Heading Up or Stuck Down Here? The Effect of Perceived Economic Mobility on Subjective Social Status and Brand Identification

Abstract

In this research, we show that the perception of economic mobility plays an important role in individuals’ minds and decisions. While previous literature on economic mobility mainly focused on measuring the degree of mobility and examining its socioeconomic ramifications, we extend prior research by investigating the psychological consequences of economic mobility perception. Through three studies, we propose and demonstrate that those who perceive the economic mobility of their societies to be high (vs. low) tend to perceive their current social status to be higher. We argue that individuals’ hope and the subsequent perception of psychological distance to the upper levels of the socioeconomic ladder serially mediate this relationship. We further show that such perception of economic mobility influence the degree to which individuals identify with high-status brands and their purchase likelihood.