Offensive Consumption

In preparation for submission to Journal of Consumer Psychology

Prior research suggests that consumers do not want to offend others and will thus avoid purchasing or displaying offensive products as a general rule. We qualify this line of research by proposing that this avoidance does not apply to outgroup-offending products and generate a set of hypotheses regarding what conditions and individual traits are likely to result in intentional offensive consumption. Across three lab studies (N=1,523), we demonstrate that consumers are more willing to purchase products that offend outgroups, and that such effects are strengthened when consumers are status seeking, are high in outgroup dissociation, and have aggressive humour styles.