 We Do What We Are: Representation of the Self-Concept and Identity-Based ChoiceStephanie Y Chen, Oleg Urminsky and Jiaqi Yu Journal of Consumer Research, 2024, vol. 51, issue 2, 298-320 Abstract: The current research proposes a novel approach to identity-based choice that focuses on consumers’ representations of the self-concept, as captured by the perceived cause–effect relationships among features of an individual consumer’s self-concept. More specifically, the studies reported here test the proposal that the causal centrality of an identity—the number of other features of a consumer’s self-concept that the consumer believes influenced or were influenced by the identity—underlies identity importance and is a determinant of identity-based consumer behaviors. Across seven studies, using both measured and manipulated causal centrality, the current research provides evidence for the role of causal centrality in identity-based choice. Among consumers who share an identity (belong to the same social category), those who believe that the identity is more causally central perceive the identity as more important and are more likely to engage in behaviors consistent with the norms of the social category. Keywords: causal reasoning; identity; identity-based choice; self-concept (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:51:y:2024:i:2:p:298-320. Access Statistics for this article Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc. |
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