These Clothes Become You: Effects of Consumption on Social-Identification

It is well-recognized that people consume in ways that establish and express their self-identities (Belk 1988; Fournier 1998; McCracken 1989). We investigated if wearing, choosing, and receiving consumer goods also affects people’s identity. Recent studies suggest that consumption influences the way in which people perceive themselves (Chao and Chiou 2011, Gino, Norton, and Ariely 2010). For instance, women felt more glamorous after using a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag than after using a bag from a less appealing brand (Park and John 2010). We build on and extend these findings by revealing that consumption may not only influence people’s selfperception but may also affect their social identities. The crucial discrepancies are that self-perception effects involve dimensional changes on particular traits (attractiveness, intelligence) that all people possess to some extent, whereas social identity effects of consumption would imply categorical changes in people’s selfviews as members of particular social groups to which they either belong to or not. Furthermore, consumption effects on social identity would not only involve a change in self-perception but also imply changes in the perception others who are members of a particular social group. As such, the present studies suggest that the effects of consumption on the self are more profound that currently recognized.