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Better or Different? How Political Ideology Shapes Preferences for Differentiation in the Social Hierarchy
Abstract
As consumers’ political opinions become more divided and more central to their identities, it is important to understand how political ideology shapes consumers’ attempts to differentiate from others in the marketplace. Seven studies demonstrate that political ideology systematically influences consumers’ preferences for differentiation. Conservative ideology leads consumers to differentiate from others vertically in the social hierarchy through products that signal that they are better than others, and liberal ideology leads consumers to differentiate from others horizontally in the social hierarchy through products that signal that they are unique from others. This happens because conservatism endorses, and liberalism opposes, the belief that the dominance-based hierarchical social structure is a legitimate mechanism to distinguish individual qualities. The effect is robust across measured and manipulated ideology, hypothetical and real product choices, and online searches in conservative and liberal US states. Manipulating consumers’ differentiation goals and perceptions of hierarchy legitimacy mitigates the effect. The findings advance existing research on political ideology, social hierarchy, and consumer divergence, and they contribute to marketing practice.
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“And the more widespread a political conviction in a population, the higher the probability that the population will adopt political structures that shape reality in line with it (Jost et al. 2003;Ordabayeva and Fernandes 2018).”
From What Is the Function of Confirmation Bias? (2022) · cites this paper as Ordabayeva and Fernandes 2018
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ordabayeva, N., & Fernandes, D.
- Affiliations
- Boston College (US)
- Universidade Católica Portuguesa (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Ordabayeva, Nailya
- Venue
- Journal of Consumer Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-01-29
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 227-250
- ISSN
- 0093-5301 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5277
- OpenAlex
- W2792967648
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 33.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consumer Research (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Boston College (UID/GES/00407/2013)
- Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Perception and Purchasing Behavior
- Keywords
- political ideology, consumer differentiation, social hierarchy, conservatism, liberalism, product selection, status signaling
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