关键词: 敬畏, 小我, 炫耀性消费倾向, 自我超越, 自我增强

Abstract: Now, the most prevalent perspective sees conspicuous consumption as a compensatory strategy to protect self-esteem, thus suggesting individuals to reduce conspicuous consumption by pursuing high levels of self-esteem. However, this perspective neglects that self-esteem pursuing has its cost of mental and physical health. The present research attempted to explore another strategy to reduce conspicuous consumption casting off the self-esteem compensation perspective. Noticing that conspicuous consumption is incurred by self-enhancement values (e.g. status, power, and face) emphasizing one’s superiority over the others and that awe has the self-transcendent function, we hypothesized that awe can decrease the values of pro-self goals, which means improving the level of the small self, thus reducing conspicuous consumption. Study 1a measured 151 participants’ levels of trait awe (Shiota et al., 2007) and their conspicuous consumption intentions (Marcoux, Filiatrault, and Chéron, 2007). The results showed that the levels of trait awe were negatively correlated with conspicuous consumption intentions, people with higher levels of awe were less likely to consume with show-off motivations. The levels of trait awe predicted conspicuous consumption intention even when participants’ age and gender were controlled. Study 1b manipulated participants’ awe to verified the causal relation between awe and conspicuous consumption intention. 82 participants were randomly assigned to the awe-manipulating group or the control group. Participants in the awe-manipulating group write an essay about their experiencing of awe while participants in the control group write an essay about their daily life (Rudd et al., 2012). Then participants in both groups rated their immediate feelings of awe, angry, happy, and sad. After that participants imagined that they received a voucher valued at 2000 yuan. They can use it to buy eight kinds of products (four conspicuous products like luxury wallet, four inconspicuous products like durable household goods). The amounts individuals pay for conspicuous products were used as the measurement of their conspicuous consumption intentions (Griskevicius et al., 2007；Zheng & Peng, 2014). Finally, the participants reported demographic information. The results showed that the writing task significantly changed participants’ feelings of awe, participants in the awe-manipulating group felt a higher level of awe, the writing task did not change participants' feelings of three other kinds of emotion (angry, happy, and sad). Importantly, participants in the awe-manipulating group payed less for conspicuous products than their counterparts in the control group. To sum up, the results of Study 1a and Study 1b affirmed the hypothesis that awe can reduce conspicuous consumption intention. In Study 2, 491 college students were randomly assigned to an awe-manipulating group or the control group and completed the writing tasks as in Study 1b. For conspicuous consumption intention, participants in the awe-manipulating group show weaker intention than their counterparts in the control group；for non-conspicuous consumption intention, there is no difference between participants in the awe-manipulating group and their counterparts in the control group. In Study 3, 80 participants were randomly assigned to the awe-manipulating group or the control group. Participants in the awe-manipulating group watched a video about mountains and seas while participants in the control group watched a video about eye exercises (Piff et al., 2015). Then, participants rated their immediate feelings, completed the measurement of conspicuous consumption as in Study 1b, and completed a measurement of small self (Shiota et al., 2011). Again, the manipulating task only changed the feeling of awe. Participants in the awe-manipulating group felt a higher level of awe, a higher level of the small self, and paid less for conspicuous products. Importantly, the small self was a mediator in the relationship between awe and conspicuous consumption. Thus, the second hypothesis was verified. The current research offers a new approach to reduce conspicuous consumption and expands awe’s effect on the domain of consumer behavior.

Key words: awe, conspicuous consumption, small self, self-enhancement, self-transcendence