Publications
Publications
- 2019
Status Pivoting: Coping with Status Threats through Motivated Trade-off Beliefs and Consumption across Domains
By: Dafna Goor, Anat Keinan and Nailya Ordabayeva
Abstract
Prior research established that status threat leads consumers to display status-related products such as luxury brands. While compensatory consumption in the domain of the status threat (e.g., products associated with financial and professional success) is the most straightforward way to cope with comparisons to high-status individuals, we examine when, why, and how consumers cope with status threat by choosing to “pivot” and display success and achievements in alternative domains. Using a mixed-method approach, combining field and lab experiments, netnographic analysis, an observational study, and qualitative interviews, we show that when experiencing status threat consumers are motivated to adopt beliefs about trade-offs across domains, i.e. to believe that others’ success in one domain leads to sacrifice or failure in another domain. We further show that these motivated trade-off beliefs fuel consumption and display of products in these alternative domains. We conceptualize this behavior as “status pivoting,” investigate the domains consumers pivot to, and compare the prevalence, appeal, and effectiveness of status pivoting to attempts to restore status in the domain of the threat.
Keywords
Citation
Goor, Dafna, Anat Keinan, and Nailya Ordabayeva. "Status Pivoting: Coping with Status Threats through Motivated Trade-off Beliefs and Consumption across Domains." Working Paper, April 2019. (Invited for revision at Journal of Consumer Research.)