Clustering consumers who engage in boycotting: New insights into the relationship between political consumerism and institutional trust

Abstract

This study proposes a segmentation model for European consumers engaging in boycotting and examines each segment’s level of trust in public institutions. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS), measures of generalized trust, social participation, interest in politics, human values and demographics were used as segmentation variables in a two-cluster solution. The two clusters, labeled conservative majority and active idealists, revealed significant differences in their levels of institutional trust in 10 of the 21 countries analyzed. These findings highlight the potential heterogeneity of consumers engaging in boycotting and offer an explanation for extant contrasting findings regarding the relationship between institutional trust and political consumerism.