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Privileged And Picky: How Entitlement Impacts Product Acceptance Range of Advantaged vs. Disadvantaged Consumers
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Privileged And Picky: How Entitlement Impacts Product Acceptance Range of Advantaged vs. Disadvantaged Consumers

Bryce Pyrah, Chelsea Galoni and Jing (Alice) Wang
SSRN Electronic Journal
2023
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4568556
url
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4568556View
Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

Growing inequality continues to impact the lives of consumers, further widening the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged. The present work examines how inequality impacts the psychology of consumers. Through six studies, including an analysis of consumer panel data and five experiments, we find that feeling disadvantaged leads consumers to be less picky (an increased latitude of acceptance around ideal points). We also show that this relationship is mediated by feelings of psychological entitlement: those who feel disadvantaged feel lower psychological entitlement than those who feel advantaged, which drives their lower level of pickiness. Furthermore, we find that this process is moderated by (1) perceived status unfairness and (2) the relevance of psychological entitlement as a self-evaluation. First, when consumers perceive status to be unfair (vs. fair), the gap in psychological entitlement and subsequent pickiness is attenuated. Additionally, when consumers are purchasing for others (vs. themselves), self-evaluations such as entitlement are less relevant. Hence, feelings of disadvantage (and reduced entitlement) have attenuated effects on pickiness. The present work offers novel theoretical and managerial insights into how inequality impacts the psychology and well-being of disadvantaged consumers.

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