Mood and luxury perception: A tale of two genders

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe effects of mood and gender on consumption are well documented in consumer behavior research. While a lot of research focuses on the effect of mood, gender, or their interaction on purchase likelihood, very few studies, if any, explore those effects on luxury perception. This paper tackles that very question by studying the effect of mood and gender on luxury perception, specifically we study how mood, gender, and their interaction will impact the product’s Brand Luxury Index (BLI). We also shed some light on how mood and gender will interact with antecedents of luxury perception. We begin by reviewing literature on gender, mood, luxury perception, and materialism, among other variables, and then build a conceptual model that explores interaction between mood and gender on luxury perception (BLI score).Our results show that males rated the products as more luxurious when they were in a negative mood than when they were in a positive mood. Alternatively, females rated the products in the experiment as more luxurious when they were in a positive mood than when they were put into a negative mood state. Females also rated the products as more luxurious than males when both genders’ moods were positive.