Does Luxury Create Wealth? The Impact And Mechanism Of Social Comparison On Conspicuous Consumption In College Students

With the rapid development of China’s economy and the steady improvement of people’s living standards,more and more consumers not only pay attention to the practical value of commodities,but they prefer to buy commodities with the function of value or status symbol.This kind of consumption behavior through the purchase of expensive commodities to highlight wealth and status is called conspicuous consumption.Meanwhile,many survey reports and empirical studies point out that conspicuous consumption is gradually showing a trend of younger age,and it is also prevalent among college students.It is common for college students to use online loans,campus loans and other means of forward spending to destroy their families due to conspicuous consumption,so conspicuous consumption has been widely concerned by the research fields of psychology and management.Based on the psychological compensation,this study regards conspicuous consumption as a substitute tool for satisfying psychological needs,aiming to compensate for the psychological disadvantage and self-threat generated by social comparison.In addition to conspicuous consumption,individuals can also compensate for this psychological disadvantage and self-threat through other means.Therefore,based on previous studies and theories on conspicuous consumption,this study explores the relationship between social comparison and conspicuous consumption among college students and the psychological behavior mechanism through three experiments.In study 1,3(social comparison direction: upward,downward,control)×2(consumption type: conspicuous spending,inconspicuous spending)mixed ANOVA was conducted to explore the influence of different social comparison directions on conspicuous consumption.The social comparison direction was manipulated by constructing the academic performance comparison situation,and the conspicuous consumption tendency was measured by the consumption amount allocation task.A total of 113 valid samples were collected from a university in Hubei Province(M age = 19.23,SD = 1.08).The results show that consumers would like to spend money on conspicuous consumption products after comparing with those who have better academic performance than themselves(upward social comparison).However,consumers would like to spend money on non-conspicuous consumption products when compared with those with lower academic performance(downward social comparison).There was no significant difference between the control group and the downward comparison group.Building on the compensatory consumption model,sense of control is introduced to further explore the psychological mechanism of social comparison and conspicuous consumption.In experiment 2,a single-factor within-subject design was adopted,in which social comparison direction(upward and downward)was the independent variable,and sense of control and conspicuous consumption behavior tendency were the dependent variables.The social comparison direction was manipulated by "character description task",sense of control was measured by self-report scale,and the conspicuous consumption behavior tendency was measured by virtual market survey.A total of 122 valid samples were collected from a university in Hubei Province(M age = 19.48,SD =2.25).The results show that:(1)Upward social comparison leads to consumers’ sense of control loss;(2)Different directions of social comparison have an impact on conspicuous consumption of college students;(3)Upward social comparison can threaten individuals’ sense of control and increase the tendency of conspicuous consumption;Downward social comparison can increase the sense of control and inhibit the tendency of conspicuous consumption.In order to explore the boundary conditions between social comparison and conspicuous consumption,the study3 used a 2(perceived economic mobility: high and low)×2(social comparison direction: upward and downward)between-subjects design to further explore the effect of perceived economic mobility.The dependent variable was the participants’ tendency of conspicuous consumption and the level of perceived control.First,a "news reading task" is used to manipulate perceived economic mobility.Secondly,the Mac Arthur scale is combined with the "character description task" to manipulate the social comparison of economic status dimension.Finally,the subjects’ sense of control and conspicuous consumption were measured by self-report scale.A total of 157 valid samples were collected from a university in Hubei Province(M age = 19.51,SD = 1.64).The results showed that:(1)Sense of control played a moderating role between social comparison and conspicuous consumption;(2)Perceived economic mobility did not mediate between social comparison and perceived control,that is,perceived economic mobility did not moderate the mediating role of perceived control;(3)Perceived economic mobility moderates the direct effects of social comparison and conspicuous consumption.Specifically,the positive effect of upward social comparison on the tendency to conspicuous consumption behavior is strengthened when perceived economic mobility is low.Based on the analysis results of the above three experiments,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)social comparison affects conspicuous consumption of college students;(2)After controlling age,sense of control played a partial mediating role between social comparison and conspicuous consumption;(3)After controlling the subjective class identity,perceived economic mobility moderates the direct path of social comparison and conspicuous consumption,that is,when perceived economic mobility is high,there is no significant difference between upward comparison and downward comparison on conspicuous consumption;When perceived economic mobility is low,there is a significant difference in conspicuous consumption between upward and downward comparisons.From the perspective of the interaction between external environment(social comparison)and psychological processes(sense of control and perceived economic mobility),this study explores the interpersonal behavioral consequences of social comparison,in which sense of control mediates between social comparison and conspicuous consumption and perception of economic mobility moderates.The conclusion of this study reveals the internal psychological mechanism and boundary conditions that influence of conspicuous consumption in social comparison’ different directions,which has certain enlightenment significance for preventing and curbing the occurrence of irrational consumption behavior of college students,and provides important reference and effective practical guidance for promoting the harmonious development of consumption market.