Desire to Acquire: Powerlessness and Compensatory Consumption
Abstract
Three experiments examine how power affects consumers' spending propensities. By integrating literatures suggesting that (a) powerlessness is aversive, (b) status is one basis of power, and (c) products can signal status, the authors argue that low power fosters a desire to acquire products associated with status to compensate for lacking power. Supporting this compensatory hypothesis, results show that low power increased consumers' willingness to pay for auction items and consumers' reservation prices in negotiations but only when products were status related. The link between powerlessness and compensatory consumption has broad implications both for consumers' health and well-being and for understanding the psychological state of power.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.51.6.1173 · Cited by 91,542 · see citing works
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 · Cited by 91,532 · see citing works
Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.4.422 · Cited by 11,335 · see citing works
Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation.
Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037//0021-843x.87.1.49 · Cited by 7,121 · see citing works
Power, approach, and inhibition.
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Anderson, C. (2003) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.110.2.265 · Cited by 3,427 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Going green to be seen: status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., & Van den Bergh, B. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0017346 · Cited by 2,174 · see citing works
Mende, M., Scott, M. L., van Doorn, J., Grewal, D., & Shanks, I. (2019) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1177/0022243718822827 · Cited by 1,197 · see citing works
The Compensatory Consumer Behavior Model: How self‐discrepancies drive consumer behavior
Mandel, N., Rucker, D. D., Levav, J., & Galinsky, A. D. (2017) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2016.05.003 · Cited by 564 · see citing works
Self-citationProtecting the self through consumption: Status goods as affirmational commodities
Sivanathan, N., & Pettit, N. C. (2010) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.01.006 · Cited by 449 · see citing works
Power and consumer behavior: How power shapes who and what consumers value
Rucker, D. D., Galinsky, A. D., & Dubois, D. (2012) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2011.06.001 · Cited by 452 · see citing works
Self-citationDubois, D., Rucker, D. D., & Galinsky, A. D. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspi0000008 · Cited by 404 · see citing works
Self-citationA Self‐Regulatory Model of Resource Scarcity
Cannon, C., Goldsmith, K., & Roux, C. (2019) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcpy.1035 · Cited by 280 · see citing works
Jin, S. V., & Ryu, E. (2022) · Journal of Consumer Affairs · doi:10.1111/joca.12381 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
The Curvilinear Relationship Between Attitude Certainty and Attitudinal Advocacy
Cheatham, L. B., & Tormala, Z. L. (2017) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167216673349 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
When the reaper becomes a salesman: The influence of terror management on product preferences
Van Bommel, T., O'Dwyer, C., Zuidgeest, T. W. M., & Poletiek, F. H. (2015) · Journal of Economic & Financial Studies · doi:10.18533/jefs.v3i05.121 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“For example, thoughts of death could induce a state of powerlessness, which in turn leads participants to “self-medicate” by choosing high-status products that restore their feelings of power (Rucker & Galinsky, 2008).”
Background
- Authors
- Rucker, D. D., & Galinsky, A. D.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Consumer Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-08
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 257-267
- ISSN
- 0093-5301 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5277
- OpenAlex
- W2102751073
- Cited by
- 925
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 72 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 64 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 76 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 55 · 2015: 59 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 48.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consumer Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
- Keywords
- powerlessness, compensatory consumption, status consumption, status signaling, consumer spending, willingness to pay, reservation price, negotiation, consumer well-being
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
