From status-seeking consumption to social norms: An application to the consumption of cleanliness

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Papers on Economics and Evolution ; No. 0810

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact ; Consumer Economics: Theory ; Externalities ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
• Subject: social norms ; status seeking ; externalities ; consumer needs ; consumer learning ; cleanliness

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Woersdorfer, Julia Sophie
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/32673
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET