Vanity, fashion leadership, and self-consciousness among South Korean male and female college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare vanity and self-consciousness between fashion leaders and fashion followers and genders among South Korean college students (280 women; 120 men; mean age=21.77) who completed scales measuring vanity, public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness and fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership. Women scored higher than men on vanity physical appearance concern, vanity physical appearance view, public self-consciousness and private self-consciousness. Fashion leaders scored higher than fashion followers on public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness and all four dimensions of vanity. Participants who scored high (vs. low) in public self-consciousness scored higher on all four dimensions of vanity. Similarly, participants who scored high (vs. low) in private self-consciousness scored higher on all four dimensions of vanity. The current research supported use of cultural values as a conceptual framework within which to investigate consumer behaviour and provided support for the cross-cultural applicability of social comparison theory.