Abstract
People tend to perceive value of their attributes and objects they possess in relative terms, i.e. based on social comparisons. These comparisons shape consumers’ behavior as well as their aspirations, lifestyle, self-esteem and happiness. The aim of the paper was to establish the role of social comparisons in shaping consumers’ behavior and to identify comparative reference groups, in the light of literature and primary research results. The data confim that Polish consumers engage in social comparisons, and some of them do it regularly. Small but signifiant fraction of consumers use effects of comparisons, i.e. knowledge of consumption patterns realized by peer and aspirational groups, while shaping their current and future consumption
Highlights
Attempts to recognize and describe the role of social influence, i.e. the way people affect others’ feelings, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, have a long history
One of the symptoms of the consumers’ social nature is that they constantly compare level and structure of their own consumption to those realized by others, adjusting it when necessary to standards set by their reference groups [Veblen 1899; Ordabayeva and Chandon 2011]
This process of comparisons between the self and the others is a fundamental psychological mechanism, allowing individuals to know themselves by confronting their own behavior and attributes with the behavior and attributes of other people, especially the ones belonging to their reference groups [Festinger 1954]
Summary
Attempts to recognize and describe the role of social influence, i.e. the way people affect others’ feelings, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, have a long history. Research conducted within the frameworks of sociology and psychology provided effective starting points and offered certain methodological solutions for other disciplines Thereby, scholars representing such fields as economics, marketing and consumer behavior could start their own studies regarding diversified symptoms of interpersonal influences and their consequences for people’s market behaviors. One of the symptoms of the consumers’ social nature is that they constantly compare level and structure of their own consumption to those realized by others, adjusting it when necessary to standards set by their reference groups [Veblen 1899; Ordabayeva and Chandon 2011] This process of comparisons between the self and the others is a fundamental psychological mechanism, allowing individuals to know themselves by confronting their own behavior and attributes. In this paper, the author aims to establish the role of social comparisons in shaping consumers’ behavior and to identify reference points used by them, i.e. their comparative groups
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