examines the effect of individual proneness for guilt and shame on conspicuous consumption. Chaudhuri et al (2001) define conspicuous consumption as “a deliberate engagement in symbolic and visible purchase, possession and usage of products and services imbued with scarce economic and cultural capital with motivation to communicate a distinctive self-image to others”. Such consumption has been considered sinful, wasteful and of little or no utilitarian value. While most studies of consumption look at the positive aspects of a purchase (like brand loyalty’s) rarely are variables like guilt and shame factored into consumer research studies. Guilt is seen as a product of a person's behavior –“I did something awful”, whereas shame is the feelings brought on making public a particular behavior. Conspicuous consumption, as a construct, is related to two variables: 1) concern for appropriateness and 2) brand experience in addition to both shame and quilt proness, It is known that the brand experience to brand loyalty to willingness to buy relationships are well established in the literature. However, studying the relationships between a consumer's concern for appropriateness and both shame and guilt proness will provide new insights in the literature.