The Impact of Political Identity on Consumer Behavior

Date
2019-04-18
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Abstract

Over the past decade, consumers’ political identity has become more salient because of increased political polarization. As such, companies need to better understand how consumers’ political identity affects their attitudes and behaviors. In my dissertation, I investigate whether and how consumers’ political identity influences important decisions that are seemingly unrelated to political identity. I further explore individual and situational factors that moderate the effect of political identity on consumer decisions. Specifically, I focus on parents’ choice of supplemental education programs (SEPs) examining the contingent effect of political identity on consumer decision-making. The market for SEPs—tutorials, educational materials, and summer programs—has burgeoned, but how these spending decisions are made is not well understood. I examine how parents’ political identity affects their preference for SEPs based on their self- versus other focus. My argument is based on two main educational orientations—conformance orientation and independence orientation—which are used to design SEPs. I argue that SEPs with a conformance-oriented pedagogy may be preferred more by conservative parents, whereas SEPs with an independence-oriented pedagogy may be preferred more by liberal parents. This association of political identity and preference for SEPs is moderated by parents’ self- versus other focus. Counterintuitively, when using political orientation to target messages for SEPs, firms should frame these messages in such a way that makes parents focus on themselves rather than on children so that identity-consistent effects can manifest. Ten studies—including a field study at educational institutions and secondary data analysis—test this theorizing and replicate the key results by using different measures of political identity and self- versus other focus.

Description
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
Thesis
Keywords
Political Identity, education programs, self- versus other focus, self-construal
Citation

Jung, Ji Hye. "The Impact of Political Identity on Consumer Behavior." (2019) Diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/106014.

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