Causes of Social Identity Threats and Identity-consistent Product Consumption

In view of consumers’ responses to social identity threats, present research aimed at exploring the moderation effects of the extent to which consumers identify with their in-group as causes of inducing social identity threats on symbolic product choice. Using questionnaire data from 572 Chinese students, this study found results as follows. When consumers consider that a threat is caused by an out-group, consumers with high identification with their in-group were more likely to choose the in-group-symbolic product from among the three alternatives, in-group-symbolic product, out-group-symbolic product, and famous brand product, than those with low identification with the in-group. When the threat was considered to be caused by the in-group, consumers with high identification with their in-group were more likely to choose the in-group-symbolic product from among the three products, whereas those with low identification with the in-group were more likely to choose the famous brand product from among the three.