From Status-Seeking Consumption to Social Norms. An Application to the Consumption of Cleanliness

Julia Sophie Woersdorfer ()

Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography

Abstract: Interdependencies in consumer behavior stem from either status-seeking consumption or compliance with social norms. This paper analyzes how a consumption act changes from a means to signal the consumer’s status to a means of norm compliance. It is shown that such a transformation can only be understood when consumer motivations other than social recognition are taken into account. We depict norm emergence as a learning process based on changing associations between a specific consumption act and widely shared, non-subjectivist consumer needs. Our conjectures are illustrated by means of a case study: the emergence of the cleanliness norm in the 19th century.

Keywords: social norms; status seeking; externalities; consumer needs; consumer learning; cleanliness Length 32 pages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 D11 D62 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:esi:evopap:2008-10

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