“Why am I so perfect”? Consumer narcissism and brand attitudes: the roles of self-concept and preferential treatment

Abstract

Although narcissism has received extensive attention in the fields of psychopathology and social psychology, the theoretical understanding of how narcissism moderates consumers’ emotional reactions to brands remains promising yet underdeveloped. As such, this research seeks to utilize narcissism and self-concept to examine whether providing preferential treatment to consumers can influence their brand attitudes. Two experimental studies were conducted to test hypotheses. Study 1 examined the impact of measured consumer narcissism and manipulated self-concept on brand evaluations. A total of 226 participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (self-concept: actual-self vs. ideal-self) × 2 (preferential treatment: common vs. salient) factorial design. Study 2 explored the effect of manipulated narcissism on brand evaluations. A total of 211 participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (narcissism: low vs. high) × 2 (self-concept: actual-self oriented vs. ideal-self oriented) × 2 (preferential treatment: common vs. salient) factorial design. The findings indicate that consumers with varying levels of narcissism and self-concept respond differently to ads featuring different levels of preferential treatment (common vs. salient), leading to varied brand attitudes.